Shaikh Sharf-ud-din was the son of Shaikh Yahia. His birthplace is Maner, a village near Patna in Bihar (India). A love of knowledge and the religious life, and signs of spiritual greatness, were found in him from his early childhood. A strange being was once seen by the cradle of the baby. The mother, frightened, reported the matter to her father, Shahab-ud-din, a great saint. The latter consoled her, saying that the mysterious presence was no less a being than the Prophet Khezar himself, and that the baby was expected to be a man of great spiritual advancement. He acquired secular knowledge under Ashraf-ud-din, a famous professor of those days. He first refused to marry, but had to yield when, being ill, he was advised by the physician to take to marriage as the remedy for his disease. He left home after the birth of a son, travelled in many places, and was at last initiated (at, or near Delhi) by Najib-ud-din Firdausi. The latter made him his deputy on earth under a deed drawn twelve years earlier under the direction of the Prophet of Islam himself, asked him to leave the place, and quitted his body shortly after.
On his initiation, Sharf-ud-din lived for many a long year in the woods of Bihia and the Rajgiri Hills. In his later days he adopted Bihar (now a small town) as his residence, at the request of some of his friends and disciples. He died on Thursday, the sixth of Shawwal, 782 Hijra, in the opening years of the fifteenth century. His titular name is Makh-dum-ul-Mulk, 'Master of the Kingdom or the World'. He was equally proficient in secular learning and esoteric knowledge, and possessed superhuman powers. His tomb at Bihar is still resorted to as a place of sanctity by a large number of devout Muslims. He wrote many works, of which three only have been pub-lished. These are:
(1) Maktubat-i-Sadi, a 'Series of a Hundred Letters' (or rather essays on definite subjects) addressed to his disciple Qazi Shams-ud-din in 747 Hijra.
(2) Maktubat-i-Bist-o-hasht, a 'Series of 28 Letters', being replies to the correspondence of his senior disciple, Mozaffar, the prince of Balkh.
(3) Fawaed-i-Rukni, a number of brief notes prepared for the use of his disciple, Rukn-ud-din.
The present booklet consists of the translation of copious extracts from Maktubat-i-Sadi, the most elaborate and comprehensive of the three published works, with notes occasionally added from the other two with a view to elucidate or complete the subject in hand. These extracts, it is hoped, will cover the greater part of, if not all, the principles inculcated in these books, and are expected to give the reader a fair knowledge of the teaching of the author in all its phases. Matters relating to mere exoteric rites, legends and traditions have been omitted. The translation does not pretend to be always very literal, but an honest attempt has been made to present a faithful rendering of the original to the English-speaking public, that they may be able to appreciate better the teachings of Islam, and that the Brotherhood of Creeds may have one more advocate to plead its cause before the tribunal of the human intellect.
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