of Hujweri who mentions him frequently in his
Kashf al Mahjub
. He was
born into a family with Sufi inclinations and his father, who was a druggist,
spent much time in the company of the Sufis. One day, when still a boy, at
the request of his mother, he was taken by his father to a house where a
sama’
was being held. The quatrain he heard there impressed him so much
that he remembered it for life and was given to quoting it in his discourses.
21
God gives the dervish love – and love is woe;
By dying near and dear to Him they grow.
The generous youth will freely yield his life,
The man of God cares naught for worldly show.
22
These lines were composed by Abu’l Qasim, and indeed he was the
author of most of the quatrains found in Abu Sa’id’s anthology. Though the
anthology is known under Abu Sa’id’s name, the authorship of the quatrains
attributed to him is suspect. He often used to quote verses of different
poets during his discourses and allowed them to be chanted at
sama’
, thus
lending his name to them. The accounts of his life bear out the fact that he
was a charismatic and extremely popular preacher with a large following.
His piety and devotion were proverbial and his company was greatly valued.
At the end of his life he settled in a
khanqah
in Mayhana and drew up the
rules for its functioning. These rules were probably the first ever written
on how to run a Sufi centre. Though he founded no order of his own, he
prepared the ground for the future foundation of the Sufi orders which
took shape in the 12
th
century.
21
for the life and works of Abu Sa’id, see Nicholson, R.A., Studies in Islamic Mysticism, 1921
(reprinted 1967), which devotes a chapter to him.
22
p. 3 in the above
