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Syed Ibrahim Khan (1548-1628) was an Indian Sufism Muslim poet who became a devotee of the Hindu deity Krishna. He was either born in Pihani (Hardoi) or Amroha, in modern-day Uttar Pradesh, India. His original name was Saiyad Ibrahim and Raskhan was his takhallus (pen name) in Hindi. In his early years, he became a follower of Krishna, learned the bhakti yoga from Vitthalanatha and began living in Vrindavan, where he spent the rest of his life. He accepted Krishna as the supreme god (Svayam Bhagavan) and became a Vaishnavism. He died in 1628 AD. His samadhi is at Mahaban, about six miles east of Mathura. in Mathura Distt. India]]
According to one story, as contained in the medieval text Bhaktakalpadruma, he once travelled to Vrindavan along with his Sufi preceptor. There he fell unconscious and had a vision of Krishna. Thereafter, he remained in Brindavan till he breathed his last.
Another version has it that Raskhan fell in love with a proud woman. Later, when he read the Bhagwat Purana he was so deeply impressed by the unselfish love of the gopis for Krishna that he left his proud mistress and headed straight for Brindavan.
There is, however, an even more intriguing story that is contained in some of the hagiographic material about Raskhan. In the Bhavaprakash of the seventeenth century, we are told by Vaishnavites scholar Hari Ray, that Ibrahim Khan earlier lived in Delhi, where he had fallen madly in love with the son of a Hindu merchant. 'He watched him day and night', says Hari Ray, 'and even ate his left-overs'. This angered his fellow Muslims, who branded him as a disbeliever. But Ibrahim Khan, we are told, did not care or relent, answering, as Hari Ray puts it, 'I am as I am'.
One day, the story goes, he overheard one Vaishnavite telling another, 'One should have attachment to the Lord just as this Ibrahim Khan has for the merchant's son. He roves around after him without fear of public slander or caste displeasure!'. The other Vaishnavite turned up his nose in disgust, and when Ibrahim saw this he drew his sword out in anger. Trembling before him, the Vaishnavite said: 'If you loved God just as you do that boy you would find salvation'. Ibrahim's curiosity having been aroused, he began discussing spiritual matters with him. The Vaishnavite advised Ibrahim to travel to Brindavan. When he got there, he was refused entry into the temple on the grounds that he was a Muslim.
After sitting on the banks of the lake near the temple having not had anything to eat for three days, Krishna, the story goes, appeared to Ibrahim, addressing him as Raskhan or 'the mine of aesthetic essence', and accepting him as a disciple. From that day onwards, Raskhan began living in Brindavan, composing and singing the Krishnaite Sufi poetry for which he is still so fondly remembered.
Raskhan's Kauravi dialect writings are numerous, the five most important being the Sujana Raskhana, the Premavatika, the Danalila, the Astayama and a collection of Padas (rhymed couplets). Of these the most well-known is the Premavatika ("The Forest of Love").
The Premavatika consists of fifty-three verses, most of which deal with the nature of Divine Love, using the love between Radha and Krishna as a model. Raskhan begins the work, by saying:
From here Raskhan starts an intricate description of the path of Love and surrender to God, in the process questioning all orthodoxies, all formalisms and all man-made divisions. This is in a sense the essence of his message. He ends his work with the following lines:
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