16^th Qutb

His Holiness

Shah Naimatullah Wali

 

 

The Grand Master of the Order, The Father of the Clan, The Seyed of the Tarigeh, The Transcendent Jurist, His Holiness Seyed Shah Naimatullah Wali. His glorified name, Seyed Naimatullah son of Abdullah, as His Holiness himself in few verses stated that his corporeal genealogy through twenty intermediaries reaches to the Holy Prophet Hazrat Rasul (PBUH) and says:

This is Naimatullah and of the prophet’s family,

Confidant of divine mystics,

 

Brightness of the eye of Mir Abdollah

The Master of the time and illuminating spiritual guide

 

His father: Mohammad, that Seyed was matchless

The sultan of the Saints of the world is Mir Abdollah

 

Up to the point that says, my twentieth ancestor is the Messenger of God

It is obvious and not hidden

 

His blessed spiritual title Seyed Nour-e-din and his honorable forefathers were resident in the city of Halab. His father came to Kich and Makran from Halab and after residing in Makran for some time, got married and was related through wedlock with the tribal khans of Shabankareh of Fars and for this reason, departed for Kuhbanan of Kerman and stayed there. The birth of His Holiness Shah Naimatullah was in Kuhbanan in the year 731 Hijri (1331 AD) which is attributed to himself, who said: my date of birth in Abjad numeric system is equivalent to “zale manqoot”. His Holiness after being educated in external sciences by some theologians and religious authorities such as Sheikh Shams-e-din Makki, Seyed Jalal-e-din Kharazmi and Qazi Izad-e-din and Sheikh Rokn-e-din Shirazi and having completed external excellences, was desirous of attaining inner perfection and turned his face to the speech of the friends of God. Wherever he would find signs of an illumined Master and Sheikh, he would hasten towards them and travelled a lot in the arena of search, underwent mortification and endured lots of suffering. His Holiness after excursion in Iran journeyed to Turan (in Central Asia) then and Arab countries and met and conversed with many great authorized Sheikhs and eminent mystics of his time, such as Seyed Hussein Akhlati in Egypt and Qutb-e-din Razi in Mecca and others. But meeting and conversing with them, the visage of his purpose was not manifested till in Holy Mecca, he met the honorable, eminence of His Holiness Sheikh Abdullah Yafe’ie and in serving him attained his purpose. Then on the order of His Holiness was engaged for seven years in various mortification and spiritual endeavor in such a way that sometimes he would be ordered to shepherding, to pass through the levels of spiritual stages and reach the apex of perfection and was honored to obtain the permission to guide and inspire worshippers. And with the indication of Sheikh Abdullah Yafe’ie returned to his habitual country. His Holiness returned from Mecca by way of Transoxiana (Transoxiana is the Latin name for the area corresponding with modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and southwest Kazakhstan) to Iran and in the city of Sabz (a town in Uzbekistan) near to Samarkand (Samarkand is a historical city in Uzbekistan) stopped for some time and he completed multiple of forty days in mortification in the mountains and in that region, a great number of people extended their hand in sincerity and submitted to His Holiness and had the honor of repenting and obtained instructions. It is said that the number of sincere disciples of His Holiness in Central Asia and west Khwarazm (Khwarazm - central and eastern Iran, Transoxania, and much of Afghanistan) amounted to a hundred thousand. From this aspect, few malicious and conceited such as Amir Kelal Bokhari who was connected to the Naqshbandieh order proposed to Amir Tymur, sultan of that time, that, if His Holiness with this large group who are devoted to him, were to confront, there would be no opportunity to resist. Amir Tymur came to meet His Holiness Shah and said: This land is not your home country and it would be appropriate that you leave for some other place. His Holiness meditated for some time and said, we will go, but after eating bread and sweetmeat of Amir Kelal’s death. And it happened exactly like that, because at the time of departure from Samarkand, bread and sweetmeat for the death of Amir Kelal was brought. His Holiness ate a morsel and departed. Anyway, His Holiness departed from Samarkand and headed for Marv and from there went to Hazrat Reza’s Holy Mashad, stayed forty days there and went towards Herat (city in western Afghanistan) and in that country adhering to the tradition of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) got married to the daughter of Mir Emad-e-din Hamzeh Husseini. After stopover for a period of time, from Herat moved towards his birth place, Kuhbanan and stayed there. In Kuhbanan, God the Almighty bestowed him with an honorable son, Shah Khalilullah and after seven years residing in Kuhbanan, he desired to see Yazd and towards that direction journeyed and in Taft of Yazd stayed there and set forth a plan to lay foundation of a Khaneghah and building, and constructed a watermill and garden. After stopping over for a time in Taft, set out for Kerman and from Kerman, one day for recreation visited the town of Sarasiab near Mahan. It is said that an old woman brought bread and a bowl of yogurt to His Holiness in simplicity and supplicated to His Holiness to take up residence in Mahan, His Holiness accepted and till the end of his life stayed there.

Those devoted and those who had found their way by his hands were out of count, the Sheikhs and Elites who had understood his speech and from the blessings of his holy breath benefitted were many, the names of a number of them as his contemporaries will be mentioned. His Holiness has over three hundred compilations and treatises on scientific, Gnostic and literature in the Farsi and Arabic languages. Short and extended literary works and divan of memorable poetry and delightful odes are without any commendation and description. In an ode His Holiness points out to himself in the opening verse, and begins with "I see the power of God", lots of incidents and future news have been cited which is well known and famous. His Holiness lived for more than hundred years and seventy four years from it, sat on the throne of Caliphate and Guidance independently and was engaged in the guidance and spiritual instructions of relying worshippers and seekers of truth. In the year 834 Hijri (1431 AD) entrusted the caliphate to his noble son Seyed Borhan-e-din Khalilullah and delegated the training of wayfarers and to supervise and safe guard the khaneghah and disciples to him and passed away to the world of eternity and in Mahan in the sacred shrine that is circumambulated by mystics and dervishes was buried. “On him be the mercy of God”.

Contemporary Luminaries of His Holiness from Sheikhs and Great Gnostics:

1) Mir Seyed Ali Hamedani

2) Khajeh Isthaq Khatlani

3) Pir Jamal-e-din Ardestani

4) Shah Qasem Anwar

5) Sheikh Sadr-e-din Ardebili

6) Khajeh Baha-e-din Naqshbandi

7) Khajeh Mohammad Parsa

8) Khajeh Abu Nasr Parsa

9) Moulana Nezam-e-din Khamoushi

10) Jalal-e-din Yousef Obahi

11) Khajeh Ala-e-din Chishti

12) Nour-e-din Hafez Abro

13) Seyed Mohammad Nourbaksh

14) Sheikh Zain-e-din Abubakr Khoafee

15) Seyed Nezam-e-din Mahmood called Dai-Allah

 

From Religious Authorities and Jurists

1) Abu Abdullah Shams-e-din Mohammad bin Makki, known as Sheikh Shahid the first

2) Shaikh Rukn-e-din Shirazi

3) Seyed Jalal-e-din Kharazmi

4) Abdul Rahman bin Rukn-e-din known as Qayeni Azod-e-din

5) Seyed Ali bin Mohammad bin Ali known as Mir Seyed Sharif Jorjani

6) Khajeh Afzal-e-din Mohammad Sadr Turkeh Isfahani

7) Mushrraf-e-din Ismail bin Abibakr Shafeie known as Ibn-ul- Haramain

8) Ahmad bin Mohammad bin Fahad Hilli compiler of "Odat-ul-Daiei" who is a notable Shiite jurist and in his mysticism there is no doubt and dispute.

 

From Sultans and Amirs

1) Amir Tymur Gokani and his son Shahrokh Mirza

 

From Poets and Theosophists

1) Baba Saudaie Abivardi

2) Shaikh Sharaf-e-din Ali Yazdi

3) Mohammad Shirin Maghrebi

4) Sheikh Abu Is'haq, known as Sheikh At'iameh

5) Mir Makhtoom Shirazi the poet

 

Since the mentioning of outstanding writings and statements of His Holiness with discourses of truth, although with the existing compilations and treatises of His Holiness, which includes all kinds of subjects, instructions and advises is not required here to be mentioned in this short biography, and this brief summary does not even have a short account from the abundant sublime grandeur of His Holiness, therefore to enter into this segment is refrained. The readers are asked to refer to the compilations of His Holiness and only the mentioning of a few generosities of His Holiness will suffice.

The most well known grace of His Holiness in all autobiographies is the very same case mentioned about His Holiness and Amir Tymur, that manifests the justification that “If the world is full of blood, the Divine man would never eat except legitimates”. That the details are as such, since the rush of people to become sincere disciples of Hazrat Shah, and the general crowd who wanted to repent and receive instructions, reached the ears of Amir Tymur. From the great number of worshippers and desirous people who visited His Holiness, Amir Tymur was concerned and scared, called His Holiness to Herat. His Holiness according to the sultan’s call departed for Herat and for some time there took up residence and as always he was engaged in the propagation of external sciences and manifestations of internal perfection and in guiding the people in this manner endeavored to make great efforts, such as a group of Emirs of the sultan also entered into the circle of devotion of His Holiness and prepared themselves to be at His Holiness’s services and obtain instructions. Although the sultan himself also frequently visited His Holiness and from the blessings of being in his presence used to benefit, nevertheless, due to magnanimity that His Holiness would manifest during association with the sultan, a mist of displeasure had settled on the mind of the sultan, and obviously the mist of displeasure resulted in Amir Tymur asking His Holiness such a question in protest and pursued it grudgingly, that one day during conversing with His Holiness remarked that, although you are well known for divine guardianship, asceticism and piety, how is it that I see with my government commanders and the aristocrats of my clique you sit together and participate with them in eating and drinking and eat suspicious morsels without doubt. His Holiness in reply said with a smile: “If the world is full of blood, the Divine man would never eat except legitimates”. Of course, this answer did not convince the sultan and was not to his approval, but rather prolonged the protest and assisted in pessimistic, not only that, but was offended. From this visage the sultan thought of testing His Holiness and secretly instructed his chief steward, that tomorrow a lamb to be forcefully taken with injustice and cruelty from an oppressed and weak and be cooked to make various meat dishes and during lunch to place it on the spread food cloth (cloth which is spread on the floor and on which food is served) and meanwhile requested Hazrat Shah to have lunch with him. The chief steward did as he was told and from a frail old woman took a lamb with force and gave it to the cook. He cooked various meat dishes with the lamb and placed it on the spread food cloth of the sultan. Since the sultan with Hazrat Shah Wali sat on the spread food cloth, the sultan with humbleness offered respectfully all kinds of cooked dishes with the aforesaid lamb to His Holiness. He said “In the name of God” and with pleasure ate. After finishing lunch, the sultan said: what is this state I saw, the food I know without doubt is unlawful and without hesitation you ate it and knew it as lawful. Then he explained the story of taking the lamb from the old woman in detail. His Holiness said: it will be better that investigations and scrutinizing be made in this matter so that, perhaps in this matter a mystery is hidden. The sultan ordered that the old woman, the owner of the lamb be brought to the gathering and asked her to explain the details of the case. The old woman said: O! Sultan, I have a son, who had gone to Sarakhs to extract rose water and I was for sometime without any news from him and used to hear agitated and scary news from him. I made a vow that if he returns safely I will take a lamb to Seyed Naimatullah which I had supplicated in his name. Yesterday my son returned back safely and according to my vow I was taking the lamb to Seyed when the sultan’s servants with violence and force took the lamb away from me and brought it to the sultan’s kitchen and ignored my crying and wailing. The sultan on hearing this talk was ashamed and humiliated and from his felicitous presence asked for pardon and to be forgiven. Then, the sultan gave permission that His Holiness can return back to his home country.

And the other generosity of His Holiness, in the journey to Egypt with few disciples goes to meet Mir Seyed Hussein Akhlati, when they reached the vicinity of the location, Mir Hussein was aware and ordered the attendants of his khaneghah that His Holiness Shah and his disciples to be taken to a room nearby his own room and before Hazrat Shah’s entrance sent a large dish of sweetmeats for His Holiness. His Holiness after entering the room paused for a while and says it is better to go to another place and went out of the room. Unexpectedly, the ceiling falls down and everybody was perplexed. Seyed Hussein comes out of his room and in a room overlooking the river Nile, meets His Holiness Shah in private. Mir says I want to benefit from your disposition. His Holiness Shah says, we also have the same request from you. Mir Seyed Hussein from the bizarre science like alchemy and white magic and occult science manifests the mysterious for His Holiness and opened the window which was facing the river and manifested the river water in view of His Holiness in several ways. Hazrat Shah said, I do not have such type of conditions, my claim and litigation is for the alchemy of Mohammaden (S) Faqr (dervish-hood). His Holiness comes out of the room and returns back. After sometime His Holiness sends a sealed and stamped package through a dervish for Seyed Hussein, when Seyed Hussein opens the package, he sees some cotton and fire in the package and is amazed and says, alas, I did not know the value of speaking to Naimatullah. Secondly, the dervish who took the package for Seyed Hussein, on his way it came to his mind that, I wish Hazrat Seyed for a few days would stop over and discuss with Seyed Hussein, so that I would benefit from the alchemy and be freed from poverty and neediness. Since the dervish had to return to His Holiness, Hazrat Shah picked up a small stone from the ground and tossed it to him, said: take this stone to a jeweler and determine a price for it and bring it back to me. When that dervish took the small stone to the jeweler, the jeweler saw a piece of ruby which he had never seen in his life and priced it at 1000 Dirhams, the dervish took back the stone and brought it back to Hazrat Shah, who ordered the converted ruby stone to be pulverized and made a sherbet out of it and gave each dervish to sip and taste it.

In Egypt His Holiness entered a shop where a seeker was resident by the name of Baba Haj Ali and always in front of him a fire used to burn without outside stimulation and from him numerous unusual states used to be manifested and the people of Egypt used to have great faith in him. His Holiness after having found the dervish, stayed hidden from him, was aware of his state and since he again received attention from him, found the attracted seeker fallen on his face and the fire had burned out and turned to ashes. After a while the dervish returned back to consciousness and gave his hand in sincerity to His Holiness and joined the faithful and sincere, he was an attendant to His Holiness and after death was buried near Mahan. And also it has been mentioned in the book of Daneshwaran that His Holiness on a journey from Yazd via Bafq to Kuhbanan, and when he reached Chareqader, he saw a caravan which had camped there, when the caravan wanted to proceed, a group of highway robbers who were lying in ambush, attacked the caravan and tied the hands of all who were in the caravan. At that time their attention went towards His Holiness and they wanted to seize him. His Holiness on behalf of them looked harshly and glanced with fury, the robbers did not make a move and the hands and feet of the people of the caravan were untied. The people of the caravan brought the robbers with hands tied to His Holiness. His Holiness out of affection counseled and guided the robbers and reminded them of the shameful act and ordered to untie their hands. The caravan passed safely from that place. The first stop of His Holiness in Mahan, sultan Ahmad Shah Hindi who had full devotion to the Sheikhs and illumined righteous of Tarigha heard the fame of excellence and , reputation of His Holiness, sent a few religious authorities and peace loving men with royal gifts and presents for His Holiness and requested for blessings and begged for aspiration.

His Holiness took them under his favor on their return back dispatched one of his nearest disciple named Molla Qutb-e-din Kermani with them to Deccan and with him sent the 12 pieces green crown for Sultan Ahmad. During the same days, Ahmad Shah in India was at war and dispute with an enemy by the name of Pirouz Shah and had seen in a dream that someone had given him the 12 pieces green crown. He said: This crown is befitting a king which a secluded righteous and granter has sent this for you. A few days had passed from this dream of Ahmad Shah when Molla Qutb-e-din went to see the Shah (sultan Ahmad). As soon as the sultan’s sight fell on him, said: this is the same person who brought the crown for me in my dream, after which encountered him with kindness and respect. Molla Qutb-e-din with the sultan’s permission took out the crown given to him by Hazrat Shah Wali from the box so that he could give it to the sultan, as soon as the eyes of the sultan fell on the crown, said: this is the same crown, which was given to me in my dream as a gift and he put it on his head with great respect. After sometime, again sultan Ahmad Shah sent few elects nearest to him to Hazrat Shah Wali and requested His Holiness to send one of his sons to India, so that the sultan can benefit from the bounty of his presence and benefit from seeing him. Hazrat Shah Wali since did not have a son except Shah Khalilullah and could not bear the separation from His Excellency, sent his grandson Shah Nourullah, son of Shah Khalilullah to India, who Ahmad Shah gave a royal welcome and great deal of respect when he arrived in Deccan and in every way placed His Excellency under his kindness and generosity over all the sheikhs of Tarigha and nobles and government dignitaries and endowed him with the title “Malik-ul-Mashayekh” and finally was honored to accept him as his son-in-law and got his dignified daughter married to him.

For His Holiness, other numerous generosities have been mentioned in books and biographies, which is out of the capacity of this biography. Therefore let us suffice on this much and proceed to the biographies of the remaining honorable Qutbs.