Muslim Saints of South Asia: The eleventh to ... - blog blog blog

THE ASCETIC OF PAKPATTAN
the newcomer affectionately, preparing to depart. A sudden flash
illuminates Farid’s consciousness – the Sufis call this state of mind
ishrāq. He darts off and prostrates himself before the unknown
person with the exclamation:
Maqbūl-i tu juz muqbil-i jāwīd nashod
Wa-z lut.f-i tu hēch banda naumīd nashod.
Your chosen one is chosen for ever,
And because of your generosity no one remained without
hope.
(Hamid Qalandar 1959: 220)
The meeting in the mosque drastically changed Farid’s fate: having
completed education ahead of time in the madrasa in Multan, he left
for Delhi to appear before his murshid, where he underwent the rite
of initiation (bai‘a) and took up residence in Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar
Kaki’s khānqāh in Mehrauli for almost twenty years. Here it was his
fortune to get acquainted with Khwaja Mu‘inuddin himself during
the latter’s visit to the capital in connection with the already
mentioned problem of ih˝yā. Having seen Farid emaciated by fasts, the
Khwaja exclaimed: ‘Qutbuddin! How long will you burn this poor
fellow in the fire of penitence?’ (Nizami 1955: 91). According to
the laws of ethics of Sufi ţarīqas, a senior in the hierarchy was not
supposed to address a junior, bypassing his immediate preceptor.
That is why, according to another version, the Khwaja did justice to
Farid’s zeal, but again addressing Bakhtiyar Kaki: ‘Baba Bakhtiyar!
You have caught a noble falcon which will not build its nest except
on the holy tree of Heaven. Farid is the lamp that will illuminate the
Silsilah of the durweshes’ (Nizami 1955: 21). After this an honour
unprecedented for the Chishtiyya fraternity was conferred on Farid
– he was simultaneously blessed by his own pīr as well as by the
latter’s murshīd. The uniqueness of this event was later noted by
Amir Khurd in Siyar al-awliyā:
Bakshish-i kaunain az shaikhain shod dar bāb-i tu
Bādshāhī yāftī z-īn bādshāhān-i zamān
Both the worlds have been granted to you by the two
shaikhs,
You got a kingdom from these two kings of the age.
(Amir Khurd 1978: 72)
In the very first years of Farid’s sojourns in Delhi his inclination for
rigorous ascetic practice (zuhd), which distinguishes him both from
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