biographical dictionary of the Indian Sufis titled
‘Akhbar al-Akhyar
(‘The
Annals of the Pious Men’) is of the utmost importance.
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624) was the most renowned of the
disciples of Baqi Billah. Born in Sirhind, a town in Punjab, he was the son of
Shaykh Abdul Ahad Makhdum. Shaykh Abdul Ahad was a man of religion
and was fond of the company of devout Muslims. He was, moreover, a
religious scholar, and taught his students not only the Qur’an,
hadith
and,
fiqh,
but also the books of
tasawwuf
. He followed the teachings of the Prophet
to the letter. For this reason his mystical leanings led him to develop a
special interest in the Naqshbandi order, for the Naqshbandis adhered strictly
to the teachings of the Qur’an and the
sunnah
. It was but natural that Shaykh
Ahmad should inherit this interest from his father.
In his early childhood Ahmad Sirhindi was given a proper religious
education. First of all, he learnt the Qur’an by heart and studied at home
under his father. After learning Arabic and Persian, and acquiring the basic
knowledge of the religious sciences, he was sent to Sialkot to receive
education under the guidance of Kamal Kashmiri and other
ulama
. Yaqub
Kashmiri, a great scholar of
hadith
, was one of his teachers. By the age of 17
he had completed all the required courses and started teaching. Because of
his scholarship he was invited to the court of Akbar and stayed in Agra for
several years. There he met Abul Fazl and Faydi, and assisted them in their
writings. Soon after he married the daughter of a noble named Shaykh
Sultan of Thanesar.
In 1599, at the age of twenty-eight, after the death of his father, whose
teaching was responsible for developing his spirituality and who initiated
