This version of the story of how he came to renounce the world is
considered to be the most authentic.The untimely death of his father might
have indeed fostered his serious and introspective temperament, and urged
him to devote his life to a higher purpose. It might have been the shock of
death that took him, a boy immersed in the world, from all that was mundane
and brought him into the realm of the spiritual. And it might have been the
visit of Khwaja Ibrahim that finally encouraged him to detach his mind and
heart from earthly pursuits and devote himself to the spiritual life he had
sought all along.
He left his home and began to wander from place to place in search of
knowledge. For many years he lived in Balkh, Samarqand and Bhukhara,
studying the Qur’an,
hadith
,
fiqh
and theology. From there he travelled to
Harwan, a suburb of Nishapur, where he met Shaykh Usman Harwani, a
Sufi who became his spiritual mentor. Under his tutelage he practiced
rigorous spiritual exercises for two and a half years. On completing his
training, he was given a
khirqa
(gown) by the Shaykh and appointed his
khalifah
. From then onwards he was allowed to train his own disciples.
On leaving Harawan, he proceeded towards Baghdad. On the way he
stopped to meet great shaykhs and seek spiritual guidance from them. For
almost two months he stayed in Jil with Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani, the
spiritual founder of the Qadri
silsila
. He travelled in this manner for several
years, till he came to Lahore where his wanderings were halted for a
while. He stayed in the compound of the tombs of Shaykh Husain Zanjani,
Lal Qalandar and Shaykh ‘Ali Hujwiri. From Lahore he set out for Delhi.
By that time, Muslims having already conquered it, it was under the rule of
Qutbuddin Aibak, a general of Muhammad Ghauri. Being himself a native
of Central Asia, Muinuddin found Delhi familiar, as it was teeming with
nobles, scholars and soldiers all hailing from the same area.
