Chapter 1: Works of Shāh Walī Allāh and his Decedents

Life of Shāh Walī Allāh

Shāh Walī Allāh has written an article titled “al- Juz’ al- Laṭīf fī tarjamat al- ‘Abd al-Ẓa‘īf” in his book “Anfās al ‘Ārifīn” in which he has described his life history. Following are the events of his life as narrated by him:

            “I was born on Wednesday 4thShawwāl, 1114 A. H at sunrise… Parents and other saints had received the intuitions about me even before and after my birth. I was sent to Maktab at the age of five and when I was about seven my father made me offer prayers and commanded me to observe fast. In the same year, circumcision was done and after having finished the Qur’ān I took up studying books in Arabic and Persian. At the age of ten, I was going through “Sharaḥ Mullā” and during that time the field of studies opened up for me. I was married at fourteen as my father had desired an early wedding…. I gave my hand to my father’s hand at the age of fifteen and got busy taking up Ashghāl-e-Ṣufīah, especially the Mashā’ikh-e-Naqshband. I set up my spiritual discourse after having sought their attention and motivation to acquire the grooming about norms of religious practices and spiritual uplift through Sufiism. In the same year, I studied a part of Beḍāvī Sharīf and then my father arranged a general feast where he accorded me permission to deliver dars. In short, I learned all the disciplines of that area (‘Ulūm-e-Mutadāwalah) at the age of fifteen and went through all the books linked with these fields in chronological order. In the field of Ḥadīth, leaving aside its part from Kitāb al-bay‘ upto Kitāb al-ādāb, I went through the remaining complete Mishkāt, Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī upto Kitāb al-ṭahārah...