Both Faizí and Abú-l Fazl imbibed the liberal opinions of their father, and carried them to greater extremes. They were reviled by the faithful as heterodox, as apostates, as heretics, as free-thinkers, as perverters of the truth and deceivers of the faithful. Akbar's tolerance, his early doubts, and his inquiries into the principles of other religions, had shown themselves before the brothers were introduced at Court. But if they did not kindle the fire, they fanned it and kept it alive. In them the Emperor found congenial minds, with feelings and opinions similar to but more decided than his own. With them he held frequent converse, and indulged his partiality for theological discussion. The result was that he and they, mutually in­fluencing each other, progressed through various phases of scepticism and credulity, until they finally arrived at the re­jection of Islám, and the establishment of the “Divine Faith,” described as “Divine Monotheism.” At the head of this new religion stood Akbar himself; next after him came Abú-l Fazl and Faizí.

Prince Salím, afterwards the Emperor Jahángír, had a great dislike of Abú-l Fazl. The minister served his master too faithfully, and thwarted the ambitious views of the heir so successfully, as to make himself an object of hatred. “He was no friend of mine,” wrote Jahángír in his Memoirs, and he took an opportunity to remove the man he feared and hated. The Prince had more than once shown signs of rebellion, and of an intention to assume independence. In the forty-seventh year of his father's reign his ambitious designs displayed them­selves more distinctly, and excited much distrust in the mind of the Emperor. At this time Abú-l Fazl was in command in the Dakhin, and Akbar, desiring the support and counsel of his trusty minister, sent him an urgent recall. Abú-l Fazl obeyed the summons immediately, and set out for Ágra with only a slender escort. This afforded the opportunity for making an end of him. A Bundela Rájá, named Bír Singh, was incited by the Prince to waylay the minister, and kill him. Abú-l Fazl had warning of his danger, but refused to turn aside. On Friday, the 4th Rabí'u-l awwal (12th August, 1602), he was attacked by the Bundela, about six kos from Narwar, and after a short but gallant resistance he fell dead, and his head was sent as an ac­ceptable offering to the Prince. Early in the reign of Jahángír, the murderer received high promotion, and Jahángír in his Memoirs avows and justifies his having procured the murder by promise of reward. Akbar's grief at the death of his minister was unbounded, and he took active measures to bring Bír Singh to punishment. The murderer was hunted from place to place, and had several hair-breadth escapes; but the death of the Emperor put an end to his danger, and opened the road to reward and honour.

The author of the Ma-ásiru-l Umará writes as follows in his Memoirs:

“It has often been asserted that Abú-l Fazl was an infidel. Some say he was a Hindú, or a fire-worshipper, or a free thinker; and some go still further and call him an atheist; but others pass a juster sentence, and say that he was a pantheist, and that, like other Súfís, he claimed for himself a position above the law of the Prophet. There is no doubt that he was a man of lofty character, and desired to live at peace with all men. He never said anything improper. Abuse, stoppages of wages, fines, absence on the part of his servants, did not exist in his house­hold. If he appointed a man whom he afterwards found to be useless, he did not remove him, but kept him as long as he could; for he used to say that, if he dismissed him, people would accuse him of want of penetration in having appointed an unsuitable agent. On the day when the sun entered Aries, he inspected his whole household and took stock, keeping the inventory with himself, and burning last year's books. He also gave his whole wardrobe to his servants, with the exception of his trousers, which were burnt in his presence.