The book Maktűbât (Letters), originally in the Fârisî
language, consists of three volumes. It also contains a few letters in Arabic.
An elaborate printing of the book was accomplished in 1393 [1973 A.D.] in
Nâzimâbâd, Karachi, Pakistan. It was reproduced by offset process in Istanbul.
A copy of the Fârisî version exists in the library of the university of
Columbia in New York, U.S.A. Maktűbât was rendered into the Arabic language by
Muhammad Murâd Qazânî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’, and the Arabic version was
printed in two volumes in the printhouse called Mîriyya and located in the
blessed city of Mekka in 1316. A copy of the Arabic version occupies number 53
in the municipality library at Bâyezid, Istanbul. It was reproduced by offset
process in 1963, in Istanbul. A number of the books written by Hadrat Imâm
Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ were reprinted in Karachi, Pakistan. Of those books, Ithbât-un-nubuwwa was reproduced
by offset process in Istanbul in 1394 [1974 A.D.]. The marginal notes on the
book, which is in Arabic, provide a biography of Hadrat Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa
sirruh’. In the following section we shall present an abridgement from the
biography. People who would like to know Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ more
closely and with more detail would have to read the Fârisî book Umdat-ul-maqâmât, by Khwâja
Muhammad Fadlullah, and the book Barakât, by Muhammad Hâshim Badahshî. The latter one, also in the Fârisî
language and reproduced by offset in Istanbul, is of great help for the
acquisition of stronger ikhlâs and more conscientious îmân.
(Muhammad Murâd Qazânî was born in the Ufa town of the
Qazan (Kazan) city of Russia in 1272. Completing his madrasa education in his
hometown, he went to Bukhârâ in 1293 [1876 A.D.]. He studied higher Islamic
sciences in Bukhâra and Tashkend, and went to India and thence to Hijâz in
1295. He carried on his education in the blessed city of Medîna, and attained a
certain degree in Tasawwuf as well. In 1302 he translated the book Rashahât and
then the book Maktűbât into Arabic. He also wrote a biography of Imâm Rabbânî
‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ in Arabic).
Muhammad Murâd Munzâwî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ was another
scholar. He did not translate Maktűbât into Arabic.
There are various ways to learn the facts about past
people; how they were, their knowledge and ignorance, their guidance and
aberration, etc. The first way is, for instance, if they founded a madhhab or a
regime, to study the institution they founded. The second way is to read their
works, books. The third way is to hear people who are unprejudiced about them
and who mention their merits and imperfections objectively. Now we will study
Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ from these three viewpoints:
1– Imâm-i-Rabbânî, mujaddid wa munawwir alf-i-thânî, Ahmad
ibn Abd-il-Ahad, has an ancestral chain that reaches back to the
Amîr-ul-mu’minîn ’Umar-ul-Fârűq ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ with the twenty-ninth
paternal link. All his grandfathers were pious and virtuous people, and each of
them was a greatest scholar of his time.
2– Implicit and indirect good news herald a person’s advent before he
is born. Adumbration of this sortdoes not clearly name the person himself or
his birthplace. An example is the news foretelling the advent of Mahdî. The
occasional false pretensions to the name of Mahdî in recent history were merely
attempts to exploit this latency. The same rule applies to the news foretelling
our religious leaders (imâms). Examples of such news are the following hadîth-i-sherîfs: “If the
religion (Islam) fled the earth and went
to [the cluster of stars called] the
Pleiades, a youngster of Asiatic origin would apprehend it and bring it back.”
“Men will get into insoluble trouble and look for a
scholar to solve their problem. They will see that none is superior to the
scholar (who will be living) in
Medîna-i-munawwara.” “Do not speak ill
of the Qoureishîs. A scholar of their descent will illuminate the entire world
with knowledge.” Of these hadîth-i-sherîfs,
the first one refers to Imâm a’zam Abű Hanîfa, (the founder and leader of the
Hanafî Madhhab,) the second one alludes to Imâm Mâlik bin Enes, (the founder
and leader of the Mâlikî Madhhab,) and the third one foretells the advent of
Imâm Shâfi’î, (the founder and leader of the Shâfi’î Madhhab) ‘radiy-Allâhu
’anhum ajma’în’, according to other Islamic scholars. All these conclusions,
regardless of the authenticity of the facts they are based on, are of
conjectural capacity and therefore they are not
definite
knowledge. Whereas they are identical with knowledge in the friend’s view, they
aggravate the foe’s stubbornness and vulgarize the denier’s nescience. For, it
is either moral laxity and ignominy or vulgar ignorance and recalcitrance to
deny something in the face of the great number and the high status of the
people who believe it. Such is the case with Wahhâbîs, who obstinately deny the
hadîth-i-sherîfs, which we have quoted above,
about our religious leaders (imâms). The same applies to the deniers of Mahdî,
for in effect it means to deny the so many hadîth-i-sherîfs
(concerning Mahdî). For this reason, (some) Islamic scholars say that a person
who denies Mahdî becomes a disbeliever. By the same token, Jews and Christians
deny Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ although the good news about his advent is given
in their holy books. We Muslims believe in him positively. Likewise, also,
there are pieces of good news concerning Imâm Rabbânî ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’,
which are definite and positive facts in the view of his friends, although, by
contrast, they exacerbate the denial and the obduracy of the enemy. The
Believers’ faith is in their own favour, and the adversaries’ denial is at
their own peril. In fact, a Believer ought to have a good opinion about another
Believer, even though he is not someone he knows well.
Would it not, then, be wiser by far to have a good opinion
about the Awliyâ, who are praised in myriads of books and whose own books fill
the entire world and whose followers have always been the most valued and
beloved ones of their times and whose goodnesses shine far and near with solar
brightness?
3– Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa
sallam’ stated, “Of my Ummat (Muslims), there will come someone nicknamed Sila. Through his
shafâ’at (intercession with Allâhu ta’âlâ for
the slaves), many people will enter Paradise.”
This hadîth-i-sherîf is written in the book
Jam’ul-jawâmî, by Imâm Suyűtî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’. Providing an extensive
explanation for the Awliyâ’s words on ‘Wahdat-i-wujűd’, Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa
sirruh’ proved that they were compatible with Islam, and combined the two very
vast Islamic oceans, i.e. the Ahkâm-i-islâmiyya (the Islamic principles, tenets,
acts of worship, commandments and prohibitions, ritual practices, etc.), and
Tasawwuf (knowledge pertaining to heart and soul; orders, paths, methods and
techniques for the purification and
improvement
of the heart and soul), (which had hitherto been considered apart from each
other). This won him the epithet Sila,
(which means reunion; combiner). One of his letters ends with the prayer of
thanksgiving, “May hamd (praise and gratitude) be to
Allâhu ta’âlâ, who has made me a sila between two oceans!” He was known
with this nickname among his companions. No one before him had won the epithet
‘Sila’, which exists literally in the hadîth-i-sherîf
giving the good news. It is a fact in the sunlight that the epithet had been
meant for Imâm Rabbânî. He who believes this will be beloved to him. Supposing
his belief were wrong, neither in this world nor in the next would he be blamed
for having had a good opinion about a Muslim.
Imâm Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ stated as follows, in
versified narration:
The doctor and the naturalist supposed that when men
Die and decay, they will by no means come back to life.
Were your word to prove right, I would lose nothing;
Since I am right, in Hell will you spend the endless life.
4– Mawlânâ Jâmî ‘quddisa sirruh’, in his book Nafahât,
quotes the Shaikh-ul-islâm Ahmad Nâmiqî Jâmî as having stated as follows: “I
subjected myself to the total amount, and even more, of the mortifications and
afflictions suffered by all the Awliya, and Allâhu ta’âlâ blessed me with all the spiritual states and goodnesses enjoyed by
the Awliyâ. Every four hundred years Allâhu ta’âlâ blesses one of His slaves named Ahmad with such grand gifts, in
such transparency as all people will see the gifts clearly.” There are four
hundred and thirty-five (435) years between Ahmad Jâmî and Imâm (Ahmad) Rabbânî
‘quddisa sirruh’, and throughout that period there was no other Walî with the
name Ahmad and the same degree of greatness. In all likelihood, Imâm Rabbânî
must have been the target of Ahmad Jâmî’s congratulatory innuendo ‘radiy-Allâhu
’anhum’. This presumption finds credence in another statement made, again, by
the Shaikh-ul-islâm Ahmad Jâmî ‘quddisa sirruh’: “After me there will be
seventeen people carrying my name. The last one, which is the greatest and the
highest, will come after the first millennium (A.H.).”
5– Halîl-ul-Bedahshî ‘quddisa sirruh’ states: “Of the great scholars
constituting the (chain of scholars called) Silsila-t-uz-zahab, there will come
a paragon of perfection in India. He will
be
peerless in his century.” Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ is the ineluctable
addressee of the implication in this statement, since India produced no other
scholar in the same silsila.
6– Imâm Rabbânî Ahmad Fârűqî ‘quddisa sirruh’ was born in the
city of Sihrind, situated on the route between Lahore and Delhi, India.
‘Sihrind’ means ‘black lion’. For, the city was first established by Sultân
Fîrűz Shâh on a site that had formerly been a jungle of lions. It was not long
after being born when Imâm Rabbânî caught an infantile disease. So his father
took him to his own master Shâh Kemâl Kihtelî Qâdirî. “Don’t worry,” said the
profoundly learned scholar. “This child prodigy is going to lead a long life
and make a very great person.” Then he held the child by the hand and kissed
him on the mouth. Upon this the fayz and nűr (light, haloe) of Abdulqâdir
Geylânî ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ pervaded his blessed body. He received his initial
education from his father, learned Arabic, and memorized the Qur’ân al-kerîm in his early childhood.
Possessed of a mellifluous voice, he recited the sűras like a nightingale
singing. He memorized several booklets on various sciences and went to the city
of Siyâlkűt (Sialkot), where he studied some positive sciences and learned a
great deal from Mawlânâ Kemâladdîn Kishmîrî ‘quddisa sirruh’, who was the
highest scholar of his time and the great teacher who educated the renowned
scholar Abdulhakîm Siyalkűtî. He received ijâzât[1] in Hadîth, in Tafsîr and in sciences
of Usűl (methodology, procedures) from Qâdî Behlűl Bedahshânî, who was an
’âlim-i-rabbânî. He was only seventeen years old when he completed his
education, in possession of ijâzât in all the branches of religious and
positive sciences, as well as in sciences called Furű’ and Usűl. During his
education, he received, through his father, the fayz and flavour in the hearts
of the great men of Tasawwuf affiliated with the orders of Qâdirî and Cheshtî.
His father was still alive when he already began to teach the disciples practical
and spiritual sciences. In the meantime he wrote quite a number of books, among
which are Risâla-t-ut-tehlîliyya, Risâla-t-ur-radd-ir-rawâfid, and Risâla-t-u-ithbât-un-nubuwwa (Proof of Prophethood). He was specially interested in
belles-lettres. His eloquence, rhetoric, quickness of comprehension and great
intelligence were objects of bewilderment for all the people
---------------------------------
[1] Authorization, diploma, certificate of
proficiency.
7– With such superlative knowledge and unequalled
spiritual perfection, his heart was burning with the love of the great guides
of (the order of Tasawwuf called) Ahrâriyya. He was reading books written by
the scholars of that path. A year after his father’s decease he left Sihrind
for (a voyage to Mekka for the performance of the Islamic pilgrimage termed)
hajj. Enroute to his destination, he called at Dehli, [i.e. Delhi,] and paid a
visit to (the great spiritual master and scholar named) Muhammad Bâqî Billâh
‘quddisa sirruh’, who lived there. As soon as he entered the blessed sage’s
presence, a nűr (light, haloe) shone up in his heart. He felt attracted, like a
needle that was caught in a magnetic area. His heart became inundated with
things unknown to him and which he had not heretofore heard of. He was going to
come back after hajj and reap from the mellow spiritual source, yet the
affection and the desire in his heart was too strong for him to wait that long.
So the following morning he entered the great scholar’s presence again and
extended his wish to attain the Ahrâriyya fayz. He remained there, in the
blessed master’s service. Paying utmost attention to his own manners as well as
to the perfectly adept guide’s words, he attached his heart to him. He
preferred being with the owner of the Kâ’ba to going to the Kâ’ba. Exerting all
his exclusively high talents and his well-endowed personality, he attained all
sorts of perfections, which became manifest on his gifted person. So kind and
magnanimous was his master’s compassionate concentration on him that it was
hardly beyond two months’ time when he attained unprecedented spiritual
realizations. A couple of months sufficed for him to become entitled to an
unconditional authorization in the path of Ahrâriyya from his master, who
ordered him to go back home thereafter, transferring most of his disciples to
his care and sending them along to Sihrind. Back home, he began to spread
zâhirî[1] and bâtinî[2] knowledge and nűrs to the world and
to educate his disciples and students and guide them to spiritual heights. He
was now an owner of universal reputation, and his own master joined in the
influx of his admirers to reap spiritual lights from him. He would fill
everybody’s heart with knowledge and haloes,
---------------------------------
[1] Outward; of religious practices and acts of worship.
[2] Inward; of the heart and soul, spiritual.
and resuscitate and invigorate the religion of Muhammad
‘alaihis-salâm’. His utterly effective letters would encourage the time’s
pâdishâhs, governors, commanders and judges to rally to the cause of Islam and
to hold fast to the Sunnat-i-saniyya. He would raise a great number of scholars
and Awliyâ.
8– Although he had acquired the spiritual knowledge
(’ilm-i-bâtin) from Muhammad Bâqî ‘quddisa sirruh’, Allâhu ta’âlâ conferred even more upon him.
And even this exceptional knowledge, which was peculiar to him, he publicized
worldover. His master also would come to attain pieces from that knowledge,
enter his presence and sit with adab (suitable manners). It was on one of those
occasions that his master came, sensed that his master-disciple was busy with
his own heart, told the servant not to disturb him (Imâm Rabbânî), and did not
enter the room, waiting silently at the door. Some time later Imâm Rabbânî
‘quddisa sirruh’ stood up and asked who was at the door. “It is this faqîr,
Muhammad Bâqî,” called his master ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’. Upon hearing the
name, Imâm Rabbânî ran to the door and welcomed his master humbly and with
suitable manners. His master would always give him glad tidings, praise him in
the presence of his acquaintances, and command his disciples to adapt
themselves to Imâm Rabbânî after his decease.
9– Sayyid Muhammad Nu’mân ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’, a very
great scholar and one of highest disciples of Khwâja Muhammad Bâqî ‘quddisa
sirruh’, relates: When my teacher told me to adapt myself to Imâm Rabbânî
(after his death), I tried to tell him that it would be unnecessary, saying,
“The mirror of my heart will only be towards your bright heart.” My teacher
retorted, “What do you think Ahmad is? His solar light outshines thousands of
stars like us.”
10– Khwâja Muhammad Bâqî wrote as follows to some of his
acquaintances, who were the greatest scholars of his time: A youngster came
from the city of Sihrind. He has very much knowledge. And his behaviour
perfectly reflects his knowledge. He stayed with this faqîr, (the great scholar
means himself,) for a few days. I have seen much in him. I understand that he
is going to be a sun that will enlighten the entire world. His relatives and
all his brothers also are brilliant, valuable and knowledgeable heroes! And his
sons, especially, are a treasure of Allâhu ta’âlâ each.
11– He said on another occasion: For the recent three or
four years I have been exerting myself to guide others to the right path, to
the way of salvation. Al-hamdulillah (May gratitude and praise be to Allâhu
ta’âlâ)! My exertion has not come to naught, for a person like him has come
out.
12– Khwâja Muhammad Bâqî ‘quddisa sirruh’ stated on
another occasion: I brought this seed, which is a medicament for hearts and a
cure for souls, from Samarkand and Bukhâra, and sowed it in the fertile soil of
India. I spared no effort for the education and guidance of the disciples. When
he surpassed all degrees and attained the highest grades of all sorts of
perfection, I withdrew myself from between and left the disciples to his care.
13– In a letter that Khwâja Muhammad Bâqî Billâh ‘quddisa
sirruh’ wrote to Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruhumâ’, he states as follows: “May Allâhu ta’âlâ bless you with the lot of
attaining the highest grade and guiding all others as well! A line:
Earth has a share from the meal table of the beneficent!
“The unornamented truth is that the Shaikh-ul-islâm
Abdullah Ansârî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ stated, ‘I was educated by Abul Hasan
Harkânî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’. However, if Harkânî were alive now, he would
ignore that he had been my teacher, come and kneel down before me.’ My inaction
is not due to complacency or snub; on the contrary, I am awaiting a sign
implying admission. This is the truth of the matter. May Allâhu ta’âlâ bless us with guidance! May
He protect us from conceit and vanity! Sayyid Sâlih of Nishâpűr, who will be
bringing you this letter of mine, came to me for the cure of his heart. Because
I do not have time and I am not in a convenient state, I am sending him to you
lest he should waste his time with me. Inshâ-Allah, he will attain your high
and generous attention and obtain something proportional to his talents.
14– “May Allâhu ta’âlâ, for the sake of
His beloved Awliyâ, whom He has chosen for Himself, guide also those wretched
and impoverished mendicants of knowledge and sagacity, the hapless count-outs
of all windfalls, and make them attain their wishes! I have been unable to
present my true respect to your rank, which is a resource of Awliyâ. Yes, this
is the only proper way of addressing oneself to a rank whose states are true to
its name. To call you ‘my disciple’ would mean to display the most
shameless
insolence and to obscure the truth with the apparent contraposition. I request
your benedictions, sir.”
15– In addition to his own master, most of the scholars
and sages of his time mentioned his name with laudatory remarks that he
perfectly deserved, refuted those who were uncivil enough to speak ill of him,
and all of them gathered like moths around the light of his ma’rifat. The
greatest and the most distinguished ones among them were Fadlullah Burhanpűrî,
Mawlânâ Hasan-ul-ghawsî, Mawlânâ Abdulhakîm Siyâlkűtî, Mawlânâ Jemâladdîn
Tâluwî, Mawlânâ Ya’qűb Sirfî, Mawlânâ Hasan-ul-Qubâdânî, Mawlânâ Mîrekshâh,
Mawlânâ Mîr Mu’mîn, Mawlânâ Jân Muhammad Lâhurî and Mawlânâ Abd-us-salâm
Diyukî. Muhaddith Abdulhaqq Dahlawî spent a greater part of his life
criticizing him; however, when the mirror of his heart rid the rust and dust of
his nafs so that the rays of that sun illuminated his heart, he began to praise
him and to refute the slanders of the stubborn deniers.
16– Fadl Burhanpűrî, for instance, would take pleasure
from listening to laudatory remarks about his beautiful attributes and enjoy
hearing about his ma’rifats. He would say that he (Imâm Rabbânî) was the
Qutb-ul-aqtâb, i.e. the imâm (religious leader, the highest scholar) of his
time, that his reports about the secrets of truth were always right and
valuable, and that his adherence to all the subtleties of the Islamic religion
and his universal popularity attested to the fact that his words were true and
to the high status of the spiritual states he were experiencing and displaying.
During the Imâm’s ‘quddisa sirruh’ imprisonment, he would pray for his release
after each of the five daily prayers of namâz. When people from the
neighborhood of Sihrind came to him to express their wishes to become his
disciples, he would rebuke them, saying, “So you live at a place close to Imâm
Rabbânî and look for knowledge and ma’rifat at other places. Leaving the sun,
you run to the stars for light. You astonish me.”
17– Hasan-ul-ghawsî would praise him very much. He writes
as follows about the imâm in his book Manâqib-ul-awliyâ: “The owner of the rank of Mahbűbiyyat, the ornament of the
chairmanship of the assembly of Wahdâniyyat, the expert of the rank of
Ferdiyyat, and the chief of the rank of Qutbiyyat.”
18– Mawlânâ Abdulhakîm Siyâlkűtî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ was another
admirer of Imâm Rabbânî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’
who
paid profound respect to the Imâm. He would struggle against his deniers. He
would call him ‘Mujaddid-i-alf-i-thânî(Restorer
of the Second Millennium). He is said (by the Islamic scholars) to have been
the first person to call him this name. He would admonish the deniers, saying,
“It is ignorance to raise objections to great people’s words without properly
understanding what they mean. People who do so end up in perdition. To reject
the words of Ahmad the master, who is a source of knowledge, fayz and irfân,
stems from not knowing and understanding him.”
19– Muhammad Mu’min Kubrawî of Belh city sent one of his
disciples to Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ for inâbat (repentance for sins),
tawba (repentance and invocation for the forgiveness of sins, and resolution
not to commit sins again), and sulűk (a term in Tasawwuf, which means ‘to enter
a religious order; to make progress in one of the paths of Tasawwuf’). When the
disciple entered Imâm Rabbânî’s presence, he conveyed the salâms which he
brought from his master, from Sayyid Mîrekshâh, from Hasan Qubâdânî, and from
Qâdil Qudât Tulek, and added: My master Mîr Muhammad Mu’min said, “I would go
and be blessed with his lectures and serve him till death were it not for the
hindrances such as my old age and the great distance. I would try to enlighten
my heart with his nűrs, which have not fallen to anyone else’s lot. My body is
far away, down here, yet my heart is up there. I beg him to accept this faqîr,
(i.e. Muhammad Mu’min himself,) as if I were one of his pure disciples in his
presence, and to scatter his blessed nűrs into my soul. Kiss his hand on my
behalf, too!” The disciple kissed the Imâm’s hand again and, as he was leaving
he said, “The blessed people in the city of Belh request of you to send them
letters telling about sublime facts.” Upon this Imâm Rabbânî ‘qaddas-Allâhu
sirrah-ul-’azîz’ wrote the ninety-ninth letter and gave it to him together with
a few other letters. Some time later some devotees from Belh came to India with
the report that upon receiving the Imâm’s ‘quddisa sirruh’ letter Mîr Muhammad
Mu’min had read it with exuberant satisfaction and had said, “If great Awliyâ
such as Bâyezîd the Sultân-ul-’ârifîn and Junayd the Sayyid-ut-tâifa were
living now they would kneel down before Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ and not
even for a moment would they be absent from his service.”
20– One of the scholars of his time said, “The share that
falls to the comprehension of scholars from Imâm Rabbânî’s ‘quddisa sirruh’
writings is identical with whatsoever ignorant people understand from the
(words of metaphysical level called) hikmat that they hear from the (deeply
learned and wise scholars called) hakîm.”
21– Another pious scholar of his time, whose religious
practices were in harmony with his religious knowledge, observed as follows:
“Experts of knowledge pertaining to heart and soul do either tasnîf
(composition) or te’lîf (compilation). Tasnîf means an ’ârif’s writing the
occult and mysterical pieces of knowledge that are imparted to him (and
inspired into his purified heart). And te’lîf means to compile others’ words,
to arrange them in a self-established order and then write them. It has been a
long time since the business of tasnîf has left the world, although te’lîf
still survives. However, what Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ has been writing
perfectly fall into the category of tasnîf. They are not te’lîf at all. I am
not one of his disciples. Yet I have been studying his writings minutely, and
for reason’s sake I have not so far found a single word belonging to others.
All of them reflect his own kashfs (findings of the heart) and the pieces of
knowledge flowing into his heart. All of them are sublime, acceptable,
beautiful, and compatible with the Islamic religion.”
22– When the greatest qâdî (Islamic judge) of his time was
asked about the (spiritual) states that Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ had been
experiencing and displaying, he replied, “The words and the states of the
scholars of the knowledge of heart and soul are beyond the capacity of our
minds. However, when I saw the states of Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’, I
developed a realization and comprehension of the states and the words of the
past Awliyâ. Before that, whenever I read about the states of the (past) Awliyâ
and their peculiar acts of worship, I speculated a certain degree of
hyperbolism about the written accounts. Yet, seeing his states and manners
eliminated my speculations and hesitations.”
23– Abdulhaqq Dahlawî, a scholar of Hadîth, was formerly opposed to
Imâm Rabbânî’s ‘quddisa sirruh’ writings; he would despise them and write
refutations to them. Later, however, Allâhu ta’âlâ blessed
him with seeing the truth; penitent of his former attitude, he made tawba. He
wrote to Mawlânâ
Husâmaddîn
Ahmad, one of the graduates of Khwâja Muhammad Bâqî, about his tawba, as
follows: “May Allâhu ta’âlâ’ bless Ahmad-i-Fârűqî with (all sorts of)
salvation! This faqîr’s (Hadrat Dahlawî’s) heart is now true towards him.
Curtains of humanity have gone up, and the blemishes of the nafs have cleared.
Aside from the spiritual solidarity, it stands to reason that a religious superior
like him could not have been defied. How unwise and crass I must have been! No
words I would say now would suffice to express the shame and inferiority that
my heart feels towards him. It belongs to Allâhu
ta’âlâ, alone, to convert hearts and to change spiritual states.” In
another letter, which Abdulhaqq Dahlawî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ wrote to his own
children, he said, “Tear the drafts of my letters which I wrote in opposition
to the writings of Ahmad Fârűqî ‘sallamahullâhu ta’âlâ’! No longer is there any
blur about him in my heart, which feels quite true towards him now.” This shows
that his former opposition was merely human. It was the case also with all the
other deniers. Jenâb-i-Haqq (Allâhu ta’âlâ) chooses some of His slaves and
blesses them with His Compassion, saving them from the Hell of denial and
guiding them to the Paradise of affirmation. The reasons for his tawba are not
known for certain. According to some reports, he had a dream in which the
Messenger of Allah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ reprimanded him. Some
scholars say, on the other hand, that he drew lots on the Qur’ân al-kerîm, that once the âyat-i-kerîma which purports, “... If
he is a liar, it is at his own peril. If he is telling the truth, Allâhu ta’âlâ will send onto
you some of what He has promised to you,” came out, and that at
another time the outcome was the âyat-i-kerîma
which purports, “They are the beloved slaves of
Allâhu ta’âlâ. Even in their business of buying and selling, their heart is not
without Allâhu ta’âlâ in it.” According to a third report, the
objections that he raised against him were consequent upon a letter that the
adversaries of the blessed Imâm (Rabbânî) had sent to him, (i.e. to Abdulhaqq
Dahlawî). When he realized the truth he repented and made tawba.
A note: When his children received their father’s letter, they
destroyed the drafts. Yet other people also had had letters from him, (which
contained his former opinions about Imâm Rabbânî). Those letters still existed
in a few books written in Persian. However, beautiful refutations were written
to those
letters.
Short biographies of the scholars who praised Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’
would make up an entire book.
24– THE FIFTH PERSPECTIVE: When a person rises to fame owing to his virtues and
perfections, a concomitant increase in jealousy follows. This has been the case
since (thefirst man and the earliest prophet) Âdam ‘alaihis-salâm’. The jealousy of the ignorant is
symptomatic of the abundance of the blessings possessed by the envied person.
Our Master, the Prophet
‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ states: “Of all people,
prophets ‘alaihim-us-salâtu wa-s-salâm’, suffer the most disasters; next after them are scholars and then
come the sâlih (pious, devoted) Muslims.” For that matter, Imâm Rabbânî
‘quddisa sirruh’ had a considerable share from disasters. How could it have
been otherwise, since he was the mujaddid-i-alf-i-thânî? In other words, Allâhu ta’âlâ had sent him a thousand years
after the Prophet, our Master ‘sall-Allâhu
’alaihi wa sallam’, as a restorer to rehabilitate and strengthen the Islamic
religion. Is it an easy job to rehabilitate something, to restore it to its
pristine purity, and to undo all the so many superstitions that have become
established customs throughout years? Would it have been a simple fait accompli
to strengthen Islam and purge it from the deeply rooted impurities at a time
when wrongdoings, heresies and superstitions are on the increase, aberrations
so widespread, and sham dervishes of Wahdat-i-wujűd are known as Islamic
scholars?
25– Mawlânâ Shâh Abdul’azîz (1239 [1824 A.D.]), a son of Shâh Ahmad
Waliyyullah (1179), ‘rahimahumullâhu ta’âlâ’, observes as follows:
Wahdat-i-wujűd deteriorated into various anomalies among the common people.
Misunderstanding the words of the great, the ignorant deviated from Islam in
the process of time. The highly esoteric and valuable science (,i.e.
Wahdat-i-wujűd,) became a demolisher of Islam, and a source of heresy for the
shaikhs of Tekke, whose aberrant paths spread among the ignorant populace. [The
comatose trends buttered the bread of the enemies of Islam. Representing some
irreligious and immoral people as poets of Tasawwuf, they designed school
curricula containing their irreligious words, thus having the younger generations
read them in the name of poetry.] Allâhu ta’âlâ, with
His infinite compassion for His slaves, created a great mujaddid, Imâm Rabbânî
‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’. He blessed him with profound knowledge. Through him,
He
purified the minds of His slaves, separated right from wrong, and cleansed many
a heart from heresy.
These magnificent accomplishments incurred the spite of
some people and a torrent of persecutions, arrows and vilifications followed.
The jealousies were even aggravated when, one by one, scholars and other
virtuous and mature people left their paths and guides and hastened to join the
disciples of the Imâm (Rabbânî) and to serve him. Conspiracies were resorted to
for the purpose of exposing the Imâm to danger. For instance, they provoked the
ignorant folk by spreading the lie that he abhorred the great Islamic shaikhs
such as Junayd-i-Baghdâdî. They began to estrange the short-sighted people from
the imâm by alleging that he denied the Wahdat-i-wujűd which was a science for
spiritual improvement established by the great shaikhs of Islam. They tried to
antagonize his admirers by asserting that he denied the Meshâikh-i-izâm and
boasted of having attained the ma’rifat of Allâhu ta’âlâ directly without a guide. The defamations culminated when they
finally tried to besmear him with the political felony of insubordination
against the government and contempt for the laws and, into the bargain, many
another libel which a Muslim could never commit against another.
26– His alleged denial of the Meshâikh-i-izâm was a blatant lie. The
truth becomes manifest immediately upon beginning to read his book Maktűbât,
which is a clear evidence of his profound respect towards the Meshâikh-i-izâm,
so much so that he attaches beautiful meanings even to their words that are
vulnerable to misinterpretation and which for centuries their enemies have
exploited as fulcrums to bring their calumniations to bear, -as for their words
that do not seem to be susceptible of a benevolent interpretation, he says that
they were the erroneous words which those great people had said during their
apprenticeship and which they corrected after attaining higher grades. He says
that errors of kashf (in the paths of Tasawwuf), like errors of ijtihâd
(committed by scholars who have attained the grade of ijtihâd), are not only
pardonable but also meritorious acts that are likely to be rewarded (in the
Hereafter). As regards his alleged denial of Wahdat-i-wujűd; those who read
Maktűbât will know that the truth is quite the other way round and that he
handles the matter with unprecedented adroitness by, on the one hand,
protecting Islam’s honour and,
on
the other, paying heed to the dignity of those great people.
27– The statesmen under the time’s Sultân Selîm Jihânghir
Khân, including his grand vizier, his chief muftî and his harem, were not Sunnî
Muslims. However, most of the Imâm’s letters, and also his booklet Radd-i-rawâfid, especially, repudiate
people without a Madhhab and explain that they are ignorant, stupid and base
people. Imâm-i-Rabbânî sent that booklet of his to Abdullah Jenghiz Khân, the
time’s greatest Uzbek Khân in Bukhârâ, with the note, “Show this booklet to the
Iranian Shâh Abbâs Safawî! If he accepts it, things will be quite all right. If
he does not, then it will be permissible to make war against him.” When the
Shâh’s answer was in the negative, a war was made. Abdullah Khân took Herat
(Hirât) and the cities in Khorasan. -Those places had been captured by the
Safawîs a hundred years before. Upon this all the lâ-madhhabî[1] people in India cooperated, and
their spokesmen showed the Sultân (Abdullah Khân) a letter which Imâm Rabbânî
had written to his own master and teacher (Muhammad Bâqî Billah), i.e. the
eleventh letter of the first volume, and said, “He considers himself, and
claims to be, higher than all other people, even higher than Abű Bakr
‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’.” The Sultân sent his own son Shâh Jihân to Imâm Rabbânî,
inviting the Imâm and his sons and the other great scholars educated by the
Imâm. He was resolved to have them all killed. Shâh Jihân went to Imâm, taking
along a muftî with him. With them they had a fatwâ legalizing (Islamically)
prostration before the Sultân (head of the Muslim state). (A fatwâ is a written
answer which an Islamic scholar gives Muslims’ questions. A muftî is a scholar
authorized to give a fatwâ). Shâh Jihân knew that Imâm Rabbânî was a true
person. He said, “I can save you if you prostrate yourself before my father.”
The Imâm replied that the legalization in the fatwâ stipulated darűrat
(necessity, inevitability prescribed by Islam), that azîmat (the harder and
more commendable choice) and ideal devotion to one’s faith would require
refusal of a suggestion of prostration, and that nothing would save a person
when the foreordained time of his
---------------------------------
[1] People who refuse to be affiliated to any
of the four authentic Madhhabs in Islam; Hanafî, Mâlikî, Shâfi’î, and Hanbalî.
Detailed information for the four Madhhabs, see The Sunnî Path and the
five fascicles of Endless Bliss.
death came. Leaving his sons and his ashâb (companions and
disciples), he went alone. The Sultân showed him the eleventh letter and asked
him what it meant. So beautiful and satisfactory was the great scholar’s answer
that the Sultân, far below the level as he was to comprehend such sublime and
esoteric facts, became cheered and released him apologetically. When the
plotters saw that all their efforts had come to naught, they said to the
Sultân, “This person has quite a number of men, and his words have caught on
throughout the country. If we let him go, a chaos may follow. You see what a
conceited person he is. He not only refused to show reverence, which in itself
would suffice to prove his detestation, but also did not even condescend to
salute you.” Indeed, the drunken, infuriated and ferocious appearance of the
Sultân, as the imâm had found him upon entering his presence, had divested him
of the respect and dignity that a personage in that position would normally
have inspired, so that the great scholar had not even saluted him (by uttering
the expression of salâm, which we have described earlier in the text). After a
long debate with the assembly, the Sultân ordered that the imâm be imprisoned
in the fortress of Gwalior, the most strongly fortified and the most dreadful
fortress in the country. Like a nightingale caged in with lowly inmates, the
Imâm’s ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ blessed face was shrouded from Muslims’ sight. The
harvest moon was covered with black clouds. So gloomy was the hapless night
that Sayyid Ghulâm Alî, India’s renowned man of belles lettres better known
with his nickname Âzâd, could not help exquisitely versifying the event in his
doleful stanzas.
28– Formerly, Imâm Rabbânî ‘qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ sirrah-ul
’azîz’ had stated, “There are many other ranks that are above the ranks I have
attained. Those higher ranks are attainable only by way of a training with
Jelâl (Majesty, Wrath, Rage of Allâhu ta’âlâ, which materializes as disasters, misfortunes, cares). So far, I
have been trained with Jemâl (Beauty, Grace of Allâhu ta’âlâ), i.e. with
fondlings.” Also, he had said to some of his companions, “Between fifty and
sixty, cares and disasters will shower on me.” It happened exactly as he had
said, and he was blessed with those higher ranks as well.
29– Thousands of unbelievers imprisoned in the fortress were honoured
with îmân and Islam owing to the barakat of the blessed Imâm ‘quddisa sirruh’.
An approximately equal number
of
Muslims made tawba (for the sinful lives they had led before). In fact, some of
them would later attain very high positions in Islamic scholarship. A striking
example is the illustrious conversion to Islam of a great commander of the
fire-worshipping Indians, who happened to be among the audience as the blessed
scholar was explaining the eleventh letter to the Sultân and yielded to the
merits of the Imâm’s religious steadfastness and the flavour and high standard
of his wording. The Sultân’s vizier had appointed his own brother as a guard to
wait upon the imâm with instructions that “the convict should undergo a harsh
treatment.” Yet the fortunate brother, witnessing various karâmats (wonders and
miracles) on the blessed imâm, and an awe-inspiring dignity, patience, and even
exultation, instead of dejection, into the bargain, made tawba, doffed the
halter of heresy, ornamented himself with the necklace of Ahl as-sunnat, and
consigned himself into the pond of grace where bathed the truest disciples of
the blessed religious scholar ‘quddisa sirruh’.
30– Not to the least extent did the imprisonment bear on
the philanthropy that Imâm Rabbânî ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ held towards the Sultân.
Pleased with what he had done to him, he would always pronounce benedictions
over him. As a matter of fact, some of the companions of the Imâm ‘quddisa
sirruh’ had a design against the Sultân, which was very well within their
power. Yet the Imâm prevented them, showing himself to them in their dreams as
well as when they were awake, and advised them to pronounce benedictions over
the Sultân. “Hurting the Sultân will cause harm to all the people,” he would
say. Readers of Maktűbât will see these facts in all their clarity in the
letters which he wrote to his sons from the dungeon.
31– Sultân Selîm Jihânghîr Khân’s son, Shâh Jihân ‘rahimahullâhu
ta’âlâ’, rose against his father. He had a powerful army and was sincerely
backed by most of the commanders who were apparently on his father’s side. Yet
the advantages he had proved short of bringing him victory. He told his story to
one of the time’s Awliyâ and asked for benedictions. The Walî said: Your
victory depends on the benedictions on the part of the four poles (highest
Walîs and scholars) of the present time. Three of them are with you. Yet the
fourth one, who is the highest one, does not approve of your attempt. That
exalted person is Hadrat Imâm Rabbânî Mujaddid-i-alf-i-thânî
‘quddisa
sirruh’. Shâh Jihân went to the Imâm and begged the great scholar to invoke a
blessing on him. The Imâm ‘quddisa sirruh’ counselled him to give up the plan
to overthrow his father, saying, “Go to your father, kiss his hand and
apologize! He will soon pass away and the sovereignty will be yours.” Shâh
Jihân listened to his advice and gave up his plan. A short time later, in 1037
[1627 A.D.], his father passed away, whereupon he attained his wish,
sovereignty. Then, how could one ever believe the jealous plotters’ slander
that Imâm Rabbânî disobeyed the Sultân and flouted the laws?
32– Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa sirruh’ had spent two or three valuable
years in the fortress, when the Sultân began to feel remorse for his
wrongdoing. Having him taken out of the prison, he showed him kindness. In
fact, he became one of his true disciples and faithful friends. He ordered him
to stay for some time among the army. Later, he set him free and, with deep
reverence, sent him to his homeland. When Imâm Rabbânî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ
’aleyh’ was back home, he had attained grades and states thousands of times
higher than the spiritual positions which he had been occupying (before
imprisonment). With the exception of his blessed sons and his successors whom
he educated, no one can be privy to the occult and secret spiritual facts and
ma’rifats permeating through his letters which he wrote in the aftermath. Those
valuable letters of his complement the three volumes of Maktűbât.
33– Such afflictions and disasters befell not only the greatest
Awliyâ, but also prophets ‘alaihim-us-salawâtu wa-t-taslîmât’, so that today’s
Awliyâ and devoted Muslims will find solace in them and the afflictions and
disasters that the ignorant witness to befall the contemporary Awliyâ will not
be construed as symptomatic of iniquity (of the people who suffer them).
Historians, who are unaware of this subtlety, write only about the pleasant
facts concerning the Awliyâ, withholding some events which reflect their human
demeanours. This sparing policy misleads their uncritical readers into
visualising them as impeccable and angelic creatures; and, ergo, a most trivial
sight of human weakness which they observe on a person who is said to be a
pious and devoted Muslim or a Walî causes them to think otherwise, which in
turn means that they cannot get a share from the spiritual gifts the blessed
person has been endowed with, since you cannot acquire any blessings from a
person
about whom you have a bad opinion. Some people go even further wrong by
gossiping about those pure Muslims. They do not know that Allâhu ta’âlâ hides His beloved slaves under the
screen of human mediocrities. As a matter of fact, He declares, “I hide My beloved ones. Not everybody can recognize them.”
Imâm Rabbânî ‘qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ sirrah-ul ’azîz’ offers a number of
explanations on this subject in Maktűbât, while, on the other hand, Muhyiddîn
Arabî ‘quddisa sirruh’ states in his book Futuhât
that a peccadillo that breaks the heart and humbles the nafs is more useful
than an act of worship which inflames the nafs and brings pride to the heart.
34– Having attained his loftiest aspirations, Imâm
Rabbânî, Mujaddid-i-alf-i-thânî, Ahmad Fârűqî ‘quddisa sirruh’ reached the
grades which Allâhu ta’âlâ bestowed on him, and thereafter, when the time which Allâhu ta’âlâ had foreordained, (i.e. the
taqdîr-i-ilâhî,) came, he accepted the invitation extended by Azrâîl
‘alaihis-salâm’ (Angel of Death ) and attained the Refîq-i-a’lâ (Allâhu ta’âlâ)
on the twenty-ninth day, Tuesday, of the blessed month of Safer (the second
Arabic lunar month) in 1034 [1624 A.D.]. He was buried in the cemetery of
Sihrind. May Allâhu ta’âlâ bless his soul with peace and his grave with plenty of nűr! May He
make us attain the barakat of his valuable breath and his love! May He guide us
to his shafâ’at and join us with his lovers who will assemble under his banner
on the Rising Day! Âmîn.
35– People have different habits, different predilections, different
wishes, and different thoughts. Therefore, not only as he was alive did he have
admirers as well as adversaries, but also after his passing away two different
groups of people held two opposite opinions about him. Whereas one group
explicitly praised him, another followed the line of criticism. The
antagonistic attempts, however, let alone choke his universally renowned
ma’rifats, merely betokened evanescent snowflakes on a river. Or, rather, they
contributed to his reputation, for, every attempt on the part of his
adversaries to scatter poison his admirers counterplotted against with a
variety of antidotal confutations. This reciprocal struggle proved fructiferous
enough to give birth to more than seventy books specially devoted to this
subject. One of them, perhaps the greatest one, the booklet Atiyya-t-ul wahhâb fâsila-t-u-bayn-al-hatâ wa-th-thawâb,
a masterpiece composed by Muhammad Uzbekî
Makkî,
put the adversaries to a crying shame from which they should not have had the
face to raise their heads. After the imâm’s passing away ‘quddisa sirruh’, many
scholars lauded him and wrote very useful and important books. One of them is
Mawlânâ Abdullah Itâqîzâda ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ, the Muftî of Mekka-i-mukarrama,
the Shaikh-ul-Islâm, and the Imâm-ul-’allâma. We have not translated the
passage from his book which occupies a few pages of the Arabic version.
36– A profoundly learned scholar who praised Imâm Rabbânî
‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ after his passing away is Ziyâeddîn Mawlânâ Khâlid
’Uthmânî Baghdâdî ‘quddisa sirruh’, a leader of ârifs, a guide to truth, a
paragon of the highest attainable spiritual grades, an owner of physical and
spiritual perfections, and an ocean of knowledge. The following paragraph is a
paraphrased translation of the couplets in the ninety-fourth page of his
Persian divan, in which he utters the delicacies of his lofty soul:
“Yâ Rabbî! Please do forgive me for the sake of the haloes
in the eyes of Ahmad Fârűqî ‘quddisa sirruh’; a wayfarer of that endless path;
a leader of the owners of knowledge; a source of the occult secrets which are
neither perceptible to the human sight nor attainable with mind; an owner of
greatness beyond the human cognizance and which Thou, alone, knowest; an ocean
where meanings foam and crest like waves; a chief of a world where material
beings or places do not exist; a source of nűr whose lights illuminate India; a
beloved slave for whose sake the city of Sihrind was transmuted into the valley
where Műsâ (Moses) ‘alaihis-salâm’ received the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ; a
document to prove the greatness of the religion of Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’; a
light for the assembly of the keen-sighted; a commander of the army of absolute
piety; a master who not only has attained unthinkable spiritual heights but
also guides those who follow his path! Please do overlook my black face! So
ruthlessly have I abused myself, innumerable are the faults I have committed,
and so disloyal have I been in my promise. Yet the endlessness of Thine ocean
of forgiveness and compassion makes me feel hopeful. Thine infinite Kindness,
alone, do I rely on. For, ‘I am the Forgiver,’ Thou sayest.”
37– Another scholar who praised him was Hadrat Sayyid Tâhâ Hakkârî
‘quddisa sirruh’, a profoundly learned savant, a
virtuous
Walî-i-kâmil, a possessor of innumerable karâmats (wonders, miracles), and the
highest of the Awliyâ educated and trained by Mawlânâ Khâlid Baghdâdî ‘quddisa
sirruh’.
38– Another scholar who praised Imâm Rabbânî ‘quddisa
sirruh’ was Sayyid Abdulhakîm Efendi ‘rahmatullâhi ’aleyh’, a gem of
scholarship and an ideal perfection among the Awliyâ. He states as follows in a
letter that he wrote to a devoted Muslim: “Dhikr, and so the effect of dhikr,
is a deep sea. No one has reached down its depths. It is a such rough ocean
that the entire world is quite unaware of any one of its waves. It is such a
vast mass of water surrounding the world that the entire universe would not be
able to comprehend it. Dhikr is a spiritual state that occurs in the hearts of
those who make dhikr. It is something impossible to describe, to write about,
to explain.
“A person who knows Allâhu ta’âlâ becomes speechless. He cannot find words to describe what he is
experiencing. He becomes overwhelmed with bewilderment. He is quite oblivious
to the world and to other people. As Allâhu ta’âlâ is the Person whose dhikr is being made, likewise, He, alone, is
the Person who makes dhikr. He, alone, is capable of making dhikr of Himself.
Who are poor creatures to make dhikr of Him? However, He commands His human
creature to make dhikr of Him in order to tinge his own attributes with the
(Attributes of Allâhu ta’âlâ termed) Sifât-i-ilâhiyya. Every person (who makes dhikr) finds an
amount of consolation proportional to his abilities in that endless and wavy
sea. Ways-al-Qarânî contented himself with a drop from that ocean. Junayd
Baghdâdî was satisfied with a handful from that sea. Abdulqâdir-i-Geylânî only
reached the shore of the sea. Muhyiddîn-i-Arabî took pride in a jewel taken out
from the bottom of the sea. And Imâm Rabbânî acquired a great share from it
‘rahimahumullâhu ta’âlâ.
“The letters alif, lâm and he (pronounced as he according to the International
Phonetic Alphabet), which serve in the formation of the word ‘Allah’, i.e. the
very great word representing a Person, -who is not comparable to any other
being,- are means and vehicles that lead to the tenor. Dhikr is not, in itself,
to pronounce these letters. Dhikr is the spiritual state produced through the
word, ‘Allah’. The word is called dhikr out of necessity to symbolize, and not
in the actual sense.
“For the same matter, the expression (termed) Kalima-i-tawhîd is not
dhikr, either. Yet, with respect to its being
pronounced
and its meaning, it serves as a means for dhikr, which, in reality, is a state
of heart and spirit which comes into being from saying it repeatedly with the
heart. Attainment of that spiritual state depends on the expression.”
The above-cited translation of the passage from the
letter, which is considerably much longer, is an elaborate, eloquent, concise,
and at the same time detailed and thorough praise and laudation of Imâm Rabbânî
‘qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ sirrah-ul ’azîz’.
Sayyid Abdulhakîm Efendi ‘quddisa sirruh’ would frequently
say, “Ba’da kitâbillah wa ba’da kitâb-i-Rasűlillah, afdal-i-kutub
Maktűbât-est,” during his lectures, and the same statement is written in
several of his letters. This statement translates into English as follows:
“After the Qur’ân al-kerîm, which is the
Book of Allâhu ta’âlâ, (and which
therefore is the highest and best of all books,) and after the book Bukhârî,
which is a compilation of the hadîth-i-sherîfs, i.e. the utterances of Rasűlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’, (and which naturally, is the
second highest and best book,) the third highest and best book written in the
Islamic religion is the book Maktűbât, (which is a compilation of the letters
written by Hadrat Imâm Rabbânî).” [Whereas Mathnawî (Mesnevî), written by Jalâladdîn-i-Rűmî (Celâleddîn-i-Rűmî), is
the most valuable book telling about the ma’rifats and the perfections in the
grades of Wilâyat attained by the Awliyâ-i-kirâm, Maktűbât, written by Imâm Rabbânî Ahmad
Fârűqî, is the most valuable and the highest of the books explaining both the
perfections and the ma’rifats in the grades of Wilâyat and the ma’rifats and
the kamâlât (perfections) and the subtleties peculiar to the grade of
prophethood.]
An excerpt from one of his letters translates into English
as follows: “... who has read and partly understood the book Maktűbât, which is
the most useful book from worldly as well as religious points of view and whose
compeer in the Islamic religion has not so far been written... .” He, (i.e.
Abdulhakîm Efendi,) would say, “A person who knows a little Persian (Fârisî)
language will understand Maktűbât better if he reads the Persian version. For
the Turkish version rendered by Müstekimzâde Süleymân Efendi is both
complicated and erroneous.” Müstekîmzâde Süleymân Efendi, a disciple of
Muhammed Emîn Tokâdî, passed away in 1202 [1788 A.D.]. His grave is adjacent to
that of his master at Zeyrek, Istanbul. The book Maktűbât was printed various
times at various places.
A splendid edition was made in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1392 [1972 A.D.].
It consists of two volumes. The first volume contains the first part, and the
second and third parts are incorporated in the second volume. The two volumes
were reproduced in pulchritudinous copies in Istanbul by offset process for
which best quality paper was used. A Persian abridgement of Maktűbât was
rendered in 1080 [1668 A.D.] by Muhammad Bâqir Lahôrî, an eminent one among the
hundreds of Awliyâ educated and trained by Muhammad Ma’thűm Serhendî, one of
the blessed sons of Imâm Rabbânî. The abridged version, entitled Kanz-ul-hidâyât by the author himself, is of
a hundred and twenty pages and contains twenty hidâyats (subtitles). It was
printed in Lâhôr in 1376 [1957 A.D.] The same blessed Walî wrote another book,
entitled Urwa-t-ul-wusqâ, in the Fârisî language.
Inheriting from Rasűlullah, he was mujaddid alf thânî;
A mujtahid in all sciences, he was in Tasawwuf Ways
al-Qarânî.
He spread Islam worldover, illuminated every Believer;
Awaken the unaware did the most exalted Imâm, Rabbânî.
All tenets in Islam he knew well, the Sharî’at he obeyed well;
Rank with unbelief as the entire world was, like Abű Bakr
was he.
All received fayz from his sohbat, commanders and governors alike,
He descended from ’Umar Fârűq, true people give testimony.