A Sufi was hastening to Baghdad when, in the middle of the road, he heard a voice saying: “I have plenty of honey, which I will sell very cheaply, if there be anyone to buy it.” The Sufi said to him: “My good fellow, will you give me a little of it for nothing?” “Be off,” replied the other, “you are mad, no doubt, O covetous man! Is anything ever given for nothing?”
Then an inward voice said to the Sufi: “Advance, take one step beyond the place where you are, and I will give you, for nothing, every possible happiness and all that you desire. Divine mercy is a burning sun that penetrates the smallest atoms. Behold His mercy, such that He reproached a prophet concerning an infidel” (as may be seen in the following anecdote).
Then an inward voice said to the Sufi: “Advance, take one step beyond the place where you are, and I will give you, for nothing, every possible happiness and all that you desire. Divine mercy is a burning sun that penetrates the smallest atoms. Behold His mercy, such that He reproached a prophet concerning an infidel” (as may be seen in the following anecdote).