The Book of Akbar 392: BRIEF ACCOUNT OF KHWĀJA M‘UĪNU-D-DĪN CISTĪ: MAY HIS GRAVE BE HOLY.

392

The Khwāja came from Sīstān, and they write him Sijzī which is the Arabic for Sigzī. His honoured father who was named Khwāja Hasan and who was a contented husbandman died when he was in his fifteenth year. Shaikh Ibrāhīm Majzūb of Qandūz’s attention was drawn to him and by the blessing of his glance the pains of inquiry seized the Khwāja’s soul, and cut away outward ties. He hastened to Samarqand and Bokhāra and for a time applied himself to the acquisition of knowledge. From there he went to Khurāsān and there he grew up. In Hārūn which is a dependency of Nīshāpūr he made the acquaintance of Shaikh ‘Osmān Hārūnī and became his disciple. For twenty years he practised strenuous austerities in the Shaikh’s company, and undertook journeys, and sojournings in strange lands. He became acquainted with many saints of the time, such as Shaikh Najmu-d-dīn Kubrā. In short, he is one of the great men of the Cistī order. He is three removes from Khwāja Maudūd Cistī and nine from Ibrāhīm Adham.
Before M‘uizzu-d-din, the son of Sam, came from Ghaznin to India, he took leave from his Pir and came to that country. He established himself in Ajmir, where Rai Pithora, the ruler of India, resided. Certainly the Khwaja was a lord of austerities and spiritual conflicts and had waged great wars with his carnal spirit. Though many miracles are related of him what miracle can be more glorious than the contest with the desires of this carnal spirit which is the father of excesses? Khwaja Qutbu-d-din Ushi of Andijan became, in Bagdad, in the month of Rajab 522, in the mosque of Imam Abi-i-lais of Samarkand and in the presence of Shaikh Shihabu-d-din Sahrawardi, of Shaikh Uhadu-d-din of Kirman and of a number of other saints, the disciple of Khwaja M‘uinu-d-din. Shaikh Farid Shakrganj, who is buried in Patan, is a disciple of this Qutbu-d-din, and Shaikh Nizamu-d-din Auliya, who was the Pir of Amir Khusru, gave his hand of discipleship to Shaikh Farid. In short, many of the perfect masters have risen up from under the skirts of the Khwaja’s teaching. May God sanctify their souls!