If I tell my story from the beginning
I'll travel so far that I can't come back.

My honoured father practised contentment in seclusion and lived apart from the world's house of turmoil. He regarded me with more affection than he did my brothers, and from the beginning of my growth he, by the strength of precept and example, did not permit the approach of the wayward and the defiled. He always watched over me with an inward and outward purity, and instructed me with an eloquent tongue in the lessons of truth.

From my first infancy I did not play “Hide* and Seek”
For my guardian was both my father and my mother.

As the acquired sciences ('ulūm muktasabī) hold the veil over spiritual Beauty, my father, in his love to my bewildered self, wished to conduct me also to the study of them. But from my fifth year I was in a confused state, and my heart in nowise inclined to hear or speak about such things. It seems as if my temperament robbed me of* that guide (rahbar) to the abode of perfected pupils, and of that light of the portico. The stupendous dangers of an endless desert—which make men of men to stumble—had taken possession of my soul's chamber. When my years increased and my knowledge developed, my heartfelt disgust increased also, and the truceless agitation became more intense. I withdrew from everyone, and delighted myself with the companionship of madness. I came* to long for death. The secret attraction of the leader of Truth's caravan (his father) bound me, the heedless and heartless one, to the cus­tomary abode of knowledge, and in my fifteenth year, when the heavy sleep of thoughtlessness holds all men, I traversed the wide field of wisdom, and the ample space of the doctrines of many schools. The advancement of knowledge* increased my arrogance, and the intoxi­cation of enlightenment augmented my confusion. In spite of my having such a powerful guide and perpetual overseer, the turbu­lence of self-willed intellect increased, and egotism showed itself under various forms. By the favour of the fount of lofty ideas (his father) the secrets of the Platonists,* the hidden treasures of the Ṣūfīs, and the wondrous observations of the Peripatetics* were acquired by me. It was natural that so much learning and the arro­gance produced by it should reduce the importance of the deceptive world. The same principle which increased self-glorification and self-worship, broke the connection with other men. I was dissatisfied with the unprofitableness of the world's booths and my heart was captivated by the anchorites. The thought of a hermitage displayed fresh vig­our. There was not such madness of bewilderment that I turned away from the command of wisdom and took a pathless direction. Nor had my disorder such ungentleness that I would grieve my visible gods (khudāyān-i-majāzī) (i.e., his parents). I spent my days in the hollow of joy and grief with a dejected mind. The thought of freedom contributed somewhat to my repose. From the base disposition which was in me, and the timidity which was part of my constitution, together with my complete aversion to society and my love for the desert, I entered the lofty hall of bewilderment, and fell into a strange state from the enchantment of inward perturbations. The displeas­ing (narāẓamandī) of my illustrious teacher (pīr) by those erratic wishes was very present to me (literally, very near) and yet the giv­ing up of a contrary notion was very far off. At every breath sub­mission to that unique one of enlightenment's kingdom was on the increase, but from time to time various impulses acquired fresh strength.

The luck to associate with my beloved was wanting,
I had not the endurance to refrain from love
No hand to contend with fate
No foot wherewith to flee away.

At length heaven told my story in the glorious (humāyūn) assembly of the Shāhinshāh, and the star of a happy fortune shone from the horizon of prestige. The pursuivants (cāwūshān) followed, and a summons shed glory upon me. By the machinations of my extraordinary soul the picture of ambition had been erased from my mind's antechamber, and the longing for asceticism displayed its power. I was on the point of treading the desert of frenzy with bared head and foot, and of breaking to pieces the enclosing wall of environment, and taking the path of liberation. My spiritual physician (his father) knew that the king of the Age was the caravan-conductor of God's worshippers, and had also some acquaintance with fate's decrees, and so he addressed himself to my cure. He opened his casket of jewels and inculcated sociability upon me. Through the magic and enchantments of this guide I hastened to the shrine of dominion and glorified my forehead by prostrating myself at the threshold of the glorious, enthroned one. Without any stain on my spirit's skirt from corruptive canvassing, or any rubbing of the foot of search on the wide plain of avidity, and before there could come the shame of expectancy, or self-respect be thrown* away, and without the media­tion of this or that person, and without having to supplicate any one, the Shāhinshāh's graciousness laid hold of me, and raised me from the hollow of obscurity to the height of lofty rank. The alchemic glance of the spiritual and temporal lord gave fresh impluse to my energy and a new expansion to my heart. I was cured to some extent from the obstinate malady which my father with all his curative skill had been unable to remedy. By the strength of per­ception I spread the cloth of concord and union with mankind, but there was something hypocritical in my down-sitting, and I was, as it were, in ambush.* Many mental faults displayed their lineaments, but I found strength to delete some of them. The very resurrection of hate ended in love. Nor could the refractoriness of many groups of men stop me from the noble pursuit,* or stir up the dust of failure in my heart's pleasant home. Some of those in the glorious entourage of the world's lord eagerly seized the opportunity of attaining wisdom, and there was a new and daily market for the investigation of ideas, and the examination of evidence. Owing to inacquaintance with scientific principles, and to their being void of real knowledge, the praters of the day—who, on account of their humbug and plausi­bility, were looked upon as men of much enlightenment—fell into difficulty. Sometimes they practised trickery by keeping silent, by elevating their eyebrows, and by turning up their eyes, and some­times they replied by speaking in enigmas and by talking nonsense. By heaven's favour they were so brought to a stand that their base-metal talismans broke in pieces. They were obliged to give up that plan, and to have recourse to absurdity. They esteemed Reason and Faith to be opposites, and some simple-minded descendants of Turks* were led* away. Relying on the help of those ignorant and foolish persons, they now pressed forward as if to victory. The assistance of a happy star and an open brow brought them down from that high ground, and they proceeded to cavillings and to the discussion of minute points of acquired (manqūl) knowledge. In accordance with the tactics of such a crew they set up false principles and introduced* worthless arguments. There were long discussions about creeds and sects, and they represented the critical examination of doubtful points as laying pitfalls in the articles of faith and so inveighed against it. Some behaved badly on receiving these hypocritical warnings. Old* intimates and friends of long standing gathered up the skirt of caution so that I was surrounded by a wall of exclusion in my own city. Sometimes I uttered songs of joy at this solitude in the midst of society. I knew it was the result of right-thinking and so increased my supplications to God. Sometimes from human weakness and feebleness of capacity I mur­mured to myself “What strange thing is this? I spread the carpet of right-thinking and well-wishing towards men, and I strive against myself, and spoil* my own play. Why do men lie in ambush against me.” By heaven's help, and a happy star, the world's* glories, and the mental sloth and the frowns of friends and strangers, and the futile talk of far and near, and the agitation of short-sighted malevolent men wrought no breach in the continuity of my soul. The flatness of Truth's market gave me fresh joy.