The Mughals, the Sufi Shaikhs and the Formation of the Akbari ...

FORMATION OF THE AKBARI DISPENSATION 153
therefore, was also perturbed over the Khwaja’s decision to depart
from his court, and begged him to stay, but the latter would not
listen to his entreaties. He then sent Maulana Muhammad Parghari
to Lahore to persuade the Khwaja to return, and on his continued
refusal, the Maulana begged his sins to be forgiven and beseeched
him to write a reply to the letter from Humayun. The Khwaja in
response reportedly wrote only the following verse:
Humai gu mafigan saya-i sharaf hargiz
daran dayar ki tuti kam az zaghan bashad
Say, O Huma [bird], never cast thy noble shadow
In a land where the parrot is less accounted than the kite.
Dughlat further writes that in this response, there was a curious
pun, for Humayun Padishah eventually did not come to throw his
shadow in the country (India) where the parrot was rarer than the
kite. Dughlat also notes that in those days, he often heard the Khwaja
say: ‘I have seen in a vision, a great sea which overwhelmed all who
remained behind us in Agra and Hindustan; while we only escaped
after a hundred risks’; and Humayun’s defeat at the hands of Sher
Shah eventually came about 3 years later, just as the Khwaja had
predicted. 49
The unfortunate Humayun thus missed the blessings of both the
Naqshbandi Khwaja of his ancestral homeland, Mawarannahr, and the
great Chishti Shaikh of Hindustan. Later his relations with Khwaja
Khawand appear to have been restored somewhat. In 1546, during
an illness of the Emperor in Kabul, the Khwaja and his son Khwaja
Mu’in were the only ones besides his personal attendant allowed to
visit him. 50 Humayun also had some contacts in Kabul with Maulana
Zain al-Din, an eminent Naqshbandi of his time, and with Khwaja
‘Abd al-Bari, a great-great-grandson of Khwaja Ahrar.
It is also worth noting here that the Mughals were connected with
some of the great Naqshbandi lineages matrimonially. A daughter of
Babur was married to Nur al-Din Muhammad, a descendant of Khwaja
‘Ala al-Din ‘Attar, who was the first khalifa (or disciple) of Khwaja
Baha al-Din Naqshband. Their daughter, Salima Begam, as we will
see below, was later married to the powerful Mughal noble Bairam
49 A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia, pp. 399–400; Ma’asir al-Umara, II, 575.
Ross’s translation of the phrase ‘wa sargardan raft’ here is confusing. He adds the name
of Maulana Muhammad in square brackets and translates the phrase as ‘[Maulana
Muhammad] returned stupefied’.
50 Akbarnama, Vol.I,p.253, English trans., pp. 493–94.
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