The Institutes of Akbar 131.3

131.3

and Abulfazl, when once in favor with the emperor, (officious as he was, and time-serving, openly faithless, continually studying His Majesty’s whims, a flatterer beyond all bounds) took every opportunity of reviling in the most shameful way that sect whose labours and motives have been so little appreciated, and became the cause not only of the extirpation of these experienced people, but also of the ruin of all servants of God, especially of Shaikhs, pious men, of the helpless, and the orphans, whose livings and grants he cut down. He used to say, openly and implicitly,— O Lord, send down a proof for the people of the world ! Send these Nimrods a gnat as big as an elephant! These Pharaoh-like fellows have lifted up their heads ; Send them a Moses with a staff, and a Nile! And when in consequence of his harsh proceedings, miseries and misfortunes broke in upon the ’Ulamás (who had persecuted him and his father), he applied the following Rubá’í to them :— I have set fire to my barn with my own hands, As I am the incendiary, how can I complain of my enemy ? No one is my enemy but myself, Woe is me! I have torn my garment with my own hands. And when during disputations people quoted against him the edict of any Mujtahid, he used to say, ‘Oh don’t bring me the arguments of this sweetmeat-seller, and that cobbler, or that tanner!” He thought himself capable of giving the lie to all Shaikhs and ’Ulamás.”’