According to him, the rulers should not be avoided. Rather, they should
be kept in touch with in order to exert a healthy influence on them, and
thus protect the Muslims from their tyranny. He had therefore good
relations with many princes of the time including Umar Shaykh Mirza,
Babar’s father, who was in fact his disciple. Babar mentions in
Babar Nama
the positive influence the Khwaja had on his father.
The saints played an important role in the medieval world because of
the respect and honour in which they were held. They were also often
invited to act as arbitrators in serious conflicts and people lost no time in
adopting them as their leaders and guides in both religious and secular
matters. Interestingly, they were also approached on matters of physical
health. The Sufis kept their doors open to all and sundry. The lowliest and
the highest could equally expect their full attention.
Khwaja Ahrar wrote only one book — and that at the insistence of his
father, Khwaja Mahmud Shashi — entitled
Risala-i-Walidiyyah
(‘Treatise
Presented to the Father’). Babar held it in such high esteem that he himself
translated it from Persian into Turkish, and in one of his verses he called
himself ‘the servant of the dervishes.’
5
He was unwell at that time but
strongly believed that working on the treatise would have a healing effect
upon him, and help him recover from his illness.
Khwaja Ahrar is considered to be the most influential figure after
Bahauddin, and it is from him that all the three regional lines derive – central
Asian, western Turkish and Indian. Members of the order were largely
responsible for the spread of Islam among the Uzbeks, amongst whom
Khwaja Ahrar wielded great spiritual power, and among whom he
5
Schimmel, A.,
Mystical Dimensions of Islam
, 1975, p.. 359
