LIX. MAULĀNĀ MĪR-I-KALĀN.*

He was the grandson of Mulla Kh'āja, one of the greatest of the Shaikhs of Khurāsān. Maulānā Mīr-i-Kalān was endowed with both inward and outward perfection and was a profound sage, being especially proficient in the traditions, in which respect he was the wonder of the age. He had authority from Sayyid Mīrak Shāh* to teach this branch of knowledge. He was highly regarded by Maulānā Zainu-d-dīn Maḥmūd, the bow­maker * (may his honoured tomb be sanctified!). He was preserved by God, the most Holy and most High, from all sins, mortal and venial, and was ever employed in teaching divinity, and passed his life with his eyes cast down in meditation. He was the disciple of Shaikh Jalāl of Hirāt, who was one of the most famous of great Shaikhs. Maulānā Mīr-i-Kalān acquired a disposition like that of Muḥammad (may God bless and assoil him!), and his angelic nature was a manifestation of the (ninety-nine) attributes of God. He attained the age of eighty years, and his mother, who was a Sayyidah, was living at the time of his death. He never married, for fear lest his wife should not subject herself to his mother, and thus he passed away in his mother's lifetime. At the time when the Maulavī passed away to the eternal abode his mother was engaged in reading the glorious Qur'ān, and when they conveyed to her the news of the death of so precious a son, and asked her permission to proceed with the last rites she recited the noble verse, “We are God's, and to Him do we return,” and continued her reading of the Qur'ān, without a sign of weeping or lamentation. The Maulānā 152 passed away to the Presence of God's mercy in Agra, in the year H. 981 (A.D. 1573-74), and was buried also in Agra, and a year later his mother too journeyed to the next world and obtained the felicity of rejoining her blessed son.

I was blessed and honoured by meeting with the Maulānā of angelic disposition, but I received no instruction from him.