Sultân Mahmûd Ghaznawî, the founder of the Ghaznawî Empire, which was a great Islamic empire, was born in 357 and died in 421 A.H. in Ghazna. One day, this great emperor of Asia visited Hadrat Abul-Hasan-i Kharqânî, one of the higher ones of the Awliyâ. In the course of their conversation, he asked him, “What kind of a person was your leader Bâyazîd-i Bistâmî?” Hadrat Shaikh answered him, “Bâyazîd was such a perfect Walî that those who saw him attained the right way. They joined people loved by Allâhu ta’âlâ.” Sultan Mahmûd did not like this answer. He said, “People such as Abû Jahl and Abû Lahab saw Rasûlullah, the Sayyid of the universe, many times. Despite this fact, they did not come round to the right course. How can you say that those who saw your shaikh came round to the right course?” He meant to say, “Was your shaikh higher than our Sayyid, Rasûlullah? Do you mean to say that those who saw your shaikh escaped disbelief, while those who saw Hadrat Muhammad, Sayyid of both worlds, the most superior of the superiors, Allah’s beloved Prophet, did not escape it?” Hadrat Abul Hasan said, “The idiots Abû Jahl and Abû Lahab did not see Allah’s beloved Prophet, our Master Muhammad, who is the highest of mankind. They saw Muhammad, who was the orphan of Abû Tâlib, and the son of ’Abdullah. They saw him from that point of view. If they had seen him as Abû Bakr Siddîq did, they would have escaped disbelief, thus attaining perfection like him. Allâhu ta’âlâ, to point out this subtlety, declared in the one hundred and ninety-seventh âyat of Sûrat-ul-A’râf: “You see them look at you. They cannot understand you. They do not see your superiority.” Sultân Mahmûd Khân ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ liked this answer very much. His respect and love for religious savants increased. Endless Bliss First Fasicle | Page 284