Preface

Ain-ul-Arifeen (The Eye of Mystics) is the rarest book of Sultan Bahoo, the renowned Saint all over the world. This short book contains the crux of all his teachings and is like an abridged form of his books. He has declared the book as a touchstone for the researchers and a guide towards Allah for those who cannot find a spiritual guide. It is a great blessing of my spiritual guide Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen Sultan Mohammad Najib-ur-Rehman, the spiritual heir of Sultan Bahoo and contemporary leader of his order, to grant me the opportunity of translating Sultan Bahoo‟s books in English. His intention behind this magnificent work is to spread the Saint‟s teachings in the entire world for all times to come. So that every true seeker of Allah may be guided towards Him, no matter where he is in the world.

Sultan-ul-Ashiqeen provided three scripts of Ain-ul-Arifeen to me for its English translation and to Ahsan Ali Sarwari Qadri for Urdu translation.

First is the Persian manuscript of Ain-ul-Arifeen that was found in 1977 in a collection of manuscripts of few books of Sultan Bahoo from the library of Sayyid Sultan Shah, Jacobabad Sindh, Pakistan. The name of writer is not mentioned on it although the year of writing is mentioned as 1209 AH. Other books whose manuscripts are present in this collection are; Sultan-ul-Waham, Talmeez-ur-Rehman, Majalisa-tul-Nabi, Mohabbat-ul-Asrar, Fazal-ul-Laqa, Ain-ul-Faqr, Deedar Bakhsh (Khurd), Deedar Bakhsh (Kalan) and Mohkim-ul-Fuqara. Second is the manuscript of Ain-ul-Arifeen written by Doctor Mohammad Sadiq from District Mansehra, Pakistan. The date of writing is mentioned as Friday, 23rd January 1987 AD (22

Jumada al-Awwal 1407 AH). Although he has not mentioned that from which manuscript he copied it but it seems to be copied from the aforementioned manuscript found from the library of Sayyid Sultan Shah, as both the scripts are almost the same. Both have a number of mistakes as well as missing words and sentences. Moreover many verses and Hadiths are unnecessarily repeated again and again. Third is the published script of Ain-ul-Arifeen along with Urdu translation by Doctor K.B. Naseem in 1998. He has mentioned in the preface that he has translated the manuscript by Doctor Mohammad Sadiq from District Mansehra and that he could not find any other script of Ain-ul-Arifeen for comparison and corrections. He has also discussed that the script was full of errors hence he had to make corrections. However it greatly needed to be further corrected.

Ahsan Ali Sarwari Qadri corrected the script to a large extent while composing it. Afterwards I also made necessary amendments during translation according to my ability. Moreover the repeated content was removed. It is essential to mention that we made all the corrections after mutual consultation and consent. I would like to thank Ahsan Ali for his cooperation in all matters. Sultan-ul-Faqr publications is presenting first ever proper Persian script of Ain-ul-Arifeen along with its Urdu and English translation. May Allah accept our efforts and make this book a source of guidance for the seekers of Allah. Ameen

Lahore Ambreen Moghees Sarwari Qadri August, 2021 M.A. Mass Communication University of The Punjab