INCIDENT BEHIND THE SUPPLICATION OF TAWASSUL

BY KHWAJA NASEER (R.A.)

Late Khwaja Naseer ud Deen Toosi (R.A.) belonged to a village of Jahrood, Saveh. He was born on the 11^th of Jamadi ul Awwal, 597 Hijri, in the city of Toos, and his numeric date of birth is in accordance to the divine verse:

«جآءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْباطِلُ إِنَّ الْباطِلَ كانَ زَهُوقاً »^[1]

And his demise was fell on the 18^th of Zil Hijjah, 672 Hijri, and his entire lifespan sums up to 75 years.

            Allama Iraqi (R.A.) mentions in his book ‘Darus Salaam’ that: As per that which became popular and is also written in some books:

            “Khwaja Naseer spend twenty years of his life penning a book on the attributes of the Infallible Progeny (peace be upon them) and took it with him to Baghdad with the intention of presenting it before the Abbasid Caliph.

            Coincidently, he reached at a time when the Caliph went for an adventurous trip towards the river banks of Baghdad. Khwaja placed that book before the Caliph, who handed it to Ibn e Hajib. When that Nasibi (those who are hostile towards the family of Prophet) looked at the book written on the virtues of the Infallible Leaders (peace be upon them), due to immense enmity, he threw the book in water and said out of mockery: “the sound of the book falling on water astonished me”.

            Then he turned towards Khwaja and asked: Where are you from?

            Khwaja said: I am from Toos.

            He asked: Do you belong to the bulls or the donkeys of that city?

            Khwaja said: I am from the bulls of my place.

            Ibn e Hajib asked: Then where are your horns?

            Khwaja said: I have placed my horns in Toos, I will go back and bring it.

           Thereafter, Khwaja turned back to his city with immense sadness, sorrow and deprivation. Coincidently, one night he dreamt of a land situated on a place upon which a grave was built. A chest was placed upon the grace and on that chest, he saw that a supplication was written, which later came to be known as the supplication of Tawassul by Khwaja Naseer ud Deen toosi, and he saw that Imam Mahdi (A.S.) was residing in that place.

            His holiness taught that supplication and the way of its recitation to Khwaja Naseer. When he woke up from his dream, he forgot a portion of the supplication. He slept again and saw the same incident again in his dream, then learnt the forgotten portion from his holiness.

            When he woke up again, he wrote down the entire supplication, and to compensate the act of the Caliph and in order to take revenge from Ibn e Hajib, he engaged himself in the recitation of the supplication, until the day when his supplication became accomplished and his holiness (A.S.) gave him glad tidings that his demand will be fulfilled by the hands of a child, and that he should nurture that child so that he becomes powerful in the future. Then he indicated towards his city.

            Then using geomancy, Khwaja located the area of that child and found out his house. He saw a lady in the house who had two infants, he requested the lady to give him those two infants and then began to nurture both of them. He understood with his cleverness that who among the two will become the king in the future, and grew up to become Halaku Khan. Then he put enormous effort for his upbringing, until the day when Halaku attained maturity.

            One day, he said to him: If you grow up to become the king, how will you solve my problem?

            Halaku said: I will make you my minister.

            Khwaja said: You must write down what you have said.

            Halaku wrote it down and gave it to Khwaja. After the passage of time, Halaku killed the emperor of Khurasan and sat on his throne, then made Khwaja his minister. After overcoming Khurasan, he organized attacks on other cities and began to take city after city under his kingdom, until he attacked Baghdad arresting Mosta’sim, the Abbasid Caliph. Then he killed the caliph and treated the people of that city with justice.

            On sighting this incident, Ibn e Hajib hid himself in a person’s house, where he filled a vessel with blood, placed something on the vessel and sat over it, to keep himself secured from the geomancy of Khwaja.

            When Khwaja performed geomancy, he saw Ibn e Hajib sitting over a sea of blood. He became astonished and began to search him but failed to find any sign of him. At last, he planned a plot and decided to weigh a herd of sheep and distribute it between the people of Baghdad. He distributed them on the condition that each one of them has to return the sheep with the same weight as he had taken it. He sent one to the host of Ibn e Hajid as well.

            Ibn e Hajib said: You must bring a baby wolf and feed the sheep with sufficient fodder from dawn to dusk every day. At night, bring the baby wolf in front of the sheep so that he loses all the fatness gained throughout the day on sighting the baby wolf. Perform this act regularly, you will not find any change in the sheep’s weight till it remains with you.

            That man acted upon the command of Ibn e Hajib till he returned the sheep. They saw that all the sheep differed from their original weight except the sheep given to the host of Ibn e Hajib.

            With his ingenuity and cleverness, Khwaja understood that Ibn e Hajib was hiding in that person’s house and it was his thought.

            He sent his servants for Ibn e Hajib who arrested him and brought him near Khwaja and Halaku. Khwaja said to him: My horn is this emperor who lived in Toos and I promised you that I would bring him.

            Then he took him to the river bank and ordered that all his books should be brought there, whereupon he threw all his books in the river except Shafia, Wafia and Mukhtasar, which could benefit the primary students of the sciences like Sarf and Nehw (syntax). Then he said: the sound of your books falling on the surface of water astonished me. Then ordered for his execution.^[2]

            This incident is mentioned regarding the source of this supplication from Imam Mahdi (A.S.), but just as it has been stated in the book ‘Darus Salaam’, the correctness of this incident is doubtful. This is because the time of Baghdad’s conquest differs from the time of Ibn e Hajib’s death, and there lie points in the incident of the attack of Halaku on Baghdad with the planning of Khwaja Naseer ud Deen, and also in the history of this incident, which make its authenticity questionable, which are following:

1. As registered in history, Ibn e Hajib died in the city of Alexandria^[3], not Baghdad, with the specifications mentioned in this incident.
2. He died nine years before the conquest of Baghdad and wasn’t alive at the time of the advent of Halaku and Khwaja Naseer ud Deen Toosi, that would force him to sit on a vessel filled with blood.
3. As Khwaja located the city and area where Ibn e Hajib resided through geomancy, then why couldn’t he figure out where Ibn e Hajib was and where that house was in which the vessel filled with blood was placed, upon which Ibn e Hajib was seated, performing the same geomancy?

Leaving apart all these things, Khwaja could find out, using geomancy, the sheep which was kept in the house of Ibn e Hajib’s host, needless of keeping the condition of preventing the change in its weight.

Nevertheless, there lies no doubt in the significance of the supplication associated to Khwaja and the author of this book has seen the desired outcome from this supplication for solving some of his problems.

It is narrated from Late Sheikh Bahayi (R.A.) that he said: Muqaddas e Ardabeli (R.A.) was asked about the factor that helped him to reach such a high position?

He replied: The regular recitation of the supplication of seeking means associated to Khwaja Naseer ud Deen Toosi.