After al-Mu’ayyad-din Shirazi long and patient ordeal of not having access to see the Fatimid Imam-Caliph Imam Mustansir-bi Allah ended after several years, the Imam graciously granted him the position of the Chief Dai of the Fatimid Caliphate.
He was also known as the Hujjat or “Proof the Imam”. It may be noted that Shirazi was also the mentor of another outstanding Ismaili, Dai Nasir Khushraw, who has acknowledged Shirazi in his poems.
While appointing him to this prestigious position, the 18th Ismaili Imam himself composed a Qasida which praises Shirazi’s knowledge and unique competence. The Imam also acknowledges the long time Shirazi had to wait for the Imam’s audience. The Imam wrote:
“O Hujja who is famous among the people,
Our doors were not locked to you
Except due to a hurtful, disturbing cause;
Our shunning was the shunning of a concerned father.
Our followers have lost their right guidance,
So spread among them what you will of our knowledge.
And be for them the concerned parent.
Even though you are the last in our dawa,
you have surpassed the compass of the earlier dais.
The like of you cannot be found among those who have gone,
from all the people, nor those that remain.”
When Shirazi died at the age of eighty three , he was buried in his residence and working place at the Dar al-Ilm in Cairo. The Imam personally led the funeral ceremonies for al-Mu’ayyad-din Shirazi who had served him loyally for fifty years.
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