32^nd Qutb

His Holiness Rahmat Ali Shah Shirazi

 

Head of the religious authorities, full moon of the Gnostics, the peerless learned, rooted in brilliant splendor, His Excellency Mr. Rahmat Ali Shah. His noble name Haj Zein-ol-abedin and his august title "Rahmat Ali Shah". His Excellency originally comes from Qazvin and was born in the year 1208 at the time his grandparents had stopped in Kazemain. Then in the year 1217, he came to Shiraz with his father and family to seek and complete rational and narrational sciences under the teaching of his grandfather Haji Mohammad Hussein Mojtahed. And since after years of toil and hardships in the education of customary sciences, he did not find inner tranquility and quietude of the heart in the knowledge he had acquired. He planned to acquire the accomplishment of the self (soul) and to gain divine wisdom. And in every corner and nook where he found the pious and virtuous men and those endowed with wisdom and wayfarers of the spiritual path, used to go towards them, until in the year 1234, His Excellency Mast Ali Shah Shirvani on the orders of His Excellency Majzoub Ali Shah the First entered Shiraz and resided in Babakuhee Mausoleum. Incidentally, one day His Excellency Rahmat Ali Shah with a group of religious students who were his friends and companions with the purpose of sightseeing went to that hill and entered the courtyard of Babakuhee Mausoleum and saw an assembly of dervishes at the head of them His Excellency Mast Ali Shah was sitting. Mr. Rahmat Ali Shah involuntarily left his friends and went towards the assembly of dervishes. Despite of prohibitions of his friends who prohibited him from going to that assembly, the efforts were in vain because divine attractions captivated him. After joining the assembly of love and exchanging salutations, His Excellency Mast Ali Shah with kindness and smile addressed him and said:

O devotee, do pass the alley of libertine safely,

Till do not be tied up with infamy of our dialogue

He with a condition of supplication answered:

The yard of respect of your alley is the paradise of the good

The odour of breath of your hair is the comfort of the freeman.

Then while conversing, he requested His Excellency Mast Ali Shah with insistence to come to Shiraz and take up residence. He accepted his invitation and went to Shiraz and took up residence and Mr. Rahmat Ali Shah was constantly at his services and gained the honor of his companionship and day by day his sincerity and devotion increased, till by the hands of His Excellency repented and was initiated into devishood. And because his levels of devotion and services in relation to the spiritual guide was in the highest degree and obvious and ever increasing, finally his grandfather and father blamed and rebuked him that all these scholarly knowledge and excellence you acquired by hard education and bore hardships are not as valuable as the scope of the speech of this traveler, that with his speech you are deceived and always at his services, ready and alert. We more than this do not think advisable that you associate with him; you must stay away and abandon his companionship. He in reply to them said: Formal education and external sciences was nothing except reaching skeptical, but with the grace of association with this person and listening to his wisdom-based speeches, I have acquired a level of certainty and it is a rule that after acquiring certainty, practicing on skepticism is not right.

Since, they did not get any results from verbal reprimand and punishment for abandoning his association with his spiritual guide, imprisoned His Excellency for 40 days in the basement of the house. And since this act also was without results, rather, the external detachment and the fire of separation increased his intense desire and his devotion became stronger and they freed him, but, they closed the doors of livelihood on His Excellency and cut his monthly salary and upset his life. They took away everything of household furniture which his father had given him and the dowry which his wife had brought to his house, till his exclusive carpet was turned to a worn out straw mat. Thus they made life difficult for him, that to prepare sustenance, he had to work hard.

Some time passed in this way and in the year 1236 he went from Shiraz to Hamedan and reached the presence of the pole of the time, His Holiness Majzoub Ali Shah the first and for sometime stayed in the threshold of His Holiness and in the auspices training of His Holiness strived and sought to undergo self discipline. During this time, a group of uncouth people from Fars, pseudo theologians told prince Hussainali Mirza ruler of Fars that the dervish traveler Shirvani Sufi is misleading and leading astray, his stop over at Shiraz will cause a break in the structure of religious thoughts of people and dragging people towards impiety, such that, he has mislead the learned like Sheikh Zainalabedin Hajj Masum and has made him Sufi and has deceived him such, he has turned his heart from his homeland and has sped towards some of them to Hamedan.

The aforementioned prince under the influence of these talks asked His Excellency Mr. Shirvani to leave Shiraz and dispatched him with friends and family to Isfahan. In the Taraiq book, as narrated that His Excellency Mr. Rahmat Ali Shah said: at that time in Hamedan when I was at the services of His Holiness Majzoob Ali Shah, one day in the morning His Excellency came to my room and said: O son, thank God, your endeavor and mortification in the divine kingdom has been accepted and you acquired the treasure of your desire and the key to that is this letter take it and immediately set out on a journey and don’t think about fear and danger and don’t be under the influence of rest and comfort, till you reach yourself to Haji Shirvani and wherever you find him, immediately give this letter to him and be ready to be at his services and not to leave him alone. This is your task, that this epoch is the epoch of (Rahmat) Blessings. I also very soon will set out for Tabriz and not till long I will pass away.

Without a word and pause, I kissed his blessed hand and started on the road and under the attention to His Excellency the tribes and the wicked on the road did not harm me. In seven days I reached Isfahan and saw His Excellency Mast Ali Shah just entered the inn, greeted him and before sitting gave him the letter, since he had read the letter, said: I entrust my children and wife in your care and without adding one more word went out of the inn. After seconds a group of mounted horsemen, charged inside the inn and inquired about His Excellency Mast Ali Shah and because they could not find His Excellency caught me instead and chained me, saying that I know His Excellency’s whereabouts. Then with a great deal of harshness and disrespect took me to the tribunal court of Amir Qasem Khan. He also after lots of harassment and torture sent me to prison. Agha Mir Mohammad Mahdi, the Isfahan prayer leader was informed about my arrest and the cruelty and oppression of Qasem Khan, with a group of men went to his house and said: you, who are unaware of God, do you know this person who you have imprisoned and torture? He had said no, only know his name is Haj Zain al-abedin and he knows the whereabouts of Haji Shirvani. They introduced me to him and he released me from imprisonment and when I got free they became depressed and astounded from my pitiable condition.

In short, His Excellency for a few days stopped over at the house of the prayer leader, then set out towards Shiraz and reached the family and wife of His Excellency Mr. Shirvani to their home. Then went on to Qomshe of Isfahan and for sometime was resident there, after that he set out for Mahallat. During this time, Fat'h-Ali-Shah passed away and Mohammad Shah succeeded the monarchy. His Excellency for the condolence of the passing away of the late Shah and the felicitation of the new monarchy set out for Tabriz and from there accompanying with Mohammad Shah went to Tehran. In Tehran Mohammad Shah who had devotion and sincerity for dervishes issued an order and gave the title of Vice Governorship in the name of His Excellency, and requested His Excellency to take up responsibility. His Excellency, according to the Shah’s order went to Fars province and took the responsibility assigned to him as chancellorship and executed his duties in the best manner, till in the year 1253 His Excellency Mast Ali Shah passed away, because His Excellency was appointed as his successor and vicegerent, he sat on the throne of guidance and for 25 years independently was occupied in guiding the worshippers.

In the year 1276 in addition to two permissions for initiation and guidance that previously were granted to His Holiness Sa'adat Ali Shah, issued the third handwritten decree to appoint him as his successor and vicegerent and in the year 1277 passed away and went to the Gardens of Paradise.

Contemporaries of His Excellency Rahmat Ali Shah from jurisprudents and theosophists

1.    Agha. Syed Jaffer Al Hussaini famed as Kashfi

2.    Hajj Syed Taghi Qazvini

3.    Agha Syed Kazem Rashti

4.    Hajj Molla Hadi Sabzewari

5.    Sheikh Morteza Ansari

6.    Haj Syed Ali Shushtari

7.    Mr. Syed Mohammad Bagher Shafti

8.    Sheikh Mohammad Hussain Saheb Fosool

9.    Sheikh Mohammad Hassan Saheb Jawaher

Those related to mysticism and Gnostics in other sects

1.    Haj Mohammad Karim Khan Kermani

2.    Aghakhan Mahallati

3.    Mr. Mirza Abolqasem Zahabi Shirazi

4.    Mr. Jalal al din Majd al Ashraf Zahabi

5.    Haj Gholam Reza Shishegar

6.    Agha Mohammad Hadi Morshed Shirazi,

From poets

1.    Mirza Homay Shirazi

2.    Hejab Shirazi

3.    Sahab Shirazi

4.    Qa’ani the fame

From kings and ministers

1.    Fat'h Ali Shah Qajar

2.    Mohammad Shah Qajar

3.    Nasser al din Shah Qajar

4.    Haj Mirza Aghasi

5.    Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir