The Book of Akbar 389.2.8

389.2.8

Prosperity, enthronisation, the cherishing of friends, and the consuming of enemies, every one of which was a sense-robbing cup for former princes or rather a drinking to the lees of infatuation, became in the holy personality of His Majesty the Shahinshah a cause of increased knowledge, of augmented wisdom, of abundant prudence and watchfulness. In virtue of the Divine purposes, and the irresistible decrees of the incomparable Deity, many of the world-adorning excellencies of this spiritual and temporal prince were concealed even from his own acuteness. I have heard this many times in the days of my childhood from my honoured father when I was engaged in acquiring knowledge. He (too) was a fountain of blessings and an assemblage of spiritual and material perfections and one who spent his days in the hermitage of retirement. And I learnt this also by myself when I came to have the bliss of serving him who is the elixir of the capabilities of the masters of wisdom. By reason of this fact, to wit, that his world-illuminating spiritual beauty was hidden from himself, he would seek from others what he should have sought for in himself and which he should have brought for the use of mankind and so been a guide to those wandering in the wilderness of error. Continually he made the pain of seeking after God, which is also capable of becoming perfect health, the hem of his heart, and kept the mobility of his holy soul.