And in this year the Mír 'Adl* departed this life, and the date is given by the following:—Sayyid-i-Fázil* —May God deal with him according to excellence (fazal)!
Among the events of this time was the arrival of Sharíf of Ámul, and his interview with the Emperor while he was at Díbálpúr. The sum of the matter is as follows: This reprobate apostate (P. 246) had run from country to country, like a dog that has burnt its foot, and turning from one sect to another, he went on wrangling until he became a perfect heretic. For some time he studied after the vain fashion of Çúfíism, which is void of all -sophy, in the school of Mauláná Muḥammad Záhid of Balkh, nephew of the great Shaikh Ḥusain of Khwárizm (God sanctify his tomb!), and had lived with darveshes. But as he had little of the darvesh in him he set on foot abundance of vain talk and senseless effrontery, and blurted it out, so that they expelled him. The Mauláná wrote a poem against him in which the following verse occurs:—
“There was a heretic, and Sharíf was his name,
Perfect he thought himself, not perfect all the same!”In his wanderings he came to the Dak'hin, where from his want of self-restraint he betrayed the filthiness of his disposition, and the rulers of the Dak'hin wished to cleanse the tablet of existence of his image, but eventually he was only set on a donkey and shown about the city in disgrace. But since Hindustán is a wide place, where there is an open field for all licentiousness, and no one interferes with another's business, so that every one can do just as he pleases, at this time he made his way to Málwah, and settled at a place five cosses distant from the Imperial camp. Every foolish and frivolous word that proceeded out of his mouth instead of being wholesome food was the poison of asps, and became the absorbing topic of general conversation. Many persons blind to God's mercies, especially the heretics of 'Iráq (who separated themselves from the Truth of the Faith, like a hair from the dough, ‘Nabatheans’* exactly describes them, and they are destined to be the foremost worshippers of Antichrist)* gathered round him, and at his orders spread abroad the report that he was the Restorer promised for the tenth century. The sensation was immense. As soon as His Majesty heard of him he invited him one night (P. 247) to a private audience in a long prayer-room, which was made of cloth, and in which the Emperor with his suite used to say the five daily prayers at the stated hours. Ridiculous in his exterior, ugly in shape, with his neck stooping forward, he performed his obeisance, and then stood still with his arms crossed, you could scarcely see how his blue eye (which colour is said to be a sign of hostility to the Prophet—peace be upon him!) shed lies, falsehood, and hypocrisy. There he stood for a long time, and when he got the order to sit down, he prostrated himself as in worship, and then sat down duzánú,* like an Indian camel. And there he held tête à tête with the Emperor, and discussed various questions. No one except the Ḥakím-ul-mulk* was allowed to be present with them, but every now and then from a distance, when he raised his voice, I could catch the word 'ilm [knowledge]. He chewed the cud of a host of foolish stories, and called them “the Truth of Truths”, and ‘the Foundation of Fundamentals’:—
“A race both outwardly and inwardly ignorant
Through ignorance is lost in folly.
They are immersed in heresy and call it Truth!
There is no power or might except in God!”The whole talk of the man was a mere repetition of the ideas of Maḥmúd of Basakhwán, who lived in the time of Tímúr the Lord of Conjunction, at Basakhwán, which is the name of a village in the neighbourhood of Gílán. Maḥmúd had written thirteen treatises of dirty filth, full of such droppings of heresy as no religion or sect would suffer, and containing nothing but deceitful flattery, which he called ‘science of expressed and implied language’.* The chief work of this miserable wretch is entitled Bahr u Kúzah,* containing such loathsome nonsense, that when the ear eats thereof it turns sick. How the devil would have laughed in his sleeve, had he heard it, and what capers he would have cut! And this gross fellow Sharíf had also written a regular conflict of absurdities, which he named “First glimpses of the Truth,” in which he blindly follows Mír 'Abdulawwal. This book is written (P. 248) in loose, deceptive aphorisms, each beginning with the word mífarmúdand:* it is a regular poser, and a mass of ridiculous silly nonsense. But in spite of this folly, in accordance with the saying: ‘Verily God the King brings people to people,’ he so carried things before him, and knew so well how to turn to his own account the spirit of the age and mankind, that he is now a Commander of One Thousand, and one of the apostles of His Majesty's religion in Bengál, possessor of the four* degrees of Faith, and in his turn summoning faithful disciples to these degrees. An account of these degrees will be given later on:—
“Regard not the reprobation or approval of the common people,
For their business is always either to pray or to purr.
Common people believe in a Cow* as a God,
And do not believe in Noah as a prophet.”We make our complaint unto God on account of the world: if ever it does good, it immediately repents; and if it does evil, it goes on in its evil course. The following just suits his case:—
“I was last year a star of the lowest dimension,
This year I am the Pole-star of religion.
If I last out another year,
I shall be the Pole-star of the religion of 'Alí.”