At a convivial meeting on the new-year’s festival, a Kási and a Mufti were inclined to drink cups of wine. Shaik Abu ’l Fazil, as a counterpart to the explanation of the verse of the Koran, called “the throne,”[86] composed a sermon in two parts. He also translated the Mahábharat, which is the history of the wars of the ancient Hindu chiefs. Some learned men denied absolutely the affair of Muhammed’s marriage night with Sidíkáh,[87] and blamed the deed of David concerning Uriah’s wife.
When the Sultán Khajah, who was one of the Ilahian, was about to leave this world, he said to the emperor: “Let not your Majesty bury me as if I had been an adorer of Divs.” On that account he was placed in a tomb with lamps, like a person of distinction, and a lattice was left towards the great majestic luminary, the splendor of which purifies from of all sins. Further, orders were issued that, in imitation of the kings of Ajem, low people may be prevented from reading the books of the wise, and from the pursuit of sciences. By other ordinances, the affairs of the Hindus were to be decided by learned Brahmans, and those of Muselmans by their own Káśis. Likewise the followers of other religions and persuasions received orders, that the head of a corpse may be laid in a tomb towards the east, and its feet towards the west; and that persons, even in their sleep, may dispose themselves in that direction. It was further ordained, that the Ilahian may not apply to any other sciences of the Arabs but to astronomy, arithmetic, physic, and philosophy, and not spend their life-time in the pursuit of what is not reasonable. The interdiction of slaying cows was confirmed. It was also regulated, that a Hindu woman is not to be prevented from burning with her dead husband, but that the sacrifice ought to take place without violence used towards, or abhorrence shewn by, the widow. Another regulation was that, whoever eats with one whose profession is the slaughter of animals, should have his hand cut off; but only a finger, if he belong to the people of his house.
Again, a woman who is going about in narrow streets or in market-places, without having at that time her face veiled, ought not to be approached by her husband; and a woman of improper conduct, who quarrels with her husband, ought to be sent to the place of prostitutes, whose business it is to offer themselves for sale. In addition to this, in times of distressing famine, a father and a mother may happen to sell their children under age; when they find themselves in better circumstances, they must be allowed, by giving money, to rescue their offspring from the bonds of servitude. Moreover, a Hindu who, in his infancy, without his will, has been made a Muselman, if later he chooses to return to the faith of his fathers, is at liberty to do so, and is not to be prevented from it; also every person is permitted to profess whatever religion he chooses, and to pass, whenever he likes, from one religion to another. But if a Hindu woman, having fallen in love with a Muselman, wishes to adopt his religion, she can be taken by force and delivered up to her family. And likewise a Muselman woman, if she has fallen in love with an Hindu, and wishes to adopt his faith, is prevented from it, and not admitted in his caste. Finally, the erection of a temple of idols, of a church, of a fire-temple, and a sepulchral vault, ought not to be impeded, nor the building of a mosque for the Muselmans.
Sader Jehan adopted the Ilahi religion. Acbar called the harmless animals the beasts of peace, and showed abhorrence to their slaughter. He mixed the best and purest part of every religion for the formation of his own faith. Mulla Tersún Badakhshi, who was a Muselman of the Hanifa creed, informed me, in the Hejira 1058 (A. D. 1648-9), that one day he went on a pilgrimage to visit the sepulchre of Akbar, the inhabitant of heaven; there, one of his friends, having hurt his foot in climbing up the holy tomb, set about reviling the khalifah of God. The companions said: “If the blessed Emperor, now in heaven, have any power, that man will certainly come to some misfortune.” Soon after, indeed, he broke a toe of his foot by a stone which had fallen down from a crevice of the wall. In one of Akbar’s works we find, that it is indispensable to worship God, the all-just, and necessary to praise the beings near him; that none of mankind rise to the rank of stars, as men are not equal to the dignity of celestial luminaries. The Emperor inculcated on his followers, that a godly man ought to know no other object of his wishes but God, the Almighty; that is, whatever business the godly undertakes, his wish in that business ought to tend towards God.
[36] According to Muhammed’s sayings, no more than four women obtained perfection, to wit: Asia, the wife of Pharaoh; Mary, the daughter of Imran (the blessed Virgin); Khadijá, the prophet’s wife, and Fatima, his daughter.
[37] Fedak, according to Abulfeda (I. 133. 273), is a castle near the town of Khaibar; this is a place fertile in palm-trees in the Arabian province of Hejaz, four days’ journey distant from Mecca. It was given to Muhammed by the faithful, under the name of alms. After the prophet’s death, Fátima claimed it as a patrimony: but Abubekr refused it to her, setting forth the above mentioned saying of the prophet. Abulfeda, whom I follow, gives it as follows:
نحن معاشر الانبیاء لانورث ماتر کناہ صدقة
The words لانورث are not in the quotation of the Dabistán, edit. of Calcutta, nor in the manuscript of Oude. Thus was Fedak taken from the race of Alí and fell into the hands of Mervan, in whose family it remained until Omar declared it again to belong to alms, and assigned the usufruct of it to the Alides. But Mamun, the seventh khalif of the Abbasides, who reigned from Hejira 198 to 218 (A. D. 813-833), gave it formally over to Muhammed, son of Yahia, son of Hassan, son of Zaid, son of Ali, son of Hassan, son of Ali, son of Abu Taleb.—(Abulfeda, II. p. 167).
[38] Muhammed had scarcely expired, when a vehement contest about the succession to his dignity arose between the Mohajirin, “the emigrants from Mecca with the prophet,” and the Ansar, “the protectors (see [note], p. 27): both claimed the right of nomination. Abubekr was proclaimed by both. To crush the resistance of Alí, who was the legitimate competitor, Omar, sent by Abu-bekr, burnt the gate, and was about to set on fire the house of Alí—scarcely restrained from the act by the reproach of Fátima, Muhammed’s daughter and Ali’s wife, who from that moment till her death never spoke to any of the enemies of her husband. The prophet, according to authentic traditions, said: “Whoever gives offence to Fatimah gives offence to me; and whoever offends me, offends God.”
[39] Muhammed, son of Ismáil al Jisfi, called Bochárí, from his native town in Mazinderan, lived from the year of the Hejira 194 to 256 (A. D. 809-869). He is chiefly celebrated by a work composed, as he says himself, at the prophet’s tomb at Madína, from six hundred thousand traditions, and called Masnad es sahih, the sincere (just) Masnad. “Masnad” signifies a collection of traditions, each of which is accompanied with the name of the traditionist by whom it was handed down.