Shaikh ‘Alā'ī,* retaining that selfsame habit and conduct* which he always had, accompanied by six or seven hundred families, set out for Gujrāt in the hope that in the companionship of the chiefs* and leaders of this sect he might learn the customs of the inmates of cloisters.* At the time of his arrival at the township of Basāwar from Baiāna, my late father took me, the writer of these pages, to do homage to him. In consequence of my tender years, his form remained fixed in my memory as a dream or a vision. On his arrival at Khawāṣpūr which is near Jodhpūr, Khawāṣṣ Khān who had been appointed to that district, at first came out to receive him and joined the circle of his adherents: but in consequence of his devotion to musical enter­tainments and pastimes,* whereas now every Thursday night Sūfīs used to assemble in his house, and Shaikh ‘Alā'ī forbade music and other prohibited* pastimes, and enjoined* that which was lawful and opposed that which was forbidden by law, accord­ingly their association was not agreeable, besides which opposition and disagreement arose with regard to the upholding of the rights of the soldiery: The saying—

is a well known proverb. Shaikh ‘Alā'ī in consequence of cer­tain opposition which arose, turned back in the middle of the journey and returned to Baiāna, and at the time when Islem Shāh had taken firm possession of the throne of power in Āgra, and the rumours regarding Shaikh ‘Alā'ī reached his ears, he sent for Mir Saiyyid Rafī‘u-d-Dīn the traditionist, and Mīyān* Abul-fatḥ of Thanesar and other learned doctors of Āgra, and summoned Shaikh ‘Alā'ī from Baiāna, at the instigation of Makhdūmu-l-mulk Maulāna ‘Abdu-llah of Sulānpūr. He accordingly, accom­panied by a party of select* companions, all of whom wore mail and were fully armed, came to the Court, and paying no heed to the customary observances of kingly assemblies,* greeted the whole assemblage in the manner appointed by the laws of Islām.* Islem Shāh acknowledged his salutation with indignation, as the appearance of the Shaikh greatly displeased* him and his courtiers.

Makhdūmu-l-Mulk had fully persuaded Islem Shāh that ^400. Shaikh ‘Alā'ī was a revolutionary who laid claim to being the Mahdī, and that the Mahdī himself would be king of the whole world: consequently as he presumed to revolt he was deserving of death. ‘Īsā Khān* Ḥajjāb who held a very confidential post, and the other Amīrs, when they saw Shaikh ‘Alā'ī in this dis­pleasing attire, with ragged clothes and worn out shoes, said to Islem Shāh: “This fellow, in this condition and with this miser­able appearance, wishes to take away the kingdom from us, doe he imagine that we Afghāns are all corpses!”

Prior to the convening of the assembly for discussion, Shaikh ‘Alā'ī in accordance with his invariable custom, had expounded a few verses of the Qur'ān, and delivered such a profitable discourse, in most elegant language, comprising a criticism of the world, and a description of the last judgment, and contemptuous remarks regarding the learned men of the time, and all their faults and failings,* that it had the most profound effect* upon Islem Shāh and the Amīrs who were present in the assembly, notwithstanding their hardness of heart, so that it brought tears to their eyes and left them amazed and confounded. Islem Shāh then rose from the assembly, and giving the matter his own attention sent refreshments from inside the palace for the Shaikh and his com­panions. * The Shaikh, however, refused to touch* the food himself, and moreover when Islem Shāh entered* he did not pay him any respect, and merely said to his friends: Any one who chooses may eat of it. When they enquired of him the reason of his abstaining from eating the food he replied: “Your food is due to Muslims because you have possessed more than was yours by right, contrary to the dictates* of the law of Islām.” Islem Shāh notwithstanding this repressed his anger, and referred the enquiry into the truth of that dispute,* and the decision of that contention to the ‘ulamā.

Shaikh ‘Alā'ī vanquished every one of them in argument by virtue of his quickness of intellect and clearness of apprehension, ^401. and whenever Mīr Saiyyid Rafīu-d-Dīn (who died in the year 954 H.) was engaged* in citing the traditions which existed relat­ing to the appearance of the promised Mahdī, and the signs by which he would be known, Shaikh ‘Alā'ī used to say, “you are a Shāfī‘ite by religion* and we* are Hanifites, the fundamentals of your traditions are different from those of our's;” How can we accept* your explanations and interpretations on this question? Nor did he spare* even Mulla ‘Abdu-llah himself in his criticism of a single point, saying to him, “you are one of the learned men of the world and a thief of religion, and you engage in so many illegal practices that you have put yourself outside the pale of equity, so that even to this time the sound of pipe and tabor may be plainly heard issuing from your house, and in accordance with the true traditions of the prophet, upon him be peace and blessing, a fly which settles upon filth is by degrees better than learned men who* have made kings and emperors the object of their ambition and gad from door to door.

Verse.

Learning which exists for the sake of palace and garden
Is like a lamp to the night loving thief.

In accordance with these premisses he uttered so many scathing satires [on those who preach but do not practise, citing in support of his* arguments examples from the Qur'ān and Traditions] that Mulla ‘Abdu-llah was not able to say a single word in defence. One day in the midst of the argument it happened that the learned Mulla Jalāl Bhīm* of Āgra, having turned up that tradition which relates to the description and evidences of the promised Mahdī,* read as follows,* Ajallu-l-jabhah,* on the form of the af‘alu-t-tafẓīl derived from jalāl; Shaikh ‘Alā‘ī smiled, and said, “Good Heavens!* You have given yourself out to the world as a marvel of learning, and yet you cannot read with a proper pronunciation, you have no knowledge of the delicacies, and subtleties and minutiæ of the science of tradition.* The real reading is Ajlu-l-jabhah* which is the form Afa‘alu-t-tafẓīl from jalā, not from jalāl which is your own name.”