Muntakhab al-tawarikh 61.7.1

61.7.1

Verse. Alas! for him who escapes not from public turmoil, Alas! for him who sets his heart upon the men of this world. The hand of the faqir holds no other coin but that of leisure, Alas! for him if he abandons that also. Shaikh ‘Ala’i, retaining that selfsame habit and conduct which he always had, accompanied by six or seven hundred families, set out for Gujrat in the hope that in the companionship of the chiefs and leaders of this sect he might learn the customs of the inmates of cloisters. At the time of his arrival at the township of Basawar from Baiana, my late father took me, the writer of these pages, to do homage to him. In consequence of my tender years, his form remained fixed in my memory as a dream or a vision. On his arrival at Khawaspur which is near Jodhpur, Khawass Khan who had been appointed to that district, at first came out to receive him and joined the circle of his adherents: but in consequence of his devotion to musical entertainments and pastimes, whereas now every Thursday night Sufis used to assemble in his house, and Shaikh ‘Ala’i forbade music and other prohibited pastimes, and enjoined that which was lawful and opposed that which was forbidden by law, accordingly their association was not agreeable, besides which opposition and disagreement arose with regard to the upholding of the rights of the soldiery. The saying— Verily speaking the truth will not leave me a single friend