The Rashīdī History 226.2

226.2

They do not believe in the saints and holy persons in whom the Shias believe, but regard all these as [appertaining to] Sunnis. [Shams] introduced many impious practices and infidel beliefs, and gave his heretical sect the name of Nurbakhshi. I have seen many of the Nurbakhshi elders in Badakhshán and elsewhere. I discovered that outwardly they follow the precepts of the Prophet and hold with the Sunnis. One of the sons of this Amir Sayyid Muhammad Nurbakhshi showed me his tract. In it was written: "Sultans, Amirs and fools [or the ignorant] maintain that worldly power cannot be combined with purity and piety. But this is absolutely false, for the great prophets and apostles, in spite of their missions, have exercised sovereignty, and have likewise striven diligently after those other matters [i.e., purity and piety], as for example Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon and our Prophet." Now this is opposed to the belief of the Nurbakhshi of Kashmir, and is in accordance with that of the Sunnis. That book, the Fikh-i-Ahwat, which is celebrated in Kashmir, I sent, complete, to the Ulamá of Hindustán, who repudiated it and wrote on the back of it a decree [fatwá] of remonstrance as follows: "In the name of God the Merciful. Oh! God, show unto us the truth in its reality, and the false, wherein it is void; also show us things as they are.