Before he quitted Balkh, Bahā Veled one day saw a man performing his
devotions in the great mosque in his shirt sleeves, with his coat upon
his back. Bahā reproved him, telling him to put on his coat properly
and decently, then to continue his devotions. “And what if I will
not?” asked the man in a disdainful tone. “Thy dead-like soul will obey
my command, quit thy body, and thou wilt die!” answered Bahā. Instantly
the man fell dead; and crowds flocked to become disciples to the saint
who spoke with such power and authority.
9.
When Sultan ‘Alā’u-’d-Dīn had fortified Qonya, he invited Bahā Veled
to mount to the terraced roof of the palace, thence to survey the
walls and towers. After his inspection, Bahā remarked to the Sultan,
“Against torrents, and against the horsemen of the enemy, thou hast
raised a goodly defence. But what protection hast thou built against
those unseen arrows, the sighs and moans of the oppressed, which
overleap a thousand walls and sweep whole worlds to destruction? Go
to, now! strive to acquire the blessings of thy subjects. These are a
stronghold, compared to which the walls and turrets of the strongest
castles are as nothing.”
10.
On one occasion Sultan ‘Alā’u-’d-Dīn paid a visit to Bahā Veled. In
lieu of his hand the latter offered the tip of his staff to be kissed
by the Sultan, who thought within himself: “The proud scholar!” Bahā
read the Sultan’s thoughts as a seer, and remarked in reply thereto:
“Mendicant students are bound to be humble and lowly. Not so a Sultan
of the Faith who has attained to the utmost circumference of the orbit
thereof, and revolves therein.”
11.
A certain Sheykh Hajjāj, a disciple of Bahā Veled and one of God’s
elect not known to the herd of mankind, quitted the college after the
decease of his teacher, and betook himself to his former trade of a
weaver, therewith to gain an honest livelihood. He used to buy the
coarsest brown bread of unsifted flour, mash this up with water, and
break his fast with this sop alone. All the rest of his earnings he
saved up until they would reach to two or three hundred piastres. This
sum he would then carry to the college, and place it in the shoes of
his teacher’s son, Jelālu-’d-Dīn, the new rector. This practice he
continued so long as he lived.