He was the disciple of his own venerable father, Shaikh Bahā'u-'d-dīn, of the Cishtī* order, who was, in his time, deferred to* by the holy men of the age. He reached the full period of man's natural life,* nay, he exceeded it, for his sons, being seventy or eighty years of age, attended him, likewise his grandsons, in their degrees.* He spent the best part of his life wholly and completely in worship and in acquiring the knowledge of God.
Although he had acquired much exoteric knowledge, yet he never gave instruction therein. He possessed to the highest degree perception of God, a keen longing after ecstatic songs and dances, and the faculty of being overcome by religious ecstasy.* In spite of his bodily feebleness, and constitutional weakness, and the languor which prevailed over all his limbs, which were such that he could hardly arise from his couch* to perform the ceremonial ablutions, the prayers and other* necessary acts without the assistance of his attendants, yet, whenever he heard the strains* of holy song he would arise in ecstasy and would involuntarily* join in the dance, with such violenee and strength that several persons could not, by their bodily power, restrain him.* Similarly in the case of the ritual prayers, he would perform the recitation of the sayings of Muḥammad and the supererogatory prayers* in a sitting posture, and after he had been lifted up and had been placed in the posture for commencing the ritual prayers* he performed them standing, without any need of help. And it is matter of common notoriety that miracles, which came as naturally to him as eating and drinking, 42. were performed by him without any ostentation. He left a numerous progeny, of auspicious disposition, and his wise sons, gray-bearded men, used to sit on either side of him in his illustrious assembly, for the purpose of receiving instruction, in such numbers that he who entered would be in doubt as to which was the holy Shaikh and which were his offspring. He compiled so many treatises of his sayings regarding the divine law, the path of holiness, and the Truth, that they are beyond the reckoning of ordinary people, nay of most of those who are specially endowed,* nor can the hand of any imperfect and lewd person even touch the skirt of the interpreter of those divine secrets.
The following fact (also) gave rise to suspicion, namely, that when the Khalīfah of the Age led his forces on the second occasion against Jaunpūr,* with a view to repelling and overthrowing his enemies, and there yet remained a three days' journey between the Imperial camp and Jaunpūr, the Shaikh died in the city,* drawing over the face of his existence the veil of concealment from this transitory world, and becoming thereby the verifier of (the text):—“Nay, rather, they are living in the sight of their Lord.”*
The writer of these pages never had the honour of waiting upon that pattern for the world.*
His death occurred in the year H. 970 (A.D. 1562-3) and the words “Shaikh Adhan”* were found to give the date of his death.