Diary 1963 - Murshid Sam's Living Stream

Diaries 196358 Harriet St.,San Francisco 3, Calif.November 7, 1963S.A. Ataullah Shuttari,6 Marlborough Gardens,Woodhouse Lane,Leeds 2, U.K.My dear Brother:As-salaam aleikhum. Alhamdu-lillah for the opportunity given to report and record manythings which are in personal history but not on paper so that you may read thereof. A copy is beingsent to Sufi Pir Barkat Ali, for in the first place he requested I write to Mohammed Ilyas. But for reasonsboth implicit and explicit details are given. And since you are a Khalif of the Kadaris, we shallbegin there.I have before me a large newspaper report which has been written in a flowery sort of Urduthat my friends have not been able to translate. It was on an occasion, arranged by my SpiritualBrother, Major Mohammed Sadiq when I spoke to 20,000 (twenty thousand) persons in one place inLahore Cantonment. And what was the subject? Big Brother. And who was Big Brother? Ghaus-i-Azam. And what is this “kafir feringhi” (as I call myself) doing talking on Ghaus-i-Azam? It was dueto the kindness of Kadri Sahib, the Murshid of your Order in Lahore, who has been my benefactormany times. And why has he been my benefactor since I do not speak Urdu nor he English?When I came to Pakistan I stopped at Multan and visited the tomb of Shams-i-Tabriz. Therewas a Wali there and he said, “What do you want?” I said, “I have come to teach.” “What?” “Ishk,Ilm, Shahud.” “All right, teach.” So this person from a far away land taught a circle of mureeds aboutIshk, Ilm and Shahud and when it was through they all embraced me. I have some pictures takenwith them. How come this “wisdom?”Now I never met an Imam until I was ever fifty years of age, but from childhood studiedreligion and kept studying all religions. But in 1919 I met one Murshida Rabia Ada Martin and in1923 was given the Four School Bayat, which centers in your own Hyderabad, Deccan. In 1925 I hada complete nervous breakdown and was preparing for death. I went into the wilderness in khilvatand on the third day Khidr appeared and he offered me poetry or music which was what we callhere a “Hobson’s choice,” because today there is both. The poetry in its finest form is in “Saladin”and I may have occasion to send you part IV which may have to be copied for persons in variousArabic lands. This attests to hal and makam better than anything else. But to confirm the appearanceof Khidr, there is today little sign of wear and tear on the body which is very, very vigorous and themind also to some extent. And people who do not accept the personality cannot otherwise explainthis vitality.Three days after that I saw in broad daylight all the Great Prophets ending with Mecca Shereefas Khatim al Nabi—I saw this openly and after that was healed of the infirmities of which there ishardly a trace today. In 1926 Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan confirmed the hal and makam and gave methe name of “Sufi.” But he died shortly and his followers split and I never used this term until it waspublicly announced by Pir Sufi Barkat Ali.During the War there was the service of the Auliya and the functioning with the Auliya andalthough one does not come out and say, “Abdal” one knows what this means. There are also historicalrecords of the vision Allah has given extending back to 1932—although most of those recordswere destroyed in a great fire.