[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [General histories](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general) › [Muntakhab al-tawārīkh](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh) › [Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig) › 87 # Muntakhab al-tawarikh 87: IV. Shaikh Burhan. Muntakhabu-t-tawārīkh (Ranking, Lowe, Haig) 87 - **Language:** English ### [87](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.87) Burhan was an ascetic of great resignation and piety, and a very prince among those who have chosen a life of religious seclusion and retirement, and of independence of worldly concerns. It is said that he was once for three days in company with Miyan Ilahdad of Bari, of the spiritual line of the famous Mir Sayyid Muhammad of Jaunpur, (may God sanctify his soul), there being only one intermediary between them, and that it was on that occasion that he acquired this excellence, and attained to perfection. He had subjected himself to severe discipline and possessed great self-control. For nearly fifty years (before his death) he had abstained from flesh-meat and from most other articles of food and drink, contenting himself with a little milk and some sweet-meats; and at the end of his life he abstained also from drinking water, so that to outward appearance he was an incorporeal spiritual form, supernaturally illuminated. He had in Kalpi a very small and dark cell in which he constantly sat, engaged in reciting God’s praises and in meditation, and contemplation. He used also to retain his breath, after the fashion of the Mahdavis, and although he had never studied any of the sciences treated of in Arabic literature he used to give most eloquent dissertations on the Qur'an. He was a reader of the secrets of human hearts. When I was returning from Canar (Chunar) in A.H. 967 (A.D. 1559-60) during the rule of ‘Abdu-’llāh Khān the Uzbak I spent a night in attendance on the Shaikh, whose conversation was sublime. He recited, appositely to the occasion, some of his own Hindi poetry of which the subjects were exhortation, admonition, mysticism, the longing of the human soul for God, the Unity of God, and withdrawal from the world. The next day Mihr ‘Ali Silduz, who, in spite of his friendship towards holy men, was to some extent a slave to his own Turkish nature, and was something of a bully and a tyrant, \[I have been the slave of that man of perfect nature, from the day on which he said, “The Turk, though he become a mulla, can never become a man.”\] was honoured, by means of an introduction from me, with an interview with the Shaikh. Now it so happened that about an hour before this time he had severely beaten and kicked some of his servants and attendants, and had abused them in most unbecoming language before mounting his horse to go for a ride. When we sat down together the first words the Shaikh uttered were, “The prophet (may God bless and save him!) said, ‘The (true) Muslim is he who (courteously) salutes (other) Muslims both with his hand and with his tongue.’” The Shaikh uttered this precious aphorism and sublime truth with special reference to the occasion, and Mihr ‘Ali rose to his feet for the purpose of excusing himself, and, after expressing his contrition and shame he begged the Shaikh to recite the fatihah on his behalf, offering to him, at the same time, something by way of a present, which was not accepted. The Shaikh reached the age of nearly one hundred years and departed this life in the year A.H. 970 (A.D. 1562-3). I have made the following chronogram on his death:— My heart said he was the chief of Saints. In accordance with the terms of his will he was buried in the cell to which he had retired—may God shed light upon his resting-place! - [Previous: 86](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.86) - [Next: 88](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.88) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.87](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh~en-ranking-lowe-haig.87) · Pramāṇa