(He is called Seyyid, the “_Syud_” of our East India authorities, for
the reason that he was a descendant of the prophet, of whom Yā-Sīn is
one of the titles, as it is also the name of the thirty-sixth chapter
of the Qur’ān, at the head of which the two letters stand which form
the name. Burhānu-’d-Dīn means _The Proof of the Religion_; Sirr-Dān
signifies _The Confidant_, one who possesses a knowledge of a secret
or secrets, a mystery or mysteries. Muhaqqiq is one who verifies, who
probes the truth; and Huseynī indicates that the Seyyid was of the
branch of Huseyn, the younger of the two sons of Fātima, Muhammed’s
only child that left posterity.)
1.
Seyyid Burhānu-’d-Dīn was popularly known by the name of Sirr-Dān
at Balkh, Bukhārā (Alexandria Oxiana?), and Termīz. His discourse
was continually running upon the subjects of spiritual and mental
phenomena, of the mysteries of earth and of heaven.
When Bahā Veled quitted Balkh, the Seyyid went to Termīz, and there
secluded himself as a hermit. After a while again he began to lecture
in public on the significations of knowledge. Suddenly, one morning,
that of Friday the 18th of Rebī’u-’l-ākhir, A.H. 628 (February, 1231
A.D.), he cried out most bitterly, in a flood of tears, “Alas! my
master has passed away from this tabernacle of dust to the abode of
sincerity!” His words and the date were noted down, and, on inquiry,
after his arrival in Qonya, were found to correspond exactly with the
moment of Bahā Veled’s decease.
2.
For forty days the disciples at Termīz mourned for the death of the
great teacher. At the end of that period the Seyyid said: “The son of
my master, his successor, Jelālu-’d-Dīn Muhammed, is left alone and is
wishing to see me. I must go to the land of Rome and place myself at
his service, delivering over to him the trust which my teacher confided
to my safe-keeping.”
3.
When the Seyyid reached Qonya, Bahā Veled had been dead about a year,
and Jelāl had gone to Larenda. The Seyyid applied himself for several
months to devotional seclusion in one of the mosques of Qonya; after
which he sent off a letter to Jelāl by the hands of two mendicants,
saying: “Come and meet this stranger to thee at the resting-place of
thy father, for Larenda is not a place of permanency for thee. From
that hill (on which Bahā’s mausoleum was built) a fire will shower down
on the city of Qonya.”