29

piety, and many persons who partook in his exer-
cises, derived benefit from them. Bayezid wished to
become his disciple; but Abd ullah forbade it, say-
ing : " It is a disgrace to me that thou shouldst be
" the disciple of the meanest of our relations; go
'' to the sons of Shaikh Bahd-ecldin Zakarid.''i Baye-
zid replied : " The character of a Shaikh is no inhe-
" ritance." Finally, Bayezid was called by a myste-
rious influence to sanctity, and passed through the
gradations of sheridt, " external law;" hakiket, " re-
'' ality;" mdrifet, *' true knowledge;" kurbet, *' prox-
" imity;" vdsalet, "union;' 'and seMnat, "dwelling
" in God." Many men joined him, at which the
envious were vexed, and he invited to him the
crowd which had not attained the same degree.
With Bayezid lineage obtained no respect, but only
knowledge and virtue were valued, as

•* Paradise belongs to the servants of God, let them
" Be halsh^s, i negroes,' and hell is for the depraved,
4< Let them be sdids of Koresh extraction."

He saw God manifest:

" Peradventure you may see your God made manifest'*

1 This Shaikh was born A. D. 1169, in Kot-Karor, a town in Multan.
After having travelled, and acquired celebrity as a saint, he returned to
Multan, where he made a great number of disciples. His posterity
preserved the fame of their ancestor to the times of Bayazid.—(See M6-
moire sur la Religion muselmane dans VInde, par M. Garcin de Tassy^
p. 98.)