A great personage once said to a man who possessed a gold coin: “I do not understand what your situation is.” He replied: “I eat bread at God’s table, and yet I obey the commands of the devil.”
“Indeed, the devil has strayed from the path, and you do not speak the truth! You are a Muslim in name only; you are entangled in the sorrows of the world. The earth covers your head, for you have become a corpse; since I told you to cast the world to the wind, would I now wish you to cling to it? When you have given it all that you possess, how will you be able to renounce it easily?”
“Indeed, the devil has strayed from the path, and you do not speak the truth! You are a Muslim in name only; you are entangled in the sorrows of the world. The earth covers your head, for you have become a corpse; since I told you to cast the world to the wind, would I now wish you to cling to it? When you have given it all that you possess, how will you be able to renounce it easily?”
O thou who, through heedlessness, hast fallen into the ocean of covetousness! Knowest thou not why thou remainest behind? The two worlds, clad in mourning, weep, and thou abidest in disobedience. The love of the world hath taken from thy heart the taste of faith, and thy vain desires have absorbed thy soul. What is the world, save a nest of greedy passions, which could not suffice for Pharaoh and Nimrod? At one time Caroun (Korah) passed through it and left it; at another, Schaddâd possessed it with toil. God hath proclaimed the world’s nothingness, and yet thou hast allowed thyself to be caught in its snare. How long wilt thou occupy thyself with this world, which ought to be for thee but the corpse of nothingness? He who loses himself in this atom of nothingness, how can he be a man of worth? He remained drunk and bewildered, day and night, until he had wholly left this corpse.
He who breathes for a single instant in this nothingness shall be less than a hundred heaps of nothingness. What is the world, if not absolute naught? And what is this naught, if not bondage?
The world is a blazing fire in which a new creature comes to burn itself at every instant. Thou art a lion-man if thou canst escape this fierce fire. Ah! turn thine eyes away from this fire as the lion does, if thou wouldst not burn thyself in it like the moth. He who worships this fire like the moth must burn himself in it in his delusive intoxication. This fire is before thee and behind thee; therefore it is impossible that thou shouldst not burn thyself in it at every instant; but see where thou canst take shelter, that this fire may not devour thy soul.
QUESTION OF A KHOJA AND ANSWER
The world is a blazing fire in which a new creature comes to burn itself at every instant. Thou art a lion-man if thou canst escape this fierce fire. Ah! turn thine eyes away from this fire as the lion does, if thou wouldst not burn thyself in it like the moth. He who worships this fire like the moth must burn himself in it in his delusive intoxication. This fire is before thee and behind thee; therefore it is impossible that thou shouldst not burn thyself in it at every instant; but see where thou canst take shelter, that this fire may not devour thy soul.
QUESTION OF A KHOJA AND ANSWER
A khoja was saying in his prayer: “O God! Have mercy upon me and prosper my undertakings.” A madman (with divine love) heard these words and said: “Hope not for divine mercy if thou takest not the Sufi’s girdle and continually walkest in pride. Thou keepest thy face turned toward heaven and toward the four gilded walls (the four cardinal points). Ten male slaves and as many female slaves serve thee. How shall mercy be shown to thee in secret? Look at thyself and see whether, with all this, thou canst obtain mercy. Be covered with shame, then. If, like me, thou hadst nothing but bread to eat, thou wouldst then be in possession of divine mercy; but so long as thou turnest not thy face away from riches and honours, mercy will not show thee her face for a single instant. Henceforth, turn thy face away from everything, so that thou mayest be wholly free, like spiritual men.”
ANOTHER ANECDOTE ABOUT A SUFI
A man sincere in piety once said to some rascals who were turning (towards the Caaba) the face of a Muslim on the point of death: “It would have been much better if the face of this man, who knows nothing of what you are doing today, had always before been turned towards the proper quarter. What is the use of planting withered, leafless branches? Likewise, what purpose does it now serve to turn this man’s face? He whose face one is obliged to turn at this moment dies guilty; do not, therefore, seek purity in him.”
A man sincere in piety once said to some rascals who were turning (towards the Caaba) the face of a Muslim on the point of death: “It would have been much better if the face of this man, who knows nothing of what you are doing today, had always before been turned towards the proper quarter. What is the use of planting withered, leafless branches? Likewise, what purpose does it now serve to turn this man’s face? He whose face one is obliged to turn at this moment dies guilty; do not, therefore, seek purity in him.”