CHAPTER XXXVIII.
BRIEF ACCOUNT OF KHWĀJA M'UĪNU-D-DĪN CISTĪ: MAY HIS
GRAVE BE HOLY.

The Khwāja came from Sīstān, and they write him Sijzī* which is the Arabic for Sigzī. His honoured father who was named Khwāja Ḥasan and who was a contented husbandman died when he was in his fifteenth year. Shaikh Ibrāhīm* Majẕūb of Qandūz's attention was drawn to him and by the blessing of his glance the pains of inquiry seized the Khwāja's soul, and cut away outward ties. He hastened to Samarqand and Bokhāra and for a time applied himself to the acquisition of knowledge. From there he went to Khurāsān and there he grew up. In Hārūn which is a depen­dency of Nīshāpūr he made the acquaintance of Shaikh Oman Hārūnī and became his disciple. For twenty years he practised strenuous austerities in the Shaikh's company, and undertook journeys, and sojournings in strange lands. He became acquainted with many saints of the time, such as Shaikh Najmu-d-dīn Kubrī. In short, he is one of the great men of the Cistī order. He is three* removes from Khwāja Maudūd Cistī and nine from Ibrāhīm Adham. Before M'uizzu-d-dīn, the son of Sām, came from Ghaznīn to India,* he took leave from his Pīr and came to that country. He estab­lished himself in Ajmīr, where Rai Pithorā, the ruler of India, resided. Certainly the Khwāja was a lord of austerities and spiritual con­flicts and had waged great wars with his carnal spirit. Though many miracles are related of him what miracle can be more glorious than the contest with the desires of this carnal spirit which is the father of excesses? Khwāja Qubu-d-dīn Ushī of Andijān became, in Bagdad, in the month of Rajab 522,* in the mosque of Imām Abū-i-lai* of Samarkand and in the presence of Shaikh Shihābu-d-dīn Sahrawardī, of Shaikh Uḥadu-d-dīn of Kirmān and of a number of other saints, the disciple of Khwāja M'uīnu-d-dīn. Shaikh Farīd Shakrganj, who is buried in Patan,* is a disciple of this Qubu-d-dīn, and Shaikh Niāmu-d-dīn Auliyā, who was the Pīr of Amīr Khusrū, gave his hand of discipleship to Shaikh Farīd. In short, many of the perfect masters have risen up from under the skirts of the Khwāja's* teaching. May God sanctify their souls!