"When the virtuous Sultan Sikandar, the Iconoclast, left this house of toil for the house of comfort, his son Sultan Zainuíl- ëAbidin succeeded him. This Sultan reversed the policy of his father and adopted the path of prevarication (fisq) and heresy (zandaqa). He brought some of the infidels close to himself and on some others he conferred ministries. He revived all customs and rituals of infidels and polytheists. He rebuilt all the idol-houses and temples that had been razed and destroyed. By rebuilding the temples of the infidels and the people of darkness and prevarication, this ruler ó who was not God-fearing ó popularised their religion. In this way, the fallacious beliefs and oppressive vices of the heretics and dualists gained strength to such an extent that in every household, most of its members returned to infidelity, heresy and despicable innovation.1 Only a small number of people expressed adherence to Islam. Islamic tenets and the customs of idolaters had got mixed up in a way that the nobles, officials, and the Sultan, all considered the heretics, the infidels, the wretched and the innovators as their close associates to drink and dine with. In his mathanavi, of which we bring a few verses here, Qadi Muhammad Qudsi, has properly depicted the condition of those days:"