Ambeṭhī is the chief village of a pargana in the District of Lakhnau.* Shaikh Niām was the disciple and pupil of Shaikh Ma‘rūf-i-Cishtī, the line of whose spiritual descent goes back to Shaikh Nūr Qub-i-‘Ālam. He followed the ordinary rule of life (of an orthodox Muslim) but was at the same time drawn towards God in a mysterious manner.* Although he was at first one of the students of remunerative branches of knowledge* his exalted disposition yet led him to turn much towards the things of the next world. His eyes were ever fixed on the page and his heart fixed on God, nor was he neglectful of the service of ẕikr,* and the employment of the soul (in God's service).
Couplet.Not for one moment do I turn my attention from that moon,*
I fear lest it should glance towards me and I should not be
on the watch.
In a short time he obtained from his spiritual guide permission to impart religious instruction and to perfect disciples, and in the village of Ambeṭhī drew his foot within the skirt of contentment and withheld his footsteps from the doors of high and low, going nowhere except to the principal masjid of the Living God (in that 16. place) and sometimes to Khairābād* to walk round the illustrious tomb of the venerable Shaikh Sa‘d, (may his tomb be sanctified!) and to see Shaikhu-'l-Hidyah,* the successor of Shaikh Ṣūfī, (may God sanctify his most pure tomb!), or to Gopāmau, in consequence of the friendship which he had for Qāẓī Mubārak of Gopāmau* who was one of his faithful disciples, a master of perfection, skilled in the holy law, and abstinent, and a very wealthy man. The Shaikh in the early days of his student life had first been attracted to God in the hospice of the Qāẓī's father. At long intervals he would take the trouble to go to Fatḥpur, by way of making a tour, to see Shaikh ‘Abdu-'l-Ghanī,* who also was one of the greatest among famous elders, and was held in the highest respect. Whenever he visited the hospice of Shaikhu-'l-Hidyah and the other places he would give of his worldly goods a rupee, a tanka, or some other offering, in accordance with the saying “Send presents to each other and you will love each other,”* and then would fall into an ecstasy of delight. I have heard that he once snatched the book “Fuṣūṣu-'l-Ḥikam”* from the hand of Shaikh Abū-'l-Fatḥ, the son of Shaikhu-'l-Hidyah, who is now his great father's representative and sits on his prayer-carpet of Shaikh-dom, and, taking it from him, gave him another book, saying, “Read this.” He made the books “Iḥyā'u-'l-‘Ulūm,”* “‘Awārif,” “Risāla-yi-Makkiyya,”* “Ādābu-'l-Murīdīn,”* [and other books of the same sort, the pivot on which his doctrine and practice turned, both in his religious duties and in the daily business of life. He always first recited the midday prayers with the congregation on Friday and afterwards recited the regular Friday prayers. In the khubah* he altogether omitted the praises of kings. I saw him reciting the Friday prayers with his shoes on his feet, and he said “His holiness, the resort of apostleship, (may God bless and save him!) recited his prayers with his shoes on.” On one occasion one of his pupils desired to learn a lesson from the book known as Kāfiyah,* asking for the Shaikh's blessing on 17. his lesson. The Shaikh pretended not to hear him. After much insistence and persistence on the part of the pupil the Shaikh said “Read some divinity.” He said, “This work too is on divinity, inasmuch as divinity depends upon it.” The Shaikh, in the warmth of his love for God, said, “How can divinity depend upon a book on which the first argument that has been advanced is that the author has omitted the praises of God, (may He be honoured and glorified!) from the introduction on account of his humility?” He rarely accepted a disciple, and (when he had one) he did not appoint his tasks for him or give him instruction.* Among his chosen disciples was Shaikh Ḥātim of Gopāmau whom he had removed from the class of students who read in the hospice of Qāẓī Mubārak and kept with himself. To please the boy he would sometimes read lessons to him, and would sometimes give him a book, and set tasks for him, until he completely won his heart, and sometimes he would give him a turban, or shoes, or clothes. The Qāẓī and the other students, when they saw these favours (bestowed upon Shaikh Ḥātim) were envious* of him. The holy Shaikh Niāmu-'d-dīn, perceiving signs of this jealousy, said, “What can be done? God the Most High has willed to bestow upon Ḥātim a portion of prosperity by means of these unsatisfactory gifts, a few clothes and old shoes.” Shaikh Niām obtained such complete power and utter influence over Ḥātim that in a short time he (Ḥātim) attained a great reputation, and Shaikh Niāmu-'d-dīn in expounding Divine truths and the mystic knowledge of God used to restrict the title of Shaikh to him alone. In the meanwhile* Shaikh Ḥātim experienced many ups and downs, and he was troubled with asthma, and various sicknesses, and just as he had acquired the right to be Shaikh Niamu-'d-dīn's deputy and successor he chose the path to the next world. The Shaikh would often say, “There was a servant of God to whom I used sometimes to teach the word of God, and he used to understand it. Now that he is gone to whom shall I speak of it?”
When I, the compiler of these historical selections, paid my respects to the Shaikh, Shaikh ‘Abdū-'z-Razzāq, who was both 18. brother-in-law and father-in-law* to him, was generally in conversation with him, and sometimes, but rarely, the Shaikh would go to see (or would go out walking with) Shaikh Muḥammad also, his true deputy (or successor),* who now adorns the prayer-carpet of the Shaikh with his presence, sitting as his successor. Since the late Muḥammad Ḥusain Khān,* some account of whom has already been recorded by my chronicling pen, and who was a man to whom I was bound by the bond of regard more closely than can be expressed in writing, entertained a desire to become a disciple of the holy Shaikh, he was privileged to pay his respects to him by the co-operation of Sayyid Aṣghar of Badāon and Qāẓī Aḥmad, the brother of Qāẓī Mubārak of Gopāmau;* and this happened at the time when Lakhnau was settled on Ḥusain Khān in jāgīr, in A.H. 976 (A.D. 1568-69). I observed* that the Shaikh at the beginning of the interview addressed to everybody a few words appropriate to his condition, contenting himself with saying “Praise be to God” with the utterance of prayers, or restricting himself to such remarks as, “Glory be to God,” “there is no god but God,” “We seek protection of God,”* “In the name of God,” “there is no power or strength but with God,” or to the recitation of a verse from the glorious word (of God), or from the ḥadīth,* or from the sayings of noted saints. And every moment he glanced to his left, so that it seemed as though he were seeking from the master of the assembly* permission and leave to say something. On receiving leave from one of the company,* at the time when we were shaking hands with one another, he gave the Sayyid, mentioned above,* his blessing, saying to Qāẓī Aḥmad “Glory be to God,” and to me, “In the name of God,” using similar (pious) expressions to everybody present. At this very moment, before he could commence a conversation, a miserable worthless wretch of a student came up and recognized* the Shaikh, who, saying to him “I seek protection of God from the Devil, the execrable one,”* admitted him to the interview. He then began to expound* the verse of the Qur'ān, “Everything shall perish, except His face,”*