The Book of Akbar 350.1

350.1

As the world caravanserai is a source of warning to the far-sighted spectator, whatever appears in it has thousands of designs and equities in deposit and is an expression of Divine power. It behoves the seer to see this. In the hall of justice of the True Judge which is in the market-place full of noise and evil (the world) no good fortune is destroyed and no one is brought from the heaven of honour to the earth of ignominy so long as he does not abandon rectitude and take the road of wrong. Accordingly, at this time, when the cup of Bairām Khān’s fortune was nearly full, there came a rift into his disposition, so that by the agency of short-sighted strifemongers and ill-fated envious ones who are displeased with destiny and at war with God, and who from meanness of understanding are grieved at others’ joy, and rejoiced at others’ grief and trouble, Bairām Khān’s heart became alienated from Mullā Pīr Muḥammad. The latter in the abundance of his loyalty and sincerity continued in his devotion and disposed of matters political and financial. He relied upon his rectitude and probity, and did his work without a wrinkle on the brow of his heart, or a knot in the eye-brow of his soul. As such a person is inevitably the mark of high and low, and is surrounded by crowds, this makes the hearts of the incompetent bleed with envy, and from their evil imaginations indulge in calumny and slander;