_Seyyid Burhānu-’d-Dīn, Sirr-Dān, el Muhaqqiq, el Huseynī, of the
posterity of Yā-Sīn_ (_Muhammed_).[9]
(He is called Seyyid, the “_Syud_” of our East India authorities, for
the reason that he was a descendant of the prophet, of whom Yā-Sīn is
one of the titles, as it is also the name of the thirty-sixth chapter
of the Qur’ān, at the head of which the two letters stand which form
the name. Burhānu-’d-Dīn means _The Proof of the Religion_; Sirr-Dān
signifies _The Confidant_, one who possesses a knowledge of a secret
or secrets, a mystery or mysteries. Muhaqqiq is one who verifies, who
probes the truth; and Huseynī indicates that the Seyyid was of the
branch of Huseyn, the younger of the two sons of Fātima, Muhammed’s
only child that left posterity.)
1.
Seyyid Burhānu-’d-Dīn was popularly known by the name of Sirr-Dān
at Balkh, Bukhārā (Alexandria Oxiana?), and Termīz. His discourse
was continually running upon the subjects of spiritual and mental
phenomena, of the mysteries of earth and of heaven.
When Bahā Veled quitted Balkh, the Seyyid went to Termīz, and there
secluded himself as a hermit. After a while again he began to lecture
in public on the significations of knowledge. Suddenly, one morning,
that of Friday the 18th of Rebī’u-’l-ākhir, A.H. 628 (February, 1231
A.D.), he cried out most bitterly, in a flood of tears, “Alas! my
master has passed away from this tabernacle of dust to the abode of
sincerity!” His words and the date were noted down, and, on inquiry,
after his arrival in Qonya, were found to correspond exactly with the
moment of Bahā Veled’s decease.
2.
For forty days the disciples at Termīz mourned for the death of the
great teacher. At the end of that period the Seyyid said: “The son of
my master, his successor, Jelālu-’d-Dīn Muhammed, is left alone and is
wishing to see me. I must go to the land of Rome and place myself at
his service, delivering over to him the trust which my teacher confided
to my safe-keeping.”
3.
When the Seyyid reached Qonya, Bahā Veled had been dead about a year,
and Jelāl had gone to Larenda. The Seyyid applied himself for several
months to devotional seclusion in one of the mosques of Qonya; after
which he sent off a letter to Jelāl by the hands of two mendicants,
saying: “Come and meet this stranger to thee at the resting-place of
thy father, for Larenda is not a place of permanency for thee. From
that hill (on which Bahā’s mausoleum was built) a fire will shower down
on the city of Qonya.”
After reading this epistle Jelāl returned to Qonya with all possible
despatch. There he went at once to visit the Seyyid, who came forth
from the mosque to receive him. They embraced. They now entered into
conversation on various subjects. So delighted was the Seyyid with
the expositions set forth by Jelāl that he kissed the soles of his
feet, and exclaimed: “A hundredfold hast thou surpassed thy father
in all knowledge of the humanities; but thy father was versed also
in the mysteries of mute reality and ecstasy. From this day forward
my desire is that thou shouldest also acquire that knowledge,--the
knowledge possessed by the prophets and the saints, which is entitled
_The Science of Divine Intuition_--the science spoken of by God (in
Qur’ān xviii. 64): ‘We have taught him a science from within us.’ This
knowledge did I acquire from my teacher; do thou receive it from me, so
that thou mayest be the heir to thy father in spiritual matters as well
as in things temporal. Thou wilt then be his second self.”
Jelāl complied with all the Seyyid pressed upon him. He took the Seyyid
to his college, and for nine years received instruction from him. Some
accounts make it appear that Jelāl first became the Seyyid’s disciple
at this time; but others go to show that Bahā Veled gave Jelāl as a
pupil to the Seyyid at Balkh, and that the Seyyid used now and then
to carry Jelāl about on his shoulders, like as is practised by the
nursing-tutors--_lala_--of children. (Compare chap. iii., Nos. 6 and 8.)
4.
Husāmu-’d-Dīn told us that Jelāl had informed him of the following
occurrence:—
The Seyyid once arrived at a certain city in Khurāsān named
Sāmānek. The chief people went forth to meet him and show him
honour, all excepting the Sheykhu-’l-Islām of the place (the local
vice-chancellor). Nevertheless the Seyyid went to pay his respects to
the legal functionary. The latter went barefoot to the door of the
house to meet the Seyyid, whose hand he kissed, and to whom he offered
excuses for his seeming lack of courtesy.
In reply, the Seyyid said to him: “I am come to inform you that, on
the 10th day of next month, Ramazān, you will have occasion to go
forth to a hot-bath. On your way thither you will be assassinated by
the emissaries of the _Old Man of the Mountain_. This I communicate to
thee, that thou mayest set thy affairs in order, and repent thee of thy
sins.”
The Sheykhu-’l-Islām fell at the Seyyid’s feet, wailing; but the latter
remarked: “This is of no avail. Events are in God’s hands, and He has
so ordered it. Still, as thou showest so much contrition, I may add,
for thy consolation, that thou wilt die in the faith, and shalt not be
cut off from the divine mercy and grace.”
And so it happened as thus predicted. The assassins took his life on
the very day foretold by the Seyyid.
(The stronghold, Alamūt, of the _Old Man of the Mountain_, was stormed
by forces sent against it by Helagū, grandson of Jengīz, in about the
year A.H. 654 (A.D. 1256). The last prince of the dynasty was sent to
China, and there put to death by the emperor; and thus these detestable
scourges of humanity were at length suppressed.)
5.
After a certain time the Seyyid asked permission of Jelāl to go for a
while to Qaysariyya (Cæsarea), but Jelāl could not spare him. So he
remained at Qonya still.
Somewhat later a party of friends took the Seyyid out for a ride
among the vineyards. The thought occurred to him that, without saying
anything to anybody, he might now easily abscond and get away to
Qaysariyya. Scarcely had he conceived this vagabond idea than his beast
reared with him, threw him, and broke his leg. His friends raised
him, set him again on his horse, and conducted him to a neighbouring
country-house to which Jelāl had also come.
On seeing Jelāl the Seyyid exclaimed to him, “Is this the proper way
to reward your teacher--to break his leg?” Jelāl at once ordered the
Seyyid’s boot to be removed, and saw that his foot and toes were
crushed. He now passed his hands along the injured limb and blew on it.
The limb was at once restored whole. Jelāl now granted permission, and
the Seyyid forthwith proceeded to Qaysariyya.
6.
When the time was come that the Seyyid should die, he told his servant
to prepare for him an ewer of warm water, and to go. The water was made
ready, placed in the Seyyid’s room, and the servant went forth. The
Seyyid called after him: “Go and proclaim that the stranger Seyyid has
departed to the other world.” He then bolted the door, that none should
enter to him.
The servant, however, had his curiosity excited by those words, and
went back to the door, to listen and to see what might happen. Through
a chink he saw his master perform an ablution, arrange his dress, lie
down on his couch, and cry out: “All ye angels, saints, and heavens,
who have at any time intrusted to me a secret, come to me now and
receive back your charges. Ye are here all present.”
He then recited the following hymn:—
“God, my beloved, darling God, adored, to me incline;
My soul receive; intoxicate, release poor me distraught.
In Thee alone my heart finds peace; it fire with love divine;
Take it unto Thyself; to it both worlds are naught.”
These were the Seyyid’s last words, ere he yielded up his spirit.
The servant carried the news to the Seyyid’s friends, who gathered
together, carried him forth, and buried him.
A mausoleum was raised over his grave by a rich and powerful disciple.
The departed saint would not allow a cupola to stand. Twice the dome
was shaken down by earthquakes, and in a dream the Seyyid himself
forbade its third edification.
After the usual forty days of mourning, a letter was sent to Jelāl, who
at once journeyed from Qonya to Qaysariyya, and prayed at the tomb of
his deceased teacher, returning home again afterwards.