The servant carried the leaves back, and reported to his lady what he
had learnt. This increased her astonishment a hundredfold. Just then
Jelāl made his appearance, and enjoined on her to take the greatest
care of the nosegay, as it had been sent to her by the florists of
the lost earthly paradise, through those Indian saints, as a special
offering.
It is related that she preserved them as long as she lived, merely
giving a few leaves, with Jelāl’s express permission, to the Georgian
wife of the king. If any one suffered with any disease of the eyes,
one leaf from that nosegay, applied to the ailing part, was an instant
cure. The flowers never lost their fragrance or freshness. What is musk
compared with such?
11.
To prove that man lives through God’s will alone, and not by
blood, Jelāl one day, in the presence of a crowd of physicians and
philosophers, had the veins of both his arms opened, and allowed them
to bleed until they ceased to flow. He then ordered incisions to be
made in various parts of his body; but not one drop of moisture was
anywhere obtainable. He now went to a hot bath, washed, performed an
ablution, and then commenced the exercise of the sacred dance.
12.
One of Jelāl’s disciples died, and there was a consultation among his
friends as to whether he should be buried in a coffin or without one.
Another disciple, after Jelāl had been consulted, and had told them
to do as they pleased, made the observation that it would be better to
bury their relative without a coffin. On being asked why, he answered:
“A mother can better nurse her child, than can her child’s brother. The
earth is the mother of the human race, and the wood of a coffin is also
the earth’s child; therefore, the coffin is the man’s brother. Man’s
corpse should be committed, then, not to a coffin, but to mother earth,
his loving, affectionate parent.”
Jelāl expressed his admiration for this apposite and sublime doctrine,
which, he said, was not to be found written in any then extant book.
The name of the disciple who made this beautiful remark was
Kerīmu-’d-Dīn, son of Begh-Tīmūr.
13.
Many of the chief disciples of Jelāl have related that he himself
explained to them, as his reasons for instituting the musical service
of his order, with their dancing, the following reflections:—