Sahaba - The Blessed

(Hirât) and the cities in Khorasan. Those places had been captured
by the Safawîs a hundred years before. Upon this all the lâmadhhabî
[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 Abû 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 darûrat
(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
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
[1] People who refuse to be affiliated to any of the four authentic
Madhhabs in Islam; Hanafî, Mâlikî, Shâfi’î, and Hanbalî. For detailed
information about the four Madhhabs, see The Sunnî Path and the
five fascicles of Endless Bliss.
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