The Institutes of Akbar 2.4.4

2.4.4

Prince Salím [Jahángír] also belonged to the dissatisfied, and his dislike to Abul Fazl, as we shall see below, became gradually so deep-rooted, that he looked upon him as the chief obstacle to the execution of his wild plans. An unexpected visit to Abul Fazl gave him an excellent opportunity to charge him with duplicity. On entering the house, he found forty writers busy in copying commentaries to the Qorán. Ordering them to follow him at once, he took them to the emperor, and shewing him the copies, he said, “What Abul Fazl teaches me is very different from what he practises in his house.” The incident is said to have produced a temporary estrangement between Akbar and Abul Fazl. A similar, but less credible, story is told by the author of the Zakhírat-ul Khawánín. He says that Abul Fazl repented of his apostacy from Islam, and used at night to visit incognito the houses of dervishes, and, giving them gold muhurs, requested them “to pray for the stability of Abul Fazl’s faith,” sighing at the same time and striking his knees and exclaiming, “What shall I do!” And just as writers on the history of literature have tried to save Faizi from apostacy and consequent damnation, by representing that before his death he had praised the Prophet, so have other authors succeeded in finding for Abul Fazl a place in Paradise; for it is related in several books that Shah Abul Ma’áli Qádiri of Lahor, a man of saintly renown, once expressed his disapproval of Abul Fazl’s words and deeds.