Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/335

 SAGES WELCOMED AT COURT 281 dinary stories about them and tried hard to make the emperor a heretic. This man was far distanced by Birbal, Shaikh Abu-1-Fazl, and Hakim Abu-1-Fath, who turned the emperor from the Faith of the Prophet and made him a perfect sceptic of inspiration, the prophetic office, the miracles, and the law. They carried matters to such an extent that I, the author, could no longer bear them company. About the same time, his Majesty ordered Kazi Jalal-ad-din and several other learned men to write a commentary upon the Koran, but they fell to squabbling about it. As history was read from day to day, his Majesty's faith in the Companions of the Prophet began to be shaken and the breach grew broader, so that daily prayers, fasts, and prophecies were all pronounced to be delusions opposed to sense. Reason, not revelation, was declared to be the basis of religion. Europeans also paid visits to him and he adopted some of their ration- alistic tenets. His Majesty used frequently to go to the " Hall of Worship ' and converse with the theologians and shaikhs, especially on Sabbath evenings, and would sometimes pass the whole night there. The discussions always turned upon the principles and divergencies of religion, and the disputants used to exercise the sword of their tongues upon each other with such sharpness and animosity that the various sects at length took to calling each other infidels and renegades. Innovators and schismatics artfully started their doubts and soph- istries, making right appear to be wrong and wrong to