The Dabistan

297

nient." The master observed : " In such a man-
" ner, I said, befell misfortune on the illustrious

princess; God has shown it to thee."

" The lamp which God has lighted,

" Whoever blows it out burns his beard."

The Sufi Mulla Ismail Isfahani, seeking enjoy-
ment, came from Iran to the great towns of India,
and in Lahore visited the lord Mian Mir; he chose
the condition of a Durvish, and from Lahore soon
betook himself to Kashmir, where he abandoned the
worldly affairs, and practised pious austerity. The
author of this book saw him in Kashmir, in the year
of the Hejira 1049 (A. D. 1659). The following
verse is by him:

u I knocked down every idol which was in my way,

" No other idol remains to my veneration but God himself."

From Mirza Muhammed Makim, the jeweller,
the information was received that Mir Fakher eddin

Muhammed Tafresi was occupied in Kashmir with
reviling and reproving Mulla Ismail and Fakher, and
said : " These belong to the infidels, and are des-
" tined to hell." Mulla Ismail answered: " In this
t6 state I withheld my hand from worldly affairs,
4' and in this world never was associated to thee;
£< in like manner in the future world, as, according
' * to thy opinion, we are infidels, and go to hell, and
' < not to heaven with thee; therefore it behoves thee
1' to be satisfied and content with us, as we have left