“O thou, Husāmu-’d-Dīn, my heart’s true life! Zeal, for thy sake,
I feel springs up in me sixth book hereby to undertake.”
Often they spent whole nights at the task, Jelāl inditing, and Husām writing down his inspirations, chanting it aloud, as he wrote it, with his beautiful voice. Just as the first book was completed, Husām’s wife died, and an interval ensued.
Two years thus passed without progress. Husām married again; and in that year, A.H. 662 (A.D. 1263), the second book was commenced. No other interval occurred until the work was brought to a conclusion. The third couplet of the second book mentions Husām in these terms—
“When thou, of Truth the light, Husāmu-’d-Dīn, thy courser’s rein
Didst turn, descending earthward from the zenith’s starry plain.”
The third, fifth, and seventh books have similar addresses to Husām in their opening verses. His name is also mentioned cursorily in the third tale of the first book.
83.
On the death of Jelāl, a party of zealots went in a body to the Perwāna, explaining to him that the new practices of music and dancing, introduced by Jelāl, were innovations altogether contrary to the canonical institutes, and begging him to use his utmost endeavours to suppress them.
The Perwāna called on the learned Mufti of Qonya, Sheykh Sadru-’d-Dīn, and consulted him on the subject. The Mufti’s answer was: “Do nothing of the kind. Listen not to such biased suggestions. There is an apostolical saying to this effect: ‘A laudable innovation, introduced by a perfect follower of the prophets, is of the same nature with the customary practices of the prophets themselves.’” The Perwāna resolved, therefore, to do nothing towards suppressing Jelāl’s institutions.