In India in the years 1346-47 Sheikh Sharafuddin Maneri, wrote an outline of the Sufi Path to God in the form of a hundred letters to a disciple called Qazi Shamsuddin. This collection quickly became well known and has been translated as Sharafuddin Maneri: The Hundred Letters. In 1368 a disciple collected all the letters he could find of Maneri’s replies written to various individuals in the intervening 21 years. This collection is presented here as In Quest of God: Maneri’s Second Collection of 150 Letters. They offer personalized spiritual and religious guidance and encouragement to a variety of individuals and serve as a complement to the first, more general collection.

"Shaykh Yahya Maneri is arguably the most important Sufi letter writer from Muslim South Asia after Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi. Those familiar with the 100 Letters will now find in this companion volume an echo of the same quest for understanding and connection that makes the writer a spiritual voice across centuries and in variant contexts. All students of India and its legacy of wisdom should delight in the wide accessibility now given to the pir of Bihar in this beautifully produced edition of his 'other' letters."

Bruce Lawrence - Duke University, Professor of Islamic Studies - Author of Introduction to first volume, "Sharafuddin Maneri: The Hundred Letters" (Classics of Western Spirituality)

There is pleasure in separation from You, and tyranny in Your presence:
That pleasure is better, for we have no strength to bear Your tyranny!
…
If You welcome me, then I am Your accepted one:
If You do not, I am still Your rejected servant!
I should not be worried whether You accept or reject me:
My task, in either state, is to remain preoccupied with You!

Letter 53 ( from "Sharafuddin Maneri: The Hundred Letters")

Paul Jackson was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1937. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1956 and came to India in 1961. Since 1976 he has been studying the Persian writings of Sheikh Sharafuddin Maneri and translating them into English.

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Sharfuddin Yahya Maneri. A Sufi saint, was the son of Shaikh Yahya of Maner (in Bihar) and the disciple of Shaikh Sharfuddin Abu Tawwama. Abu Tawama, on his way to sonargaon, had stayed with Yahya Maneri and young Sharfuddin Yahya, being impressed by the learning and wisdom of the guest, expressed his desire to receive education and training from him and accompanied him to Sonargaon.

At Sonargaon Abu Tawwama built a madrasa and a khanqah and Sharfuddin Yahya Maneri received his education and esoteric training there. He evinced great interest in his studies and became proficient in all branches of Islamic learning, like tafsir or commentary of the Quran, tradition of the prophet, jurisprudence, theology, logic, philosophy and mathematics. He also received training in sufism and spent much of his time in meditation and spiritual exercises. He was so much absorbed in studies and meditation that he paid no heed to the letters received from home. On completion of his education, he opened the letters and in one of them found the news of his father's death.

Before returning to his birthplace Maner he married the daughter of his teacher Shaikh Abu Tawwama and begot three sons by her. He, in his later life, earned a great fame in the world of Sufism. His Maktubat (letters) have come to light, they are full of advice and admonition regarding spiritual matters. The contemporary reigning sultans of Delhi were eager to receive his advice.

Maner
Some centuries ago it was situated on the confluence of the rivers Ganga and Son, and river Saryu joined it from the north. The remains of an old time fortress on the bank of the channel of the Son reminds one that Maner was a strategic point in ancient times. It appears as if it were the western gate of Patliputra in the Mauryan times. It is famous for its Bari and Choti Dargah, sacred to the memory of the Sufi Saint Hazrat Makhdoom Yahya Maneri of the 13th century.

The Tomb of Yahya Maneri lies in a mosque to the east of a large tank, with masonry walls and ghats, and pillared porticos, which is connected with the old bed of the Son by a tunnel, 400 feet long. The tomb is situated in an enclosure half filled with graves and ancient tress, on the north and west of which are three domed mosque and some quaint little cloisters build by Ibrahim Khan. It has been from a very early date, a place of pilgrimage being visited among others by Sikandar Lodi an Emperor Babar (1520-30).

It is one of the most popular mausoleums in eastern India for pilgrimages.

The mosque, and tomb of Hazrat Makhdum Yahya Maneri (b.1263), steel engraving, mid-1800's

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