Muntakhab al-tawarikh 28: Personal to the Author.

28

[Text, vol. ii. p. 252.] In a.h. 985 the King, after visiting the shrines of the holy saints in the neighbourhood of Dehlí, went towards Pálam on a shooting excursion. At the close of the blessed month Ramazán, news reached me at Rewárí, that at Basáwar a son had been born to me, of which happiness I had been a long time in expectation. On this occasion I presented an offering of a gold ashrafí to the King, and requested he would be good enough to name the child. After reading a prayer, he inquired the name of my father and grandfather. I replied, "Mulúk Sháh was my father, and he was the son of Hámid." He said, "I call your son 'Abdu-l Hádí," — Hádí being a name which at that time he had, night and day, upon his lips. Notwithstanding that Háfiz Muhammad Amín, the preacher, was constantly citing the seven imams, urging me in high-flown language not to commit this absurdity, and to invite some learned men to my house to read the whole Kuran, in order to secure a long life to my son, he could not persuade me, and at the end of six months my son died. May God be pleased on his account to pardon me in the day of judgment!
From Rewárí I took five months' leave, and went to Basáwar, on account of sundry affairs of consequence, but I unavoidably extended my absence to the period of a year. This unwarranted neglect of duty and the machinations of my enemies made me fall in the King's estimation, and by degrees I was entirely forgotten. To this day even, although eighteen years have since elapsed, I still perform my duty, but am not honoured with an interview; and I can neither go in search of other employ, nor maintain a firm footing in my present position.