There was in the city of Isfahan a poor cobbler called Ahmed, who was possesses of a singularly greedy and envious wife. Every day the woman went to the public baths, the Hammam, and each time saw someone there of whom she became jealous. One day she espied a lady dressed in a magnificent robe, jewels on every finger, pearls in her ears, and attended by many persons. Asking whom this might be, she was told, “The wife of the king’s astrologer”. “Of course, that is what my wretched Ahmed must become, an astrologer,” thought the cobbler’s wife, and rushed home as fast as her feet would carry her. The cobbler, seeing her face asked: “What in the world is…
20 Poems of Hazrat Baba Farid
I’ve acquired “The Couplets of Baba Farid” as translated by Maqbool Elahi when I was in Lahore. The original Punjabi text is also contained in this book. These poems are included in the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred book of the Sikhs. 1 On the day the body was married to the soul, All the destined breaths were written in a scroll. At the approach of the last breath, The so much heard of angel, brought their counth to death. 2 Rattling bones, this angel takes life away. Tell yourself, while breathing: ‘Destiny holds the sway’. 3 Life is wife and death her husband. Husband takes his wife away. After ‘yes’ to his proposal, How can she hold back the…
The Hidden Treasure
Once upon a time there lived in Damascus a man called Zayn al-Arab. He was a poor man and he had to struggle hard to keep his family from hunger. Every loaf of bread was gained by him with much anxiety. He worked so hard that he was always tired and had no thought for the joys and pleasures of life. Even when things became easier for him he did not know how to stop working and therefore for the first time in his life money began to accumulate. When he had saved a considerable sum he could hardly believe his good fortune. That is how he felt about it although he had worked hard for every penny. Fortune had…
Knowing his sufi classics
A man once asked Abe Lincoln what should be engraved on a honorary plaque for his office. He wanted Lincoln to furnish words of wisdom that would be helpful in all circumstances. Lincoln thought about it for a while, then said: “This too shall pass!” You know that these words are in fact the advice given by shaykh Fariduddin ‘Attar in Persian: In ham migozarad
The Sufi Path of Light
The Sufis are lovers of light. That is why some flashes of light will be shown in the parts below. Flash 1 In 1183 a young man, a ragged dervish, entered Aleppo. There his learning and his magical powers drew the attention of all. The prince grew to love him and became his disciple. The other learned men, jealous of his ascendancy, complained of him to the king, the great Saladin. The king feared that his son would be led into heresy, and he knew that heresy bred sedition. Twice he ordered his son to kill the dervish. Heartbroken the prince at last complied. The dervish’s disciples fled, and their names were forgotten. In Aleppo people remembered him, remembered the…
A dervish in Baghdad
There was a dervish in Baghdad who daily would serve 1,200 bowls of food and he would personally supervise their preparation and cooking. One day he called a meeting of his servants and asked: ‘Did you not overlook someone while you were serving food?’ ‘No, we remembered everyone,’ they rejoined, ‘we have forgotten no one. At the time of serving we provide it to everyone who comes to be fed’. But again the shaykh remarked: ‘Something has gone awry in this procedure’. ‘O shaykh,’ implored the servants, ‘what is the intent of your line of questioning?’ ‘For the past three days,’ explained the shaykh, ‘you have given me no food. Every time you have forgotten me’.”
Original Nature (Fitra)
It is said that spirituality is returning to your original nature. This original nature is composed, according to some of the Sufis, of four cardinal virtues: 1. Purity 2. Humility 3. Magnanimity 4. Justice There is an intellectual way and a practical way to acquire these virtues. As for the intellectual regulation, it is required because nature obeys the intellectual faculties. The second way, the practical one has as most important thing the choosing of those attitudes, acts and things which remind the soul of the desired qualities and alert it to them. There are three main veils preventing the manifestation of one’s sound original nature: 1. The veil of nature 2. The veil of convention 3. The veil of…
The blind man in the maze
There was once a blind man, who in addition to not being able to see, also had a bald head. For a misdemeanour he had committed, the king put the poor fellow in a specially built prison designed like a maze or labyrinth. The prison had a number of false doors and one real door, which opened and led to the light of the outside world. By the king’s order, anyone who could find the real door could step through it and immediately gain his freedom. For a long time the blind man felt his way carefully around the prison’s wall, searching for the one real door. But as it happened, every time he actually came to it, he was…
The habits of Khawaja Mo’inuddin Chishti while travelling
Usually he took no more than one darwish with him when travelling and stayed in graveyards and uninhabited places. When his presence became known there, he did not remain there.
Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi
To make a start there is this charming quatrain of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi (# 1218 in my edition of the Divan): Dar bagh shodam sabuh o gol michiam Vaz didan-e baaghbaan hami tarsidam Shirin sokhani ze baaghbaan be shenidam Gol raa cheh mahall keh baagh raa baghshidam I was in the garden in the morning and I was gathering roses And all the time I was afraid that the gardener would see me. The gardener, however, only spoke these kind words: ‘A few roses are nothing as I give you the complete garden’. Mawlana Rumi writes (# 84 in the edition of Foruzaanfar): Chun gol hamaye tan khandam na az raahe dehaan tanhaa Ziraa keh manam bi man baa shaah-e…