Hundred Great Muslims

Hundred Great Muslims
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a fine taste for music. "Ibrahim Adil Shah", according to Zahoori, "was a master
musician, whose patronage had lighted the lamp of music in each and every
house of Bijapur. The romantic land of Malwa during the reign of Baz Bahadur
had become the cradle of theoretical as well as practical music".
Amir Khusrou, born in 1253 A.D. at Patiali near Kanauj (D.P.) was a
master musician-a man possessing extraordinary abilities and versatile taste. His
father, Saifuddin Mahmood, who was among the nobles of Balkh, migrated to
India due to devastations wrought by Chengiz Khan in Turkistan. Farishta and
Daulat Shah have corroborated the above statement. According to Abul Fazal,
the celebrated author of Aeen-i-Akbari and the historian Badayuni, Patiali where
Khusrou was born, was a small town on the bank of the Ganges which was also
called Mominabad. When Khusrou was born, his father carried his infant son to
a 'Darvesh' (saint) who blessed him, saying that he would, one day, outmatch
Khakani. The father died when Khusrou was only seven. He had a natural taste
for music and poetry and had acquired a thorough knowledge of different
branches of learning before he was fifteen years old. He died at a ripe age of
71 in 1324 A.C., and lived to enjoy the favour of the five successive ICings of
Delhi.
Amir Khusrou was a disciple of Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddin Aulia, the
famous saint of Delhi. Hazrat Khwaja had conferred on him the title of 'Tarkat
Allah'. The society of Khwaja Nizamuddin had brought a revolutionary change
in the life of Khusrou, who dedicated himself to the service of his great teacher.
Once a darvesh begged something from Hazrat Khwaja, who had at the moment
nothing to give him. He bade him to see him the next day. That day, too, he had
nothing to give him. However he presented him his shoes. Accidentally, the
darvesh came across Khusrou outside the city. He enquired the welfare of his
master from the darvesh, saying, "I find a token of my saint with you, would
you like to sell it?" The darvesh consented to sell the shoes to Khusrou at half
a million Tankas, which he had been awarded for a poem by the king. Placing
the shoes upon his head he appeared before Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddin and
said, "The darvesh was contented with the price paid to him for the shoes,
otherwise if he had demanded my entire property and even my life, I would have
readily given him".
Hazrat Khwaja Nizamuddin, too, deeply loved Khusrou. He used to say,
"If God would enquire on the Day of Judgement as to what I have brought, I
would present Khusrou",
Khusrou was in Bengal, when Hazrat Khwaja died in Delhi. On hearing
the sad news, he distributed his entire wealth among the poor and hurried to
Delhi. Seeing the grave of his teacher he cried out convulsively, "0 God!
The Sun has gone down the earth and Khusrou is still alive." Thereafter, he
became a recluse and died within six months of the passing away of his spiritual
teacher.