The Autobiography of al-‘Aydarūs

(1570–1628)

Introduction

‘Abd al-Qādir ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-‘Aydarūs was a member of a prominent South Arabian family that claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad. Al-‘Aydarūs's father moved from South Arabia to Gujarat, India, after which it became customary for members of the family to live or at least travel there. The family's reputation for piety and scholarship appears to have ingratiated them with the ruling families of Gujarat. Ministers and ladies of the court march in and out of al-‘Aydarūs's autobiography, and “princes and merchants” study Sufism under his supervision. Other members of the family held high positions at Indian courts and continued the family tradition of Sufi teaching and writing. One descendant, Ḥusayn al-‘Aydarūs (d. 1798), is revered as a saint in Indonesia.

The author's account of his childhood reveals how his father's attentions instilled self-esteem and boundless optimism in the son. Al-‘Aydarūs's father, unlike al-Tirmidhī's, is not shown urging his son to study; rather, he simply predicts his son's greatness, “using allusions and allegories,” as in the dream-tale at the beginning of the autobiography. The author seems never to have doubted that he was destined for a bright future. He nevertheless claims to have been surprised when his books became famous, saying that God then “blessed me with something completely unexpected.” In context, this remark appears to signal the author's conviction that salvation after death is sufficient reward for his pious efforts and that good fortune on earth is an unexpected bonus. However, none of this prevents al- ‘Aydarūs from recounting the virtues of his own books, or relating the praises colleagues lavished on him.

Al-‘Aydarūs's compilation of character recommendations and positive book reviews may, in its fulsomeness and complacency, irritate the modern reader. However, the text, by its very placement, reveals a certain modesty just as characteristic of the author's milieu as of his pride. The autobiography appears under the year 1570, the year of al-‘Aydarūs's birth, in his biographical and historical catalog of the sixteenth century. He tells his life story, therefore, in the entry corresponding to the year of his birth and not at the beginning or end of his work. The entry also mentions other noteworthy events of 1570, such as: “In this year the reservoirs of Ahmadabad overflowed and then emptied out completely. Also in this year, blood was seen in some of the reservoirs of Ahmadabad.”

Al-‘Aydarūs's brief autobiographical entry gives his date of birth and mentions poetry composed in honor of the event. He explains how he was named after spiritual figures who appeared to his father in a dream, and recounts the various signs of his father's confidence in his future greatness. He describes his mother, giving the circumstances of how she entered his father's household, and briefly describes her character. Next comes an account of his education, his rise to fame, and his numerous students. He lists his books and compositions, with accompanying self-congratulatory remarks. His citations of his own poetry are striking: only here does he speak of such matters as sorrow, pain, and love. The verses attest to the nearness of God and the vivid presence of the Islamic past. They also express emotions that appear to have arisen in the course of one or more erotic encounters, including one with a man whose eloquence and slim figure captivated his sentiments. Certain lines, particularly the one in which he declares himself free of any law but love, seem scandalous. Yet al- ‘Aydarūs's colleagues found nothing reprehensible in his conduct: as he is careful to tell us, they praised his works and composed poems in his honor.

He concludes by justifying his work in conventional fashion, citing the Qur’ānic injunction to speak of the blessings of God and listing earlier scholars who had written autobiographies. Short and succinct, al-‘Aydarūs's text brings together motifs that distinguish many medieval Arabic autobiographies, such as a more intimate view of childhood and parent-child relations than is typically offered in biographical writings, as well as a glimpse of inner passions expressed in verse rather than in narrative. Evidently, Arabic autobiographical texts and their conventions were well known in seventeenth-century Muslim India.

Bibliography

Missing

The Life of al‘Aydarūs
[al-Nūr, pp. 334–43]

On the evening of Thursday, the twentieth of the month of Rabī‘ I, 978 [1570 C.E.], the author of this book was born. May God help him achieve the good things he hopes for and bring all his labors to a happy conclusion.

Here follows five lines of mnemonic verse composed by the author's father citing the date of the author's birth and a list of family friends who composed similar poems.]

About two weeks before I was born, my father—may God rest his soul—saw in a dream a number of the “friends of God,” including ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī and Abū Bakr al-‘Aydarūs.^[1] ‘Abd al-Qādir had appeared in order to ask something of my father. Because of the dream, my father, convinced that I would become a person of importance, decided to name me ‘Abd al-Qādir Muḥyī al-Dīn after al-Jīlānī and Abū Bakr after al-‘Aydarūs.

None of my father's children had grown up healthy in India, and none of them survived except me. My father loved me very much. Once he said to me, “When your time comes, you may do whatever you want.” He would very often hint at things to come, using allusions and allegories which I cannot fully express in words, and which at this point it is better not to try and reproduce. I pray that God bring my father's predictions to fruition

A reliable source told me the following story: “A certain prominent minister visited your father to ask him to pray for them concerning some business or other. You were very young at the time. You were sitting in front of your father, and at that moment you happened to recite the verse, `Here is another [blessing] dear to you; a God-given victory and speedy success [Q 61:13].' Your father said to him, `There is your good omen for you—it is practically a revelation from God!' And, by the leave of God, they got what they wished for.”

My mother was an Indian slave given to my father by a charitable woman of the royal family famous for her generosity and the kindness and deference she bore toward my father. This lady gave my mother all the household items and furniture she needed, and placed a number of slave women at her disposal. She regarded my mother as one of her own daughters and used to visit her several times a month.

My mother was a virgin when she entered my father's house, and she bore him no children except me. She was a worthy woman, humble, kind, upright, and generous. She died before noon on Friday, the twentieth of the month of Ramadan, 1010 [1602]. Her last words were, “There is no god but God.” Her grave is next to my father's, just outside his mausoleum. May God rest her soul!

I studied the Qur’ān with a pious holy man, and finished memorizing the whole text while my father was still alive. After memorizing the Qur’ān, I took up other studies, and read a number of standard introductory texts with prominent scholars. I devoted myself to teaching and—by God's grace—kept company in learned circles, so that I could learn and benefit from scholarly men. I applied myself to finding out what made them great, and I revered them, showing deference to them in my speech and endeavoring to imitate their behavior, striving to gain their affection.

I explored various disciplines and gave myself over entirely to the useful branches of learning, for the sake of God. I resolved to acquire good books, and I traveled far and wide to find them. These, combined with the books I received from my father, added up to a large collection.

When I found out that my ancestor, ‘Abd Allāh al-‘Aydarūs, had said: “Whoever obtains the Revival of the Religious Sciences and makes a fair copy of it in forty volumes is guaranteed a place in heaven,” I went ahead and—praise the Lord—copied it with that aim in mind.^[2]

I devoted myself to hearing lectures on the Prophetic traditions, and I spent my time studying them diligently. With God's help, I read a great many books. I picked up many strange and recondite things in these books, and in the lectures of the outstanding authorities and prominent erudites of the day. By the grace of God Almighty, I was able to catch all the mystical allusions and understand all the scholarly debates and literary references I came across. Nevertheless, I feigned ignorance of these matters. No one should speak of mystical allegories and states of mystical consciousness unless he has understood and experienced them himself. Even then, he should only discuss them with people who already know about them, because these are matters of felt experience which neither tongue nor pen can truly tell. As for literary matters, it does not befit a man of intellect to appear to know too much about them.

I ask God to make my learning a means of approaching Him more closely, and a force that will draw me inexorably nearer to Him. I ask Him to make my happiness complete by letting me die well and enter the Best Place and remain there with my parents, my dear friends, my teachers, my students, and my children. He is the One best asked: He is near and He answers, none guides to success but He. I place my trust entirely in Him and turn to Him repentantly.

Then God blessed me with something unexpected—Glory be to the Bounteous, Most Generous, and Giving One, the Bestower of Gifts! My associates spread knowledge of my writings, and scholars far and wide spoke highly of my work. I thus gained the affection and prayers of many a spiritual guide and exemplar. Learned men east and west made much of me. Dignitaries deferred to me, some willingly and others not. Rulers of distant places wrote to me and sent me stupendous gifts and emoluments. Praises reached me from the ends of the earth, including Egypt, remote Yemen, and other distant lands. More than one notable scholar studied with me, and many people learned from me.

Among the prominent men whom I inducted into Sufism were Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Shāmī al-Makkī, the learned Badr al-Dīn Ḥasan ibn Dāwūd al-Hindī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥīm Bā Jābir al-Ḥaḍramī, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Rabī‘ b. al-Shaykh al-Kabīr b. Aḥmad b. ‘Abd al-Ḥaqq al-Sinbāṭī al-Makkī al-Miṣrī, and others. The number of princes, merchants, and people of other classes whom I inducted into Sufism is so great that I cannot possibly enumerate them.

I have written a number of well-loved and appreciated books. These have been greeted with unanimous acclaim, practically the only dissenters being enemies or jealous rivals of mine. My books constitute the most conspicuous testimony of the blessings with which God has favored me.

[Here follows an annotated list of twenty-four books by the author, including biographies of the Prophet, an account of the martyrs at the battle of Badr, expositions on the fundamentals of the Islamic faith and Sufi practice, a commentary on a Qur’ānic verse, commentaries on poems, his work on history (“this book here”), and a collection of his own poetry from which he cites the following nine short examples.]

[The power of prayer]

	In my darkest nights of sorrow
	I recall the martyrs of Badr-day,
	God will heed my supplication
	if in their name I pray.

[A conceit]

	With the beauty of his figure
	And the figures of his speech,
	His tropes have all enslaved me
	With the secrets that they teach.
	His logic made me languish
	And his waistline made me pine,
	When I sentenced us to parting
	I saw his heart decline.

[A punning poem in praise of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, the founder of the author's school of law]

	Aḥmad is a Shāfi‘ī, that is, my intercessor,
	Before Mālikī, that is, my Lord and All-Possessor,
	God my sins will surely pardon, just for Aḥmad's sake,
	And lift my soul to Paradise when I from death awake![3]

[The law of love]

	Who would berate me, rebuke me no more;
	The sweet pain of passion is what I adore,
	The only law I obey is the scripture of love
	Which I bear like a prophet sent down from above.

[A request]

	Go and seek my love
	Pass by his abode
	Speak my name in passing
	And tell him of my woe

[Advice to a seeker]

	Searching for thy Master, thou cam'st to me,
	But the One you seek is nearer to thee!
	Leave me, and upon thyself reflect!
	The Lord is no further than the vein in thy neck.

[On the Prophet]

	True, my love was born to a noble line,
	But he reached a perfection they could not know:
	He brought the last revelation from God above
	And ennobled, at last, the world below.

[Parting]

	“You can part with beauty,” he said.
	I cried, “I cannot, I cannot!”

[On being a “Shi‘ite”]

	I love the Prophet Muhammad and his family:
	If that makes me a Shi‘ite, that's fine with me.

The majority of these books have met with the approval of learned and upright men whose fame is such that they have no need of further praise from me.

Here follows a list of four scholars, cited with all of their honorific titles, who complimented the author's work.]

The last of these, Jamāl al-Dīn al-Maghribī, traveled to Yemen and visited ‘Abd al-Malik al-Yamanī. While looking at one of ‘Abd al-Malik's books, Jamāl al-Dīn came across something I had written and was much impressed. “This writer,” he said, “has no living rival! I pray for his long life, so he can keep producing these wonderfully useful compositions, which are so much help to those fortunate people whom God wishes to guide aright.”

Important men copied my books in their own handwriting. My brother ‘Abd Allāh, the great holy man and famous theosophist, delighted in them to no end, and spared no effort in acquiring them. He used to insist that I send him every new book I wrote, and would tell me how much he liked their style, and how no one was as good a stylist as I was. I saw in a letter of his to his servant Sālim ibn ‘Alī Bā Mawja some remarks about me, among them that he thought me of the same rank as my father.

Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥīm Bā Jābir wrote to me asking a favor which entailed some difficulty. “Don't think this is too hard for you, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir. You are one of those people who can exert their will freely in this world, and to whom, by God's will, all things respond.”

[Here follows a twenty-three verse poem by the jurist ‘Abd al-Malik al-Yamanī expressing his longing to meet the author and praising his scholarship and noble descent.]

I mention these things only as a way of speaking of God's bounty [Q 93: 11]. I have cited men of piety and integrity in order to gain blessings from their words. At any rate, I have said much less than I could have, and the number of kindnesses they have shown me that I have mentioned here is much less than the number I have passed over in silence. May God reward them on my behalf with the best reward that a master can obtain on account of his disciple! Other than making me a Muslim and a descendant of the Prophet, God has conferred upon me no blessing which I treasure more than this [i.e., the approbation of his teachers]. This is why I have mentioned it in this book. I believe that this memory should remain with me, my descendants, and my students until the last day of recorded time. Countless exemplary scholars have preceded me in this, among them Ibn Ḥajar al-‘Asqalānī, al-Sakhāwī, al-Suyūṭī, Sharaf al-Dīn Ismā‘īl al-Muqrī al-Yamanī (author of the Irshād), al-Dayba‘, al-Fāsī, Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī, and others.

Notes