The Book of Akbar 59

59

THANKSGIVING OF ABU’L-FAZL, THE AUTHOR OF THIS NOBLE VOLUME, FOR HAVING BEHELD THE TIME OF THIS SOVEREIGNTY AND FOR HAVING LONG SERVED HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF KINGS.
Although it be a heavy sorrow that, at the rising of the Luminary of Fortune, the author of this noble volume was in the abode of non-existence, without being or the adornment of Divine worship, yet how can he discharge his debt of thanks for the grand mercy of his having witnessed the era of the subjectively and actively Great One, the ruler of the visible and the invisible, and having been one on whom has fallen the glance of his favour? And a hundred hundreds more of thanks for this, that, ere he had seen the holy horoscope, or its noble secrets and wondrous glories had been revealed to him, he had understood that perfection of sanctity and sovereignty which is beyond the reach of the astrologer’s science, and was a slave of the Divine power. And praise upon praise be to God that I am not, like Imamu-l-kalam, Hassanu-l-‘ajam, Lisanu-l-haqiqat, Hakim Khaqani, sighing for the Lord of the Age who is indispensable for the control of the visible and invisible worlds. For ms he has written thus:—
Quatrain.
They say that every thousand years of the world There comes into existence a true man. He came before this, ere we were born from nothingness. He will come after this when we have departed in sorrow.
Elsewhere he says,
Every now and then, the world is saturated with wretches, Then a shining comes down out of the sky. Khaqani! seek not in this Age for such a thing. Sit not by the way for the caravan will come late.
By auspicious good fortune, I obtained the service of this issuer of universal orders and explicator of the ways, and by the favour of his patronage and exalted kindness, comfort was brought to my soul,—perturbed by the deceit of the day and dumb-founded in a wilderness of wants,—connexion with the world nor anxiety remained save for his favour which indeed is tantamount to the pleasing and my mind being freed from the bondage of secular restraints of the world, was neither agitated by regret for the past nor longing for the future. Hereafter there will be given in its proper place, an account of my obtaining the blessing of his service, of my reaching the shade of favour and kindness, and of my being exalted above the apices of honour and eminence to the Seventh Heaven of cognition (ma'rifat).