• Shihabuddin Suhrawardi

  • Nizamuddin Auliya

  • Ibn al-Arabi

  • Bayazid Bistami


Abul Fazl placed Mughal kingship as the highest station in the hierarchy of objects receiving light emanating from God (farr-i izadi). Abul Fazl was inspired by a famous Iranian Sufi, Shihabuddin Suhrawardi who first developed this idea. According to this idea, there was a hierarchy in which the Divine Light was transmitted to the king who then became the source of spiritual guidance for his subjects.