Muntakhab al-tawarikh 136: XV. Shaikh Husain of Ajmer.
Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 136
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XV. Shaikh Husain of Ajmer.
136.1
It is commonly reported that he was a descendant of that polestar of holy men, and king of true lovers of God Khaja Mu'in-u-’d-din-i-Sanjari-yi-Cishti (may God hallow his soul) ! Since the Emperor, in the days when he first began especially to venerate his holiness the Khaja of Ajmer, happened to slight the claims of the Shaikh (to descent from him) some perverse fellows, prompted thereto by certain Shaikhs of Fathpur, men who have endeavoured to the utmost to depose and discredit those of their own class (may God reward them therefor!), gave evidence against his claim to descent from the Khaja, saying that his holiness left no descendants, and the Sadrs and Qazis also issued decrees to that effect, being guided by their time-serving dispositions. Hemistich. The age hath its raiment. Be thou clad therein ! ”
136.2
Thus the hereditary trusteeship of the shrine which had come down to him through so many years was transferred to others. The Shaikh, who was a man of great estate, lived in that province like a king, and the Emperor’s regal jealousy both on this account and on account of certain other events which happened could not endure the Shaikh’s position, so he ordered him to leave India and to journey to Makkah, and the Shaikh accordingly took formal leave of his Majesty during the march to Banswala, and, after successfully performing the pilgrimage to Makkah, returned. Having accomplished his journey to the Hijaz, he paid his respects at Court, on his return on the very day on which the Emperor had marched from Fathpur towards Kabul against Muhammad Hakim Mirza, but he would not conform to the ceremonies which have in these days been established by those who have accepted a new faith and have been recently converted to Islam, now followers of a new order of things. The Emperor after studying the page of the Shaikh's life and the lines of his forehead read there the signs of disaffection to himself, and commanded that the Shaikh should be imprisoned in the fortress of Bakkar. There he spent some years and at last, in the year H. 1002 (A.D.
136.3
1593-94), owing to the efforts made on his behalf by certain courtiers who had his Majesty's confidence he was summoned from Bakkar to the Imperial presence, and in company with some other prisoners such as Shaikh Kamal-i-Biyabani the impostor, some mention of whom has already been made, and the Qazis of Fathpur, who had been imprisoned in Bakkar for fourteen years owing to the machinations of Shaikh Ibrahim-i-Chishti and whose release had been ordered by means of the intercession of Mirza Nizamu-’d-din Ahmad, he arrived at Court, and there they all paid their respects to his Majesty, and all, with the exception of the Shaikh, prostrated themselves. He, an old man of seventy years of age, utterly unaccustomed to the ceremonial of kingly courts and the correct fashion of waiting upon royal personages, made a slight inclination and a mere bow, after the old custom. The Emperor’s displeasure with him was renewed, and the Mirza was ordered to have a grant of three hundred bigas of land in Bakkar made out to him, as madad-i-ma‘ash, and to despatch the Shaikh thither once more. Begum Padshah, the mother of his Majesty, busied herself in the ladies’ apartments of the palace in interceding for the Shaikh, and said to the Emperor, “My son, he has an aged and decrepit mother in Ajmer, whose heart yearns to see her son again. How would it be if you were to give him leave to depart to Ajmer?
136.4
He desires no madad-i-ma‘ash from you.” The Emperor would not accede to her request, and said, “Mother, he will start business afresh in the place to which he is now going, and people will present to him alms, presents, and complimentary gifts in plenty. He leads a number of men astray. In fine, let him summon his mother hither.” This treatment of his mother was much bitterer to the Shaikh than was the mere going to Bakkar. On the night on which the Sadr-i-Jahan summoned the compiler of these historical selections to the Imperial presence in connection with the Shaikh’s resignation of his trusteeship of the shrine in Ajmer, as has already been mentioned, the Emperor was perturbed in respect of that case, which he had himself brought forward, and refused to ratify the decree (with regard to the resignation), and retained the Shaikh in his service. He said to the Sadr-i-Jahan, “Where is that simple-hearted old man?” (meaning Shaikh Husain). I reminded him that he was in Lahor, and urged the Sadr-i-Jahan, since I myself was unworthy to hold such a blessed position, to have him appointed as the trustee of the shrine in that protected city, and so restore to him his just due. But since it is not in the nature of natives of India to work in the interests of their own brethren, or to trust in another, the efforts of the Sadr-i Jahan availed neither in my own unfortunate wretch that I am nor in the case of Shaikh Husain.
136.5
That aged man, whose sins have surely been forgiven by God, now lives in affliction and distress, in I pray, too, that I, bondsman of this world as I am, may by the blessing of that leader of all the pious, attain salvation, that, being delivered from my purposeless pursuits, my wild talk, levity, folly, and futile scribbling, I may reach my “true native land” and abiding city, to meet there my departed wife, children, and relatives, and, above all my son, and that I may be enabled to employ what remains to me of life in some occupation that shall serve me hereafter. Couplet. My purpose is, if it be possible, So to employ myself as to dissipate my grief. And since these lines were written just as the scroll of felicity was unfolding itself, and the blessed breeze of morn was beginning to blow, and the true dawn was just breaking, what wonder if the arrow of my disinterested prayer strikes the target of acceptance through the bounty of the Lord, on whose boundless mercy I have always trained myself to believe, and by whose free grace I have been nourished? Couplet. “He may well unfold the desire of my fortune, for which last night “I prayed, and the true dawn broke.” These complainings are out of place here, but what can I do? My soul and heart are so oppressed with weakness and uneasiness that these few bitter lamentations have escaped from the pipe of my tongueless pen. Please God I shall be excused and forgiven.
136.6
Couplet. I am not one to weep from grief of heart, But this load of grief heavily oppresses my heart!