He was one of the spiritual successors of Miyāṅ Shaikh Dā'ūd,* (may God sanctify his tomb!) In his activity (in traversing the path of righteousness) he surpassed all his contemporaries, and he was one of the most wonderful works of God* (be He praised!). In his love for his spiritual guide he was beside himself, and attained to such an intimate relationship with his holy personality that one might say that the two persons were one clear truth expressed* in two well turned phrases. Neither the dust of dependent existence nor the soil of potential existence* besmirched the skirt of his robe, and at the mere sight of him thoughts of God (may He be honoured and glorified!) cast their rays on each black and thoughtless heart, and the pain of searching after God infected all who saw him. He called no* one to his presence with the exception of two or three friends who had been intimate associates* of the holy Miyāṅ (may God sauctify his soul!) and who had their dwelling in Lāhōr; nor was he solicitous to receive disciples. He always lived in privacy in a dark cell, which was situated in a garden, and at times, when an intense longing for the holy Miyāṅ overcame him he would go on foot in one day from Lāhōr to Shīrgaṛh, a distance of over forty kurūh,* and after merely kissing the Miyāṅ's threshold he would return, without breaking his journey, unable to endure the effulgence of the Miyaṅ's luminous presence.*
In the year already mentioned* I was honoured by being enabled to pay my respects to that venerable and most worthy man, and was his guest for a day and a night. On the next day, I set out alone, save for one attendant on foot,* when the disturbances were at their height, for Shīrgaṛh. I was stopped by Jāts* and highwaymen, who surrounded me on every side, and they were astonished (at my rashness) and asked me whither I was going, alone in this perilous desert. So soon as I said that I had just taken my leave of Miyāṅ Shaikh Abū Isḥāq with a view of paying my respects to my reverend spiritual guide, the Miyāṅ (may God 49. have mercy on them both!) they, immediately they heard the auspicious names of those two holy men, submitted themselves to me, and brought me milk and curds and such like refreshments, and set me on my way, and warned me to be cautious and wary, urging me to make frequent mention of the name of the holy Miyāṅ in my religious exercises,* as he had endeared himself to all the people of that country, both gentle and simple. Thus, at last, I returned in safety* to the place whither I was bound, as has been already stated.*
In the year in which the holy Miyāṅ removed the pavilion (of his existence) from this transitory world and pitched it in the kingdom of eternity, and very shortly after his death, there was a plague in the Panjāb; and all his associates,* his family, and his most noted spiritual successors and representatives, who numbered fifty or* sixty souls, perfect and perfected, among whom was “the interpreter of secrets,” Miyāṅ ‘Abdu-'l-Wahhāb, also known as Miyāṅ Bābū, with one accord, as though by appointment, successively and each in his due turn, joined the holy Miyāṅ (in the next world) in the space of three or four months, as it pleased God. (This was the case of those intimately connected with him), but what shall I say of his sincere pupils disciples, and attendants at large? Miyāṅ Shaikh Abū Isḥāq, too, owing to the greater intimacy of his connection with the Miyāṅ, sped from the desert of separation to the true Ka‘bah* of union and propinquity. “Some of them have fulfilled their vow and others of them await its fulfilment.”* Ah, Khāja, it may be
He who afterwards continued the exalted line of the Qādiriy-
The peace of God, so long as nights succeed one another,
Be on the pure Shaikh, Abū-'l-Ma‘ālī.
It is to be hoped that this garden of good fortune will aye remain fruitful—through the prophet and his honoured family.