托钵僧皇帝

The last Emperor of Delhi was a king of dervish nature. Hundreds of instances of his poverty of spirit and his love of faqirs are famous in Delhi and across India, and in Delhi there are still hundreds of people living who saw that patched-robed Sultan with their own eyes and heard his dervish talk with their own ears.

Bahadur Shah was a king much given to worship. The business of the realm was all in the hands of the English Company, so the Emperor had nothing to do but remember God and compose Sufi verse. When the court was held, even there the decrees of the inner kingdom were proclaimed, and the truths and mysteries of Sufism were discussed in the dress of poetry. The custom was this: when the courtiers had gathered in the Hall of Public Audience or the Hall of Private Audience, His Majesty the Shadow of God made ready to leave the palace and appear in court. The moment the Emperor took his first step, the woman herald of the palace called out: "Attention! Respect! Order! Take care!" This happened at the Red Curtain, as the palace gateway was called; there the men heralds heard the woman's voice and raised the same cry, "Attention! Respect! Order! Take care!" and hearing it the whole court drew itself together and stood each man in his proper place. A strange scene it was then: all the nobles and ministers standing with heads bowed, eyes lowered, hands folded. No one dared lift his eyes to look, or move his body without need. The whole court was as if struck dumb. When His Majesty the Sultan had come out of the gateway and appeared on the throne, the herald called: "The Divine Presence has come forth; make your obeisance with respect." At this one noble, trembling, stepped forward from his place and went and stood at a spot before the Emperor that was called the Place of Respect, and there bowed and made three obeisances. As the obeisance was performed, the mace-bearer called out the words of introduction suited to the noble's rank and standing, and drew the Emperor's attention to it. In this way all the courtiers, rank by rank, performed the rites of obeisance. When all these rites were done, His Majesty would say, "Today we have composed a ghazal," and recite its first couplet. The moment the couplet was heard, a noble again went trembling from his place to the Place of Respect and, bowing his head, submitted: "Subhan Allah! The speech of kings is the king of speech," and then came back and stood in his place. So, at every couplet, different nobles went to the Place of Respect and paid the due of praise. Bahadur Shah's verse was from the first tinged with Sufism and full of longing, and from it came the scent of pain and of warning. Even in his lighter themes a glimpse of despair and sadness can be seen.

Bahadur Shah also took disciples, and whoever became his disciple had five rupees a month settled on him; so people became his disciples in great numbers. Some say that Bahadur Shah had sworn allegiance to Hazrat Maulana Fakhr Sahib, but in the Maulana's time Bahadur Shah was a small child; it cannot be supposed that he took the vow at that age. It is established, though, that in his infancy he was placed in the Maulana's lap. After the Maulana's death, Bahadur Shah received great spiritual benefit from his son Hazrat Miyan Qutbuddin Sahib; indeed, the truth is that his allegiance was to him. For Miyan Qutbuddin's son Miyan Nasiruddin, known as Miyan Kale Sahib, the Emperor had such special devotion that he married his daughter to him. Bahadur Shah had in general a fondness for meeting faqirs and dervishes, and had perfect insight into the dervish way, but his heart's attachment was to Hazrat Sultan-ul-Mashaikh Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya, the Beloved of God. He often attended at the saint's blessed tomb. For my maternal grandfather, Hazrat Shah Ghulam Hasan Chishti, Bahadur Shah had a friendly devotion. My grandfather often went to the Fort and joined Bahadur Shah in his private gatherings. My honoured mother used to relate hundreds of stories of Bahadur Shah that she had from her father, Hazrat Shah Ghulam Hasan Chishti, and hearing them in childhood, when I had no understanding or knowledge of Bahadur Shah's greatness, I was moved of myself, and the impress of the world's impermanence settled on my heart.

Bahadur Shah was a man of inward sight and a great gnostic. Before the Mutiny he had learned all its events by revelation, but he was content with the will of God. Thus, when Hazrat Shah Allah Bakhsh Chishti Sulaimani of Taunsa first came to Delhi, Bahadur Shah invited him to the Fort. When the meal was over the room was cleared, and the Emperor asked the saint of Taunsa the cause of the weakness of his kingdom. The saint of Taunsa said: "In my view some faults were committed by your forefathers, and the greatest of them is this: that a torment was laid between lover and beloved; that is, the Emperor Muhammad Shah was buried between the tombs of Hazrat Mahbub-e-Ilahi and Hazrat Amir Khusrau. The love that was between Mahbub-e-Ilahi and Amir Khusrau required that no guest be placed between the tombs of those two, for Mahbub-e-Ilahi used to say that were the step of the holy law not between us, Khusrau and I would lie in one grave. In such a case, to bury Muhammad Shah between them was a very ill deed, and it fell upon the ruin of the kingdom."

My grandfather used to say that this statement made a very great impression on Bahadur Shah, and he believed it with all his heart; though, in outward and inward terms, he had in his own view hundreds of causes for the decline of the government, which he would often set out in private company.

The procession at the Urs

When Bahadur Shah attended the blessed Urs of Hazrat Mahbub-e-Ilahi, there was a great occasion. Until the Emperor came, the recitation was held back. The moment his conveyance arrived, the cry went up that the Emperor had come. There were crowds upon crowds of people, but as soon as the Emperor entered the shrine the people cleared a way, and from the gate to the blessed tomb a path formed wide enough for one man to walk, along which the Emperor went first to attend at the tomb. After that he came into the assembly. As soon as the Emperor arrived, the recitation was begun, and after the recitation the qawwali began. The Emperor heard one ghazal and then left. When he rose from the assembly there was a strange beauty in it: the moment the Emperor turned to go, the whole fair parted at once like scum on water, and a path formed to the gate.

From kingship to beggary: the time of ruin

Had Bahadur Shah not been caught in the calamity of the Mutiny, his dervish life would have passed in great pleasure and peace; but the poor man, guilty of nothing, was caught in the curse of the rebel army, and the last part of his life passed in a thousand miseries.

My honoured mother used to relate, on the authority of her father Hazrat Shah Ghulam Hasan Sahib, that on the day Bahadur Shah left the Fort of Delhi he came straight to the shrine of Hazrat Mahbub-e-Ilahi. The Emperor was then in a strange state of despair and dread. Besides a few particular eunuchs and the bearers of his litter, not a soul was with him. His face was fallen with care and apprehension, and dust had settled on his white beard. Hearing of the Emperor's coming, my grandfather attended at the shrine. He saw him sitting at the head of the blessed tomb, leaning against the railing. The moment he saw me, he said, he put on his usual smiling face. I sat down before him and began to ask after his welfare. He answered with the greatest composure: "I told you before that these wretched rebel sepoys are headstrong men; to trust them is a mistake. They will drown themselves and drown me with them. In the end that is what happened: they have run away. Brother, though I am a faqir who sits in a corner, I am the memorial of that blood which has the heat to fight to the last breath. My fathers and grandfathers fell on worse times than this and did not lose heart; but to me the end has been shown from the unseen. There is now no room for doubt that I am the last token of Timur's line on the throne of India. The lamp of the Mughal government is breathing its last and is the guest of an hour. Why then, knowing it, should I cause bloodshed for nothing? That is why I left the Fort and came away. The kingdom is God's; He gives it to whom He pleases. For hundreds of years our race stamped its coin on the soil of India in awe and might. Now it is the turn of others. They will rule; they will be called crowned heads; and we shall be reckoned their conquered. That is no matter for grief or regret. After all, we too built our house by wiping out others."

After these words full of longing the Emperor gave him a small casket and said: "Take it; this is entrusted to you. When Amir Timur conquered Constantinople, this treasure came to hand from the treasury of Sultan Yildirim Bayezid. In it are five hairs of the blessed beard of the Lord of Creation, which have come down in our family to this day as a special relic. Now there is no place for me anywhere in earth or heaven. Where should I carry these? No one is more worthy of them than you. Take them and keep them. They are the coolness of my heart and eyes, which in the terrible calamity of this day I part from." So my grandfather took the casket and placed it in the treasury of the shrine, where it remains to this day. Its relics are shown to the people every year in the month of Rabi-ul-Awwal.

The Emperor said to my grandfather: "Today I have had no leisure to eat for three meals. If there is anything ready in the house, bring it." My grandfather said: "We too are standing on the edge of death. There is no thought of cooking. I will go home and bring whatever there is; or rather, come yourself. As long as I live and my children are safe, no one can lay a hand on you. We shall die first; only after that can any other hour come." The Emperor said: "It is kind of you to say so, but to send the children of my spiritual masters to the slaughter-ground for the protection of this old body is a thing I could never bear. I have made my visit. I have given over my trust. Now let me eat two mouthfuls from the Beloved's kitchen and I will go to the tomb of Humayun. There, whatever is written in my fate will be fulfilled."

My grandfather came home and asked whether there was anything to eat. He was told there was gram-flour bread and vinegar chutney. So he arranged that on a tray and brought it, and the Emperor ate the gram bread, drank water for the first time in three meals, and sent up thanks to God. After that he went to the tomb of Humayun, was arrested, and was sent to Rangoon. In Rangoon too the Emperor's dervish way of life did not change. As long as he lived he passed his days like a patient dervish who trusts in God.

This is a story in which there is a great store of warning for the thoughtful man; reading it, a man forgets his pride and arrogance, and when the smell of arrogance has gone from the head, a man becomes a true man.