An excellent physician, who was the pivot of the world and was endowed with the most excellent qualities, related the following: “One night,” said he, “I saw Bâyazid and Tarmazi together in a dream, upon a road; yet these two men of pre-eminence took me for their guide. I sought to interpret this dream satisfactorily: it was for this reason that these two schaïkhs had treated me with such deference. Then I remembered that one morning a sigh had involuntarily risen from my heart. Now this sigh arose, opened the spiritual path before me, and shook the hammer of the sanctuary door, so that it opened. When I was admitted therein, they spoke to me without using the tongue, and all the spiritual masters and their disciples asked me something, except Bâyazid Bastami. The latter rose from among them all; he wished to see me, but not to ask me anything. He said to me: ‘When I heard the summons of thy heart this night, I said: Neither this nor that is right in my eyes. When I desire to see thee, thou dost not return my love, and if I seek thee, thou art not one to be found. What I desire is to follow thy commands; what I hold dear is to conduct myself according to thy will. There is in me neither uprightness nor deviation; who am I to form a wish? It is enough for the servant to obey the commands he receives. What Thou commandest is enough for me.’”
It was because of this discourse that these two sheikhs treated me with respect and gave me precedence. When a man walks constantly in obedience, he acts in accordance with the word of God. He is no servant of God who boasts of being one; but the true servant shows himself at the time of trial. Endure this trial, so that Thou mayest make Thyself known.