The Institutes of Akbar 132.2.9

132.2.9

“Makhdúm also wrote a pamphlet against Shaikh ’Abdunnabí, in which he accused him of the murder of Khizr Khán of Shírwán, who was suspected to have reviled the prophet, and of Mír Habshí, whom he had ordered to be killed for heresy. But he also said in the pamphlet that it was wrong to say prayers with ’Abdunnabí, because he had been undutiful towards his father, and was, besides, afflicted with piles. Upon this, Shaikh ’Abdunnabí called Makhdúm a fool, and cursed him. The ’Ulamás now broke up into two parties, like the Sibtis and Qibtis, gathering either round the Shaikh, or round Makhdum ulmulk; and the heretic innovators used this opportunity, to mislead the emperor by their wicked opinions and aspersions, and turned truth into falsehood, and represented lies as truth. His Majesty till now (986) had shewn every sincerity, and was diligently searching for truth. But his education had been much neglected; and surrounded as he was by men of low and heretic principles, he had been forced to doubt the truth of the Islam. Falling from one perplexity into the other, he lost sight of his real object, the search of truth; and when the strong embankment of our clear law and our excellent faith had once been broken through, His Majesty grew colder and colder, till after the short space of five or six years not a trace of Muhammadan feeling was left in his heart. Matters then became very different.” [Bad. II, p. 239.]