IO Islamic 3164

اچھی اچھی مفتین اور تعریفین اللہ تعالی کو ثابت ھین کہ خدا تعالی پیدا کرنے والا اور پالنے والا تمام خلق و عالم کا ھی اور درود نامحدود اسکے پیغمبر کے اوپر

The translator, Beni Narayan, poetically surnamed Jahan, was a native of Delhi. Owing to adverse circumstances, he left his native city and settled at Calcutta. After residing there for 12 years in a state of great poverty he was brought to the notice of Captain Thomas Roebuck, Secretary to the College of Fort William, through Haidar Bakhsh, Haidari, one of the Munshis of that College, and at his request composed a Tazkirah of Hindustani poets, which was completed in A.D. 1814 under the title of Diwan i Jahan. Previous to this he had written a poem, entitled Char gulshan, on the story of king Kaiwan and Farkhandah, in A.H. 1225 (A.D. 1811).

Beni Narayan states in the preamble that the Tanbih al-ghafilin was compiled in Persian by Shah Rafi' al-Din at the request of Saiyid Ahmad of Bareilly. The work had been originally translated into Rekhtah, but was an un-idiomatic, incorrect, and in places unintelligible. He had therefore at the request of his friends made a complete revision of that translation.

The work is divided into 20 chapters (bab) under the following subjects: 1. The friendships and vanities of the world. 2. The day of resurrection. 3. An account of hell. 4. An account of heaven. 5. Duty to parents and neighbours. 6. Concerning usurers. 7. Almsgiving and tithes. 8. Against wine-drinking. 9. The virtue of prayer. 10. The merit of reading the Qur'an. 11. The excellency of the month Ramazan. 12. Duties of husbands and wives. 13. Against falsehood. 14. Against slander and tale-bearing. 15. Against a hypocritical observance of fasting and prayers. 16. Against pride and arrogance. 17. Concerning courteous behaviour and anger. 18. Anecdotes of pious Muslims. 19. Anecdotes of Abu Shahmah ('Abd allah, the son of the Caliph 'Umar). 20. Concerning mourning for the dead.

A revised and enlarged version of this work was made in A.H. 1243 by Saiyid 'Abd Allah ibn Bahadur Ali. In it no mention is made of Beni Narayan, presumably because he was a Muslim convert from Hinduism. Five chapters have been added, of which three are introductory viz. 1, on faith; 2, on traditional law (sunnat) and heresy; 3, on religious knowledge ('ilm), a fourth chapter, on pilgrimage (forming no. 5 in this version), is placed after the 11th chapter of this translation; and the fifth, containing additional traditions, is placed last. An edition of this work was lithographed at Bombay, 1872, bearing the alternative title of Tuhfat al-wai'izin.

Another improved and slightly enlarged edition by Saiyid Muhammad, Muhammad Taiyib, Amin al-Din, and Muhammad Naqi, assisted by Maulvi 'Abd al-'Aziz, has been published at Cawnpore in 1877 and 1883. Colophon:

تعالی فضل و کرم سے اٹھوین تاریخ اگھن مہینے کی سن بارہ سو پینتالیس بنگلہ مین سنیچر کے دن دوپہر ایک گھڑی کے سمے مین تمام ھوئی