“Whatever imagination their intellect invents,
God laughs at the intellect of people of that creed.”

And in this year the Emperor sent for Shaikh Badr-ud-dín to come to the 'Ibádat-khánah. He was the son of Shaikh Islám Chishtí. He was much given to prayer, and having given up all attendance on princes, had become his father's successor, and had found favour with God, and become a recluse, and occupied himself only in fasting, zeal, repeating God's name, exercising poverty, and reading the Qur'án. Since the old customs of respect in sitting, rising, and speaking were no longer observed, he committed many breaches of etiquette, and other misfortunes coming in succession, after three or four years, without saying anything to any one, he left the Court in sheer disappointment and despair, and went to Ajmír, and thence to Gujrát, where he took ship alone to make a pilgrimage to Makkah. There he fasted, till he obtained spiritual union with God, and in the hot air with naked feet performed the circuits, so that he attained the honour of reaching the heavenly Ka'bah, and enjoyed union with the Lord of Glory* (O God make me a partaker thereof!):—

O Kamál thou art gone
From the Ka'bah to the Door of the Friend.
A thousand times Áfrín!*
Thou art gone like a man.

In this year a learned Bráhman, Shaikh B'háwan, had come from the Dak'hin and turned Musalmán, when His Majesty gave me the order to translate the At'harban. Several of the religious precepts of this book resemble the laws of the Islám. As in translating I found many difficult passages, which Shaikh B'háwan could not interpret either, I reported the same to His Majesty, who ordered Shaikh Faizí, and then Ḥájí Ibráhím, to translate it. The latter, though willing, (P. 213) did not write anything. Among the pre­cepts of the At'harban there is one which says that no man will be saved unless he reads a certain passage. This passage contains many times the letter l, and resembles very much our Lá illáh illa' lláh. Besides I found that a Hindú under certain circumstances may eat cow-flesh; and also that Hindús bury their dead, but do not burn them. With such passages the Shaikh used to defeat other Bráhmans in argument, and they had in fact led him to em­brace the Islám (God be thanked for this!).