One day, an individual was weeping before Schabli, and seemed plunged in affliction. The Sufi asked him why he was weeping. “O shaikh!” he replied, “I had a friend whose beauty made my soul verdant. He died yesterday, and I shall die of grief, for the world has become black to me because of the sadness that overwhelms me.”
Schabli replied to him: “Why is thy heart thus beside itself on account of this friend? Why such sorrow? Thou hast already had thy recompense. Now choose thyself another friend who will not die, so that thou mayest not be in danger of dying of affliction. Indeed, the friendship of a being exposed to death can bring naught but sorrow to his friend. He who is beguiled by love of outward form will thereby fall into a hundred afflictions. This form will soon slip from his grasp, and, in his bewilderment, he will sink amid the blood.”
Schabli replied to him: “Why is thy heart thus beside itself on account of this friend? Why such sorrow? Thou hast already had thy recompense. Now choose thyself another friend who will not die, so that thou mayest not be in danger of dying of affliction. Indeed, the friendship of a being exposed to death can bring naught but sorrow to his friend. He who is beguiled by love of outward form will thereby fall into a hundred afflictions. This form will soon slip from his grasp, and, in his bewilderment, he will sink amid the blood.”
A merchant, rich in goods and capital, had a slave girl sweet as sugar. One day, nevertheless, he decided to sell her; but he was instantly sorry for it, repented, and was troubled and agitated. In his despair, he went to find the new master of this slave girl, offering a thousand gold pieces in profit. His heart burned with desire; but the new master of the slave girl would not sell her again. The merchant went continually along the public road, casting dust upon his head. He said, groaning and reproaching himself: “I deserve the painful suffering I endure; it is indeed the just recompense for my fault; for, in my folly, after sewing shut my eye and my reason, I sold my mistress for a gold piece. I brought this harm upon myself on a market day, after having adorned her well so as to sell her to greater advantage.”
Each of Thy breaths that measure out Thy existence is a pearl, and each of Thine atoms is a guide leading Thee to God. The blessings of this Friend encompass Thee from head to foot; they are visibly manifested within Thee. If thou knewest the Being from whom thou art separated, couldst Thou patiently endure that separation? God hath cared for Thee with a hundred tokens of regard and attentions, while thou, in Thy ignorance, hast remained with another being.