An Arabic word, malfuzat literally means “what has been said” and refers to texts written, mostly in

Persian, by the disciple of a Sufi shaykh recording as much as possible of the shaykh’s conversations,
activities, and teaching.

Amina Stienfels states that Malfuzat is an independent genre, each text focusing on a single figure whose
teachings were recorded during his lifetime by a disciple in direct contact with him. The paradigmatic
example of this genre, that firmly established both its form and its popularity in South Asian Sufism, is
Fawaaid al-fuaad by Amir Hasan Sijzi.

Fawaaid al-fuaad recorded the conversations of the widely revered Chishti saint Nizam al-din Awliyaa (d.
1325). Because of the popularity of this saint and the literary abilities of his disciple, Fawaaid al-fuaad
became a widely read and much imitated text. Imitation took the form of malfuzat of later shaykhs written
by their disciples as well as forgeries claiming to be the malfuzat of Nizam al-din Awliyaa’s prede-
cessors. Although there are a number of malfuzat of earlier Chishti figures, Fawaaid al-fuaad is the
earliest such text considered authentic by most scholars. Amina Stienfels delineates that the point of the
malfuzat is to allow those who cannot learn from the shaykh in person, or be guided by him on the Sufi
path, to receive the same benefits as his disciples and students.

Malfuzats were compiled by different sufi silsilas with the permission of the shaikhs; these had
obvious didactic purposes. Several examples have been found from different parts of the
subcontinent, including the Deccan. They were compiled over several centuries.