My life be the ransom for that lithe, coquettish youth;
he spoke us the plain truth the day (1) he bade us farewell.
Whoever hankered after so much as a token of his love—
a single parting kiss (2)—we, too, bade him farewell.
Iqbal the Servitor (3), Jamal al-Din, one of the attendants of [al-Malik] Salah al-Din, was the founder of the two Iqbaliyya institutions (4), one for the Shafiʿis and the other for the Hanafis. They had originally been two houses of his; he turned them into madrasas and endowed them, assigning the larger to the Shafiʿi school and the smaller—upon which he placed one-third of the endowment—to the Hanafis. He died in al-Quds al-Sharif—may Allah have mercy upon him.
[Then came the year 604 AH]
During it, the pilgrims (5) returned to Iraq, calling upon Allah and complaining (6) to Him of what they had suffered at the hands of Ṣadr Jahān al-Bukhārī (7) the Ḥanafī. He had arrived in Baghdad on a diplomatic mission and the caliph had received him with great honor; that very year he set out for the pilgrimage. Along the way he restricted the people’s access to water and provisions, so that nearly six thousand Iraqi pilgrims died because of him. It was reported that he would hurry ahead to each watering place, where his servants would seize the wells, draw the water, and sprinkle it around his tent, depriving the others in the scorching Ḥijāz heat. They even used the water on the vegetables they had brought in their own soil while denying it to the people and the traveler—those heading for the Sacred Mosque (8) seeking their Lord’s bounty and good pleasure.
When he returned with the caravan, the masses cursed him, the notables ignored him, and the caliph (9) showed him no honor nor sent anyone to receive him. He departed Baghdad (10) with the common folk behind him hurling stones and curses, and that year the pilgrims (11) dubbed him “Ṣadr Jahannam—Head of Hell.” We seek refuge in Allah from humiliation, and we ask Him to increase our compassion and mercy toward His servants, for He shows mercy only to those of His servants who are themselves merciful.