A BUZZING IN THE EAR

Have you heard that the famous Arabian chieftain' Hatim Tai, was deaf?
Quite a few people believed that!

But, one morning there was a fly buzzing as it struggled to escape from a
spider's web. The spider had been so still and silent that the fly had perhaps
thought it was a piece of sugar. Now it was about to learn otherwise.

Hatim Tai went over to the corner of the room where the buzzing was.

'You are caught by your own greediness,' he said to the fly. 'You won't find
honey, sugar and candy in every nook and cranny. But that's where you will
be certain to find traps and snares.' The buzzing stopped. The spider had its
pray.'

'But Hatim' said a follower who had watched all this 'how could you have possibly
heard that fly? I could only just hear it myself. yet everybody says you are deaf!'

'You're very clever,' said Hatim with a smile. 'Well, I see I must tell you about my
deafness. It's like this; Much of my time, for reasons of state, I had to be among
flatterers, the sort of people who hid my faults from me and filled my ears with praise.
I couldn't help but take in some of their talk. I grew proud, and pride made me
wretched man.

'Then I gradually allowed them to think I was deaf. Naturally, there was much sad
shaking of heads. But then came two great advantages.

'The first was that they stopped bothering to flatter me. They soon saw that it got them
nowhere- all they had for their effort was my blank face.

'The second was that I began to hear the truth about myself. When they thought I couldn't
hear, they were quite frank about my good and bad qualities. It was always pleasant to
hear my sins discussed publicly, but it quickly abolished my pride and helped me in avoiding
further wickedness.'
                                                           SAADI

SAYING OF MAHMUD SHABISTARI

-There is only one light, and 'you' and 'me' are
  holes in the lamp shade.

-The world exists only as an appearance.
  From beginning to end it is a playful game.

-See unity, utter unity, know unity,
  In this is to be summarized the trunk and
   the branches of the tree of faith.

- Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
   Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
   When you depart out He will enter it.
    If you , void of yourself, will
    He display His beauties.

- The eye is not strong enough
        to look at the brilliant sun;
   But you can watch its light
        reflected in water.
    Pure Being is to bright to behold.
        yet it can be seen
       reflected in the mirror of the world.
    For non-Being.
       is set opposite of Being,
       and catches its image in every moment.

-Every particle of the world is a mirror,
  In each atom lies the blazing light
      of a thousand suns.
Cleave the heart of a rain drop,
   a hundred pure oceans will flow forth.
 Look closely at a grain of sand,
   the seed of a thousand beings can be seen...
 within the pulp of a millet seed
    an entire Universe can be found.
In the wing of a fly,
    an ocean of wonders;
 In the pupil of the eye, an endless heaven.
 Though the inner chamber of the heart is small,
     the lord of both worlds
 gladly make His home there.

THOUGHTS OF SCIENTISTS

The difference between me at five and me now is that at five I didn't have much invested emotionally in the Universe being a certain way. Being "wrong" never was a concern. It was all learning. Now I keep reminding myself : In science there is no such thing as a failed experiment. Learning that I was testing simply does not work is actually a success.

                                             WILL

I have found that I find a particular excitement in suddenly realizing I don't know the answer to something. It's like coming to the edge of a cliff in my mind.

In this space of "nothing" or not knowing, I get this intense feeling of anticipation. The reason I get excited is because I've come to the edge of what I know, and I realize that shortly an understanding will arrive in my head that will be staggering and will not have existed in me the moment before.

 It will be this huge ah-ha. I learned recently that an ah-ha stimulates the pleasure center of the brain---Evidently I'm addicted to this feeling.

                                                             MARK

You can never come to a conclusion about life. Life is an internal thing just as we are an internal thing.

We have to start searching for more meaning of what we are. Well the meaning of what we are has yet to be discovered by us.

                                   RAMTHA

In the mystic sense of the creation around us, in the expression of art, in a yearning toward God, the soul grows upward and find the fulfillment of some thing in planted in its nature....The pursuit of science (also) springs from a striving which the mind is implied to follow, a questioning that will not suppressed. Whether in the intellectual pursuit of science or in the mystical pursuit of the spirit, the light beckons ahead, and the purpose surging in our nature responds.

SIR ARTHUR EDDINGTON ASTROPHYSICIST, IN NATURE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD.

The riff between science and spirit affects us today because the scientists who are involve in this sort of debate know very little about the teaching of spirit. They simply take the characters that they find retailed from every pulpit throughout the land and take this as a scientific spirit when in fact it's only a version of the science of the spirit. And, unfortunately, the churchman don't know their science either, so the two sides are actually firing at cross targets. these are simply two complimentary ways of looking at reality.

                  MICEAL LEDWITH 

ALI IN BATTLE

Learn from Ali how to fight
without your ego participating.

God's |Lion did nothing
that didn't originate
from his deep center.

Once in battle he got the best of a certain knight
and quickly drew his sward. The man,
helpless on the ground, spat
in Ali's face. Ali dropped his sword,
relaxed, and helped the man to his feet.

"Why have you spared me?
How has lightning contracted back
into its cloud? Speak, my prince,
so that my soul can begin to stir
in me like an embryo."

Ali was quiet and then finally answered,
"I am God's Lion, not the lion of passion.
The sun is my lord. I have no longing
except for the One.
When a wind of personal reaction comes,
I do not go along with it.

There are many winds full of anger,
and lust and greed. They move the rubbish
around, but the solid mountain of our true nature
stay where it's always been.

There is nothing now
except the divine qualities.
Come through the opening into me.

Your impudence was better than any reverence,
because in this moment I am you and you are me.

I give you this opened heart as God gives gifts:
the poison of your spit has become
the honey of friendship."
                                           RUMI

THE MISER WHO BECOME A MOUSE

A miser died, leaving a cache of gold;
And in a dream what should the son behold
But his dead father, shaped now like a mouse
That dashed distractedly about the house,
His mouse-eyes filled with tears. The sleeping son
Spoke in his dream:"Why, father, must you run
About our home like this?" The poor mouse said:
"Who guards my store of gold now I am dead?
Has any thief found out its hiding-place?"
The son asked next about his mouse-like face
And heard his father say: "Learn from my state;
Whoever worship gold, this is his fate-
To haunt the hidden cache for evermore,
An anxious mouse that darts across the floor";

                                                                 ATTAR





A GRAVEDIGGER

A man who lived by digging graves survived
To ripe old age. A neighbour said: "You've thrived
For years, digging away in one routine-
Tell us the strangest thing you've ever seen."
He said:"All things considered, what's most strange
Is that for seventy years without a change
That dog, my Self, has seen me digging graves,
Yet neither dies, nor alters, nor behaves;"

                                                             ATTAR

TEACHING

Then said a teacher, speak to us of Teaching
And he said:
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already
lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple,
among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom,
but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind......
And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge,
so much each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God
and in his understanding of the earth.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

CHILDREN

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot
Visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

CAN YOU SWIM

In the old times there were only rowboats to cross the straits of Bosporus in Turkey, not the large boats of today. If you wanted to go from one side to the other, you hired a boat with five or ten other people and paid the boatman to take you across.
One day, a professor of geography stepped into one of these boats to cross the straits. Just as the boat set out, the wind started to kick up, and the boat began to sway from side to side.
As they made their way across the straits, the professor asked the boatman, "Do you know geography?"
The boatman replied that he did not. The professor said, "You've wasted one third of your life. A third of your life is gone."
A few moments later, the professor asked, "Do you know math?" and the boatman replied that he did not. Again the professor said, "A third of your life is gone; you've wasted all of this time."
Then he asked him, "Do you know history? No? A third of your life is gone; you have wasted so much time." and continued berating the boatman like this.
Mean while, the wind had become quite ferocious and the boat to rock back and forth wildly.
The boatman asked the professor "Do you know how to swim?"
The professor replied that he did not. The boatman said to him, "Then all of your life is gone."

REFERENCE: WHAT ABOUT MY WOOD BY ES- SEYYID ES-SHAYKH

WOULD YOU LIKE THAT WELL DONE

Khidr was teaching Moses (peace be upon them both) as they traveled together. One day, when they both became very hungry they each prayed for food. Allah answered Moses prayer and he started a fire so he could cook the food he had received. he noticed that Khidr was eating something. You need to work on your belief ,'' Khidr told Moses why don't you pray for a nicely cooked meal, as I do?


Khidr: The immoral prophet , also known as the Green Man


Reference: What about my wood by Es-Sayyid Es-Sheikh Taner Anasari

THE CHESS PLAYER

There was once a king who used to play chess with his court jester.
The jester was a Good player, and he won the game. This so annoyed
the king he punished him.
Then the monarch insisted on playing another time. The jester was
reluctant, but he had to continue.
When he was again on the point of winning, and the time had come
to call 'checkmate' the jester jumped up and ran into a corner. there he
covered himself with rugs, to avoid being beaten by the king.
The king asked him what he was doing. 'checkmate!' called out the jester;
'I am hiding here because nobody can dare to checkmate you unless he is
hidden, covered up-----'

RUMI

REFERENCE: THE COMMANDING SELF BY IDRIES SHAH

EYE BROWS

A man look at his wife's face and said: 'When did one of your eyebrows become thinner than the other?'
she answered: ' It was first noticed when you started to look my exterior, and become less appreciative of the inner Me.'

REFERENCE: THE COMMANDING SELF BY IDRIES SHAH

THE PIECE OF OAK

A father handed his son a piece of smooth oak, and said to him, "This is your board. For every mistake you make, I will hammer in a nail"
By the time the boy was thirteen, the board was covered corner to corner with nails, some rusted, some shining new. The father took the board to his son and said, "For every good thing you do to fix all of these wrongs, I will take one nail out."
And it was not too long before the father took the last nail out the proudly showed his son the
clean piece of oak. Yet when son saw the board, his eyes brimmed with tears. He turned to his father and said, "But father, what about the holes?...


REFERENCE: SOUL PRINTS BY MARC GAFNI

TWO DERVISHES

Two dervishes met on the road very early one morning. Each had a huge bale of firewood on his back. The Sultan passed and saw them. Many hours later the sultan returned near this spot and saw that the two men were still standing, shouldering their heavy loads and talking.
"Who are these men?" asked the Sultan. "They are dervishes, O Sultan," said one of his attendants, "and when they are with one another the burdens of the world disappear."

REFERENCE: WHEN YOU HEAR THE HOOFBEAT THINK OF ZEBRA
BY SHEMS FRIEDLANDER

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A HEART

Once a young woman asked me,
"How does it feel to be a man?"
And I replied,
"My dear,
I am not sure,"
Then she said,
"Well, aren't you a man?"

And this time I replied,

"I view gender
As a beautiful animal
That people often take for a walk on a leash
And might enter in some odd contest
To try win strange prizes.

My dear,
A better question for Hafiz
would have been,
'How does it feel to be a heart?'
For all I know is Love'
And I find my heart Infinite.
And Everywhere!"

HAFIZ

REFERENCE: I HEARD GOD LAUGHING
BY DANIEL LANDISKY

DON'T JUMP

A man came by where Hazrat Ali was working on a roof. The man asked, "Is it true that our lives are predestined and that it is written exactly when we are going to die?"
Hazrat Ali answered that this was indeed true.
The man continued, "Then why do you not jump off of the roof? You will not die now if it is not your time."
Hazrat Ali asked the man,"Are you testing God? on the contrary, it is God who created all of this to test you."

REFERENCE: WHAT ABOUT MY WOOD!
BY ES-SEYYID ES- SHAYKH TANER ANSARI

THE APPARENT PROBLEM

A student came to his master and said, "Teacher, you taught me that if I run from honor, then honor will pursue me. Well, I have been running from honor for many years now and honor is still not pursuing me."
"The problem," replied the master, nodding sagaciously, "is clearly apparent. When you run from honor you are always looking over your shoulder to see if honor is pursuing you- so honor is confused, not quite sure which way you are going."

REFERENCE: SOUL PRINT BY MARC GAFNI

IT IS PRICELESS

Shibli was a pupil of the famous theosophist Junaid of Baghdad. On his conversion, he came to Junaid, saying: "They tell me that you poses the pearl of divine knowledge: either give it to me or sell it." Junaid answered, "I cannot sell it, for you have not the price there of; and if I give it to you, you will have gained it cheaply. You do not know its value. Cast yourself head long, like me, into this ocean, in order that you may win the pearl by waiting patiently."....

REFERENCE: THE MYSTICS OF ISLAM
BY A NICHOLSON

TRUE FOLLOWERS

At the time of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, one of the viziers told the Sultan about a great Shiekh who lived in Anatolia. He warned the Sultan to be careful of this Sheikh, because he had hundreds of thousands of followers. And if this sheikh decided to turn against the Sultan, the whole country could be in turmoil and he could even lose throne.
The Sultan got quite concerned. He sent for the Sheikh to come to Istanbul. When they met, the sultan said, "What is this I hear, you have hundreds of thousands of dervish followers?" "No that is not so," the Sheikh answered "Well, how many do you have?" the Sultan insisted.
"I only have one and a half."
"If you only have one and a half, why is everyone telling me that you have the power to overthrow this entire country? We shall see, there's a huge field at the edge of town, and tomorrow everyone is going to meet at that field."
The Sultan sent out messengers to announce that anyone who was a follower of this great Sheikh should come to this field the next day, because the sheikh would be there.
Above the field there was a hill where the Sultan set up a huge tent. Inside the tent he put several sheep, but no one could see this.
The next day hundreds of thousands of people came to the field to see the great Sheikh. In front of the tent the sultan stood next to the Sheikh and said, "You said you didn't have many followers."
"They are not," the Sheikh said. "I only have one and a half dervishes. You'll see."
"The Sheikh has committed an indiscretion," the Sultan said, "And unless ten of the dervishes give up their life for him, his life will be taken."
There was a great rumbling in the crowd. "He is my Sheikh and teacher. Whatever I know come from him," one man came forward and said. "I will go and give my life for him."
The Sultan's men marched him up the hill, took him into the tent, and slit the throat of a sheep. Everybody saw the blood flowing out from the side of the tent, and this made them very nervous.
The Sultan declared, "Is there anyone else willing to give his life for his Sheikh?"
Silence
Then one woman stood up and said she would . They marched her up and into the tent, and again they slit the throat of another sheep. Seeing more blood, the crowd began to disperse. Soon there was no one left in the field.
The Sheikh turned to the sultan and said, "you see, I told you, I only had one and a half dervishes."
The Sultan said, "Oh, the man is your dervish, and the woman is half a dervish?"
"No, no, " the Sheikh said "The woman is my dervish, and the man is half a dervish."
Seeing the surprised expression on the sultan's face, the Sheikh explained:
"The man did not actually know that he was going to be killed when he entered the tent. But the woman knew, and she still came forward. she is my real dervish."


REFERENCE: WHEN YOU HEAR A HOOFBEAT THINK OF ZEBRA
BY SHEMS FRIEDLANDER

SAYINGS OF IBN-AL-ARABI

1. When you realize the mystery of oneness with the Divine. You will know that you are no other than Allah, and that you always been and will always be beyond every time and place. Then you will understand that all your actions are His actions and your essence is His essence and all your attributes belong to Him. The soul then understands that it does not see Allah through itself but through Allah so that it is not the soul that loves Allah but Allah who loves Himself. The soul see Allah in all beings, but only because it is Allah who is looking.



2. Allah is not limited to the way he appears to you by making Himself appropriate to your ability to receive Him. Therefore, no other creature are obliged to obey the God you worship for He appears to them in others form.



3. God removed from me my contingent dimension. Thus I attained in this non tunnel journey the inner realities of all the Names, and I saw them all returning to One subject and One Entity. The subject was that I witnessed and that Entity was my being. For my voyage was only in myself and pointed to myself and through this I came to know that I was pure "slave" without a trace of lordship in me at all.



4. All is contained in the divine breath, like the day in the morning down.


5. My existence is from you and your appearance is through me.
Yet if I had not appeared, you would not been.


6. Gnostic's cannot impart their feelings to the other men; they can only indicate them symbolically to those who have begun to experience the like.


7. When my Beloved appears,
with what eye do I see Him?
with His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself.


8. Everything engendered in existence is Imagination-
but in fact it is Reality whoever understand this truth
has grasped the mysteries of the way.


9. God made the creatures as veils. He who knows them to be such is led back to Him, but he who takes them as real is barred from His presence.


10. I saw myself through the light that things carry in their essence- not through any extraneous light.


11. He is the seer and also that through which He sees.

THE TALE OF THE SANDS

A stream, from its source in far-off mountains, passing through every kind and description of countryside, at last reached the sands of the desert, just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried to cross this one, but it found that as fast as it ran into the sand, its water disappeared.
It was convinced, however, that its destiny was to cross this desert, and yet there was no way. Now a hidden voice, coming from the desert itself, whispered: "The wind crosses the desert, and so can the stream?"
The stream objected that it was dashing itself against the sand, and only getting absorbed; that the wind could fly, and this was why it could cross a desert.
'By hurtling in your own accustomed way you cannot get across. You will either disappear or become a marsh. You must allow the wind to carry you over, to your destination.'
But how could this happen?
'By allowing yourself to be absorbed in the wind.'
This idea was not acceptable to the stream. After all, it had never been absorbed before. It did not want to lose its individuality. And, once having lost it, how was one to know that it could ever be regained?
'The wind,' said the sand, 'perform this function. It takes up water, carries it over the desert, and then lets it fall again, falling as rain, the water again becomes a river?'
'How can I know that this is true?'
'It is so, and if you do not believe it, you cannot become more than a quagmire, and even that could take many, many years; and it certainly is not the same as stream?'
'But can I not remain the same stream that I am today?'
'You cannot in either case remain so! the whisper said. 'Your essential part is carried away and forms a stream again. You are called what you are even today because you do not know which part of you is the essential one!
When he heard this, certain echoes began to arise in the thoughts of the stream. Dimly, he remembered a state in which he-or some part of him, was it?-had been held in the arms of a wind. He also remembered- or did he?- that this was the real thing, not necessarily the obvious thing, to do.
And the stream raised his vapour into the welcoming arms of the wind, which gently and easily bore it upward and along letting it fall softly as soon as they reached the roof of the mountain, many, many miles away. And because he had his doubts, the stream was able to remember and record more strongly in his mind the details of the experience. He reflected, yes, now I have learned my true Identity.'
The stream was learning.But the sand whispered: 'We know, because we see it happen day after day: and because we the sands extend from the riverside all the way to the mountain.'
And that is why it is said that the way in which the stream of life is to continue on its journey is written in the sands.

REFERENCE: TALES OF DERVISHES BY IDRRIES SHAH

HOW TO CATCH MONKEY

Once upon a time there was a monkey who was very fond of cherries. One day he saw a delicious-looking cherry, and came down from his tree to get it. But the fruit turned out to be in clear glass bottle. After some experimentation, the monkey found that he could get hold of the cherry by putting his hand into the bottle by way of the neck. As soon as he had done so, he closed his hand over the cherry. But then he found that he could not withdraw his fist holding the cherry, because it was larger than the internal dimension of the neck.
Now all this was deliberate, because the cherry in the bottle was a trap laid by a monkey-hunter who knew how monkey think. The hunter, hearing the monkey's whimpering, came along and the monkey tried to run away. But, because his hand was as he thought, stuck in the bottle, he could not move fast enough to escape.
But, as he thought, he still had hold of the cherry. The hunter picked him up. A moment later he tapped the monkey sharply on the elbow, making him suddenly relax his hold on the fruit.
The monkey was free, but he was captured. The hunter had used the cherry and the bottle, but he still had them.

REFERENCE:TALES OF DERVASHES BY IDRIES SHAH

A PURE RING

'One day, strange to say he told (his court sages)
'A state of distress keeps coming over me.
A desire most strange has arisen in my heart,
though I know not from what cause it arose.
Make me a pure ring of such a kind
that whatever I feel very sorrowful,
by looking at it I become glad- hearted.
and free from the clutches of sorrow that turk?'
The sages asked him to give them some time.
Those great wise men that sat down together.
They pondered and meditated at length,
spending blood, sweat and tears on the task at hand.
Finally they agreed on a firm decision-
resolved a single design for the ring.
'Make haste to inscribe this moto upon it:
"This too shall soon enough pass away."

ATTAR


REFERENCE: ATTAR THE PERSIAN SUFI TRADITION

A PURE RING

I AM FLYING A KITE

It was Timothy's twelfth birthday. He had saved up enough money to buy himself a present.
Nickels, dimes, and quarters- he went to neighborhood store, put his change on the counter, and
-wonder of wonders- had exactly the right amount to buy the big red kite on the wall behind the cash register. The happiest kid in the world, he went to Van Cort Landth Park in the Bronx and
began to fly his new kite.
There were great winds that day, and he let out some string, and a little more string, and
a little more, until the kite was so high and far away you couldn't even see it anymore. When you
looked at the boy, all you could see was a happy kid running with string in his hand.
A very respectable and rational- looking man in a business suit came upon the boy and
stoped him. "son, what are you doing?" he asked-
"What do you mean, sir?" Timothy asked. "I'm flying a kite!"
" flying a kite? what do you mean? I don't see a kite. You don't see a kite. How do you know there's a kite?" Timothy looked at a man very gravely. "I know there's a kite sir-
because I can feel the tug!"



REFERENCE:SOUL PRINT BY MARC GAFNI

LOAVES OF BREAD

One day two holy men came to visit Rabia' hoping to get some thing to eat; they were sure that whatever food she give them would be ritually pure since it was " obtained in a lawful manner."
After they had seated themselves, a cloth containing two loaves of bread was laid before them. Eagerly they reached for the food-
But before they could get it to their mouth, a hungry beggar appeared at the door. Rabia immediately gave him both loaves of bread.
This really bothered the two holy men, but they kept it to themselves.
Pretty soon a slave-girl arrived, caring a load of freshly-baked bread.
"My mistress sent this."
Rabia counted the loaves. "I don't think so," she said.
"There are only eighteen here."
Protest, denial- whatever the girl said, Rabia would not believe her.
(what's happened was that the slave-girl had taken two loaves for herself.)
So she went away and came back with the full twenty loaves. Rabia counted them again:
"That's more like it." So Rabia served the hungry holy men with twenty loaves instead of two. They were really baffled. "Two loaves, no loaves, twenty loaves- What does it all mean?" they asked.
"As soon as I saw you." said Rabia, "I could tell you were hungry. Two little loaves of bread- how could that be enough for two holy men? Then I remembered the promise: 'You give one; I give ten!' so I gave two to beggar-"
"But when only eighteen came back, I knew that there was either something is wrong with my prayers, or that somebody had sticky fingers."

REFERENCE: DOOR KEEPER OF THE HEART
VERSIONS OF RABIA BY CHARLES UPTON

DEEPER THINGS AFFECT SURFACE ONES

A shopkeeper had a cask of oil, which he sealed with his ring impression after filling it full.
His assistants, however, found that they could steel oil by drilling a hole near the bottom
of the barrel and plugging it until they wanted to draw off the oil from there.
When the shopkeeper opened his cast and found that, although the top was secure,
the level has gone down. He was baffled. He ask a wiser man, who was a customer at his
shop, what this might mean.
The wise man said, 'some has been drawn off from the bottom: why don't you look
there for the source of your problem?"
'Fool!' shouted the shopkeeper: 'I am talking about the oil that is missing from the top!'


REFERENCE:THE COMMANDING SELF BY IDRIES SHAH

SAYING OF RUMI

Lift up a broken hand in prayer.
Allah's Perfect kindness is given away free
to all those who acknowledge their flows.


What are you talking about!
Having to ear a living doesn't stop you digging
from the Treasure. Don't abandon your every day life.
That's where the Treasure is hidden.


Those who acknowledge the truth see themselves in the prophet
and hear their own voice proceeding from him and smell their own
scent proceeding from him. No man denies his own self. Therefore
the Prophets says to the community "We are you and you are we.
There is no strangeness between us."


The religion of love is separate from all religions.
For lovers, the religion and creed is -God.


The soil is faithful to its trust:
What ever you have sown in it you reap the same.
But until spring time brings the touch of God,
the soil does not reveal its secrets.


Wherever I shine the lamplight of Divine breath,
There the difficulties of a whole world are resolved.
The darkness which the earthy sun did not remove,
becomes through My breath a bright morning.


Every morning, out of love for you,
this intellect become crazy, climb upon the
roof of the brain and plays the lute.


Intellect says, 'This world, this universe, has
six borders which you cannot transgress!
Love says 'There is a way, and I have gone
over it very frequently.'


Whether you love God or love a human being,
If you love enough you will come into the presence
of love itself.


Just look at your hand.
closing the fist always precedes opening it
A hand that's always closed or open
is a crippled hand.
So your heart also contracts and expands
just like a birds needs to close and open its wings to fly.


The tale of love must be heard from love itself.
For like a mirror it is both mute and expressive.


soul receive from soul that knowledge,
therefore not by book nor from tongue.
If knowledge of mysteries come after emptiness
of mind, that is illumination of heart.

THREE LIGHTS AND THREE DARKNESSES

When the first man (Adam) was complete, he was told to look over his right shoulder.
There were three lights. He asked the first light its name and where it resided.
"I am Intelligence," it answered "and I live in your head."
He asked the second light the same question.
"I am conscience, and I reside in you eyes."
He looked at the third light and had to shield his eyes from the glow.
"Who are you, and where do you live," he asked.
The light answered, "I am compassion, and I live in your heart."

On the other side of the prophet Adam stood three darknesses. He forced himself to ask
the first darkness its name.
"I am Arrogance, and I live in you head."
"This is impossible," cried Adam, "for that is where Intelligence lives."
"Only until I enter; then there is no room for Intelligence, " said the darkness.
"And who are you?" he asked, turning to the second darkness.
"My name is Insatiable Ambition, and I reside in your eyes."
"But that is where conscience lives," replied Adam.
"Not when I am there," uttered Ambition.
"And you," he asked the third darkness, "Who are you?"
"I am known as Envy, and I occupy space in your heart."
"Compassion is in my heart," said Adam.
Envy with a smile, "Compassion departs."

REFERENCE: WHEN YOU HEAR HOOFBEATS THINK OF A ZEBRA
BY SHEMS FRIEDLANDER

WHY ARE YOU RUNNING

A Zen master enters a village and sees people scarring about.
"Where are you running?" he asks.
"To make a living," they respond.
"Why are you so sure that your living is in front of you?" he probes.
"May be it's behind you and can't catch up. Do not run to make a living, be still and live.

REFERENCE: SOUL PRINTS BY MARC GAFNI

THE CONVERSATION OF THE BIRDS

There is a classical sufi story about a king who was setting out to war. He was accompanied by everything necessary, from gold to arms, from fierce warriors to military bands. No details of his enterprise had been forgotten. On the way he met a dervish, a poor and weak wanderer who was yet a wise man, reputed to know the language of birds.
The dervish told the king:
'I know the language of birds, and what they are saying about your Majesty.'
The king said:
'Are they pleased that I am set on this path, and that I am determined to succeed?'
'They are delighted, your Majesty,' said the dervish, 'for they say: "This king will ruin so many cities that we shall have abundant nesting places for the rest of the time among the fallen buildings."

REFERENCE: THE COMMANDING SELF BY IDRIES SHAH

LETS SEE IF YOU ARE READY

There was a man who studied with a sheikh for thirty years. Then he said to the sheikh, "Now I want to go out with your permission to see if I can also teach others what I have learned from you."
The sheikh said, I'll ask you one question. If you can answer this question, I'll know that you ready. It is not a question from the Quran," he added.
"On your way back to your village" the sheikh went on, "will you pass a place where there are shepherds?"
The man said yes.
Then the sheikh asked, "As you walk by this place where there is a Shepherd with his sheep, if five of his sheepdogs attacked you, what would you do?"
The man said, "I'd pick up a stone and throw it."
And the sheikh said, "You might hit one dog, but the other four would get you."
The man said, "Well, I would take a stick and try to keep them off?"
And the sheikh said, "I say to you again that you might get one or even two, but the remainder of the dogs would certainly attack you. I can see that you are not yet ready to go out to teach others in your own village."
The man said, "O sheikh, at least tell me the answer."
The sheikh told him that if he called for the shepherd, the shepherd would come from his tent, and call each of the dogs by its name, and the dogs would turn away from the attack. "
Then the sheikh said, "In this world there are people who will attack you like those dogs, and if you try to fight them off, they will win. But if you call their owner, if you call the One who created them, then He will call them by name and will protect you."

REFERENCE: WHEN YOU HEAR HOOFBEATS THINK OF A ZEBRA
BY SHEMS FRIEDLANDER

SCENT OF BELOVED

I was speaking one day among a group of people, and a party of non-muslim was present.
In the middle of my address they began to weep and to register emotion and ecstasy. Some one asked: What do they understand and what do they know? Only one muslim in a thousand understand this kind of talk. What did they understand, that they should weep? The Master (i-e Rumi himself) answered: It is not necessary that they should understand the form of the discourse; that which constitutes the root and principle of the discourse, that they understand. After all, everyone acknowledge the Oneness of God, that He is the creator and provider, that He controls everything that to Him all things shall return, and that it is He who punishes and forgives. When anyone hears these words, which are a description and commemoration (dhikr) of God, a universal commotion and ecstatic passion supervenes, since out of these words come the scent of their Beloved and their Quest.

RUMI

REFERENCE: THE OTHER IN THE LIGHT OF THE ONE
BY RAZA SHAH KAZMI

AYAZ AND THE KING'S PEARL

One day the king assembled his courtiers.
He handed the minister a glowing pearl.
"What would you say this is worth?"
"More gold
than a hundred donkeys could carry."
"Break it!"
"Sir, how could I waste your resources
like that?" The king presented him
with a robe of honor for his answer
and took back the pearl. He talked a while
to the assembly on various topics.
Then he put the pearl
in the Chamberlain's hand. "What would it sell for!"
"Half a kingdom, God preserve it!"
"Break it!"
"My hand could not move to do such a thing."
The king rewarded him with a robe of honor
and an increase in his salary, and so it went
with each of the fifty or sixty courtiers.

One by one, they imitated the minister
and the Chamberlain and received new wealth.

Then the pearl was given to Ayaz.

"Can you say how splendid this is?"
"It's more than I can say."
"Then break it,
this second, into tiny pieces."
Ayaz had had a dream
about this, and he'd hidden two stones in his sleeves.
He crushed the pearl to powder between them.

As Joseph at the bottom of the well listen
to the end of his story, so such listeners
understand success and UN-success as one thing.

Don't worry about forms.
If someone wants your horse,
let them have it. Horses are for
hurrying ahead of the others.


The court assembly screamed at the recklessness
to Ayaz, "How could you do that?"

"What the king says is worth more than any pearl.
I honor the king, not some colored stone."

The princes immediately fell on their knees
and put their foreheads on the ground.

Their sighs went up like a smoke cloud
asking forgiveness. The king gestured
to his executioner as though to say,
"Take out this trash."
Ayaz spang forward.
"Your mercy makes them bow like this.
Give them their lives! Let them keep hoping
for union with you. They see their forgetfulness
now, as the drunken man did when he said,
'I didn't know what I was doing,' and then
someone pointing out, 'But you invited
that forgetfulness into you. You drank it.
There was a choice!'

They know deeply now how imitation
lulled them to sleep. Don't separate yourself
from them. Look at all their heads against the floor.

Raise their faces into yours. Let them wash
in your cool washing place."
Ayaz and his speech always get to his point
and then the pen breaks. How can a saucer
contain the ocean? The drunks break their cups,
but you pour that wine!
Ayaz said, "You picked me
to crush the pearl. Don't punish the others
for my drunken obedience!
Punish them when I'm sober,
because I'll never be sober again.

Whoever bows down like they are bowing down
will not rise up in his old self again.

Like a gnat in your buttermilk,
They've become your buttermilk.

The mountains are trembling. Their map and compass
are the lines in your palm."
Husam,
I need a hundred mouths to say this,
but I only have this one!

A hundred thousand impressions from the spirit
are wanting to come through here.
I feel stunned
in this abundance, crushed and dead.

REFERENCE: THE ESSENTIAL
RUMI
BY COLEMAN BARKS

STOP CALLING ME A PREGNANT WOMAN

My master once entered a phase
That whenever I would see him
He would say

"Hafiz
How did you ever become a pregnant woman?"

And I would reply

"Dear Attar,
You must be speaking the truth,
But all what you say is a mystery to me."

Many months passed by in his blessed company
But one day I lost my patience
upon hearing that odd refrain
And blurted out,

"Stop calling me a pregnant woman?"

And Attar replied
"Someday, my sweet Hafiz,
All the nonsense in your brain will dry up
Like a stagnant pool of water
Beneath the sun,

Though if you want to know the Truth
I can say clearly see that God has made love with you
And the whole universe is germinating
inside your belly

And wonderful words,
such enlightening words
will take birth from you

And be cradled against thousands
of hearts."

HAFIZ

REFERENCE: THE GIFT
BY DANIEL LADINSKY

ONE MAN'S POISON IS ANOTHER MAN'S HONEY

Once Prophet Moses comes across a humble old shepherd in the desert. The shepherd is praying to Allah in the most informal of ways, saying how he want to pick the lice off Him, to wash His clothes, to kiss His feet and hands. The Shepperd ends his prayers with "When I think of You, all I can say Ahhhhh! Moses is appalled by this lack of reverence and exclaims, "Do you realize that you are talking to the Creator of Heaven and Earth, not to your old uncle?!" Feeling very foolish, the shepherd asks Moses if he thinks Allah will ever forgive him. At that moment, however, divine voice speaks to Moses, rebuking him saying: Moses, what to you seems wrong is right for him. One man's poison is another man's honey. Ways of worships cannot ranked as better or worse. It is all praise and it is all right. It is the worshipper who is glorified by worship- not I. I don't listen to the words. I look inside at the humility. Only that low and open emptiness is important to me.

REFERENCE: THE HEART OF ISLAM
BY TIMOTHY FREKE

THE SHEIKH WHO PLAYED WITH CHILDREN

A certain young man was asking around
"I need to find a wise person. I have a problem."

A bystander said, "There's no one with intelligence
in our town except that man over there
playing with the children,
the one riding the stick-horse.
He has keen, fiery insight and vast dignity
like the night sky, but he conceals it
in the madness of child's play."

The young seeker approached the children, "Dear father,
you who have become as a child, tell me a secret."

"Go away. This is not a day
for secrets."
"But please! Ride your horse this way,
just for a minute."
The sheikh play-galloped over.
"speak quickly. I can't hold this one still for long.
Whoops. Don't let him kick you.
This is a wild one!"
The young man felt he couldn't ask his serious question
in the crazy atmosphere, so he joked
"I need to get married.
Is there someone suitable on this street?"

"There are three kinds of women in the world.
Two are griefs, and one is a treasure in the world.
The first, when you marry her, is all yours.
The second is half-yours, and the third
is not yours at all.
Now get out of here,
Before this horse kicks you in the head! Easy now!"

The sheikh rode off among the children.
The young man shouted,"Tell me more about the kinds of
women!"

The sheikh, on his cane horsey, came closer,
"The virgin of your first love is all yours.
She will make you feel happy and free.A childless
widow is the second, she will be half your.The third,
who is nothing to you, is a married woman with a child.
By her first husband she had a child, and all her love
goes into that child. She will have no connection with you.
Now watch out.
Back away.
I'm going to turn this rascal around!"
He gave a loud whoop and rode back,
calling the children around him.
"One more question, Master!"
The sheikh circled,
"What is it? Quickly! That rider over there needs me.
I think I'm in love"
"What is this playing that you do?
Why do you hide your intelligence so?"
"The people here
want to put me in charge. They want me to be
judge, magistrate, and interpreter of all the texts.
The knowing I have doesn't want that. It want to enjoy
itself. I am a plantation of sugarcane, and at
the same time I'm eating the sweetness."
Knowledge that is acquired
is not like this. Those who have it worry if
audiences like it or not.
It's a bait for popularity.
Disputations knowing wants customers.
It has no soul.
Robust and energetic
before a responsive crowd, it slumps when no one is
there. The only real customer is God.
Chew quietly
your sweet sugarcane God-love, and stay
playfully childish.
Your face
will turn rosy with illumination
like the red bud flowers.

Lets the lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absent minded.Someone sober
will worry about things going badly.
Let the lover be.

All day and night, music,
a quiet, bright
reed song, if it
fades, we fade.

REFERENCE:THE ESSENTIAL RUMI
BY COLEMAN BARKS WITH JOHN MOYNE

BUT I KNOW MYSELF

A dervish came into a new town and was accosted by an unfriendly and presumptuous person:
"Go away! No one know you here!"
"Yes, but I know myself, and it would be much worse if it were the other way around."

Fariduddin Attar

REFERENCE: THE SUFI BOOK OF LIFE
BY NEIL DOUGLAS-KLOTZ

THE DEVIL AND THE WOODCUTTER

There was a man who was a woodcutter. He heard that in the next village there were people who worshiped a gum tree. And he thought, I'm going to take my ax and cut down that tree. So he put his ax on his shoulder and walked down the path toward the town with the intention of chopping down that tree. He knew that Allah is One. And they were wrong to worship that tree. Before he approached the town, a figure jumped before him and announced that he was the Devil and asked, "Where are you going?"
The woodcutter answered, "I'm going to chop down the gum tree in the next village because the people there worship it."
The Devil told him, "Look, it's not necessary. Let them do what they do. You go and do what you want to do. "
He said,"No, I insist. I have every intention to go."
The devil tried to stop him. The man punched him down and jumped on top of him and held him there. Presently the devil looked up at him and said, "Look, you've got me pinned down now. Let's make a deal. I will give you one piece of gold every single day. It will be under your pillow in the morning for the rest of your life if only you forget this task and go back home."
The man thought, every day of my life? The Devil said, "Yes. That's a promise."
He asked the Devil, "How do I know you'll keep this promise?"
"The first day that you don't find the gold, you can just take your ax, and come and chop down this tree."
He thought that seemed logical and agreed. That night he had a sleepless night wondering whether the gold would be under his pillow or not. When he awoke in the morning, there was a piece of gold. He had visions of being an extremely wealthy man. Because he thought every day one piece of gold would appear. The next night, the anticipation of the gold again prevented him from sleeping well. And when he woke, he searched under his pillow, and there was no gold. There was nothing. He looked all around thinking that it might have fallen down, but it wasn't anywhere to be found. He got very angry, picked up his ax and said, I'm going to chop that tree into bits. And he stalked off to the village. At the same spot he met the Devil again.
He said, "you tricked me so now I'm going to chop that tree. The Devil said, "Now look, let the villagers do what they want, and you go and you do-----"
And in a flash, this time the Devil was on top of him. He was weakened. As strong as he was, he couldn't move.
He looked up, and the devil said to him, "Now do you want to know why it was so easy for me to overthrow you this time? Where as yesterday, you threw me down, and were more powerful than I was."
He said, "yes."
And the Devil said to him, "Yesterday you were going to chop the tree down because of your faith in Allah. And today you were going to chop the tree down because you didn't get gold. If you desire gold, it will weaken you in this world."

REFERENCE: WHEN YOU HEAR HOOFBEATS THINK OF A ZEBRA
BY SHEMS FRIEDLANDER

THE SINNER'S REQUEST

A man approached Moses and said to him, "you are going to the mountain to speak to Allah. I have sinned my whole life. Ask Him if I will be forgiven or punished."
Some time later, Moses came down from the mountain. The man said, "Did you ask Him?"
Moses said, "yes, I asked Him"
"What did Allah say?"
"Allah said, 'Tell my servant-"
The man interrupted, "stop I don't care if Allah send me to hell or punishes me with the greatest punishment on earth. But He has called me His servant, and if He thinks of me as His servant, then surely I am close to Him."

REFRENCE: WHEN YOU HEAR HOOFBEAT THINK OF A ZEBRA
BY SHEMS FRIEDLANDER

THE MAN WHO WAS DIGGING HOLES

There's a story about a Sheikh who was walking with one of his murids, near a huge field. In the field there was a man who was digging holes. This man had dug two hundred holes two feet deep.
Observing this, the murid asked, "O my Sheikh, what is he doing?"
"I don't know. Let us ask him," the sheikh answered. They called him over, and asked what was the purpose of digging so many holes just two feet deep.
"I'm looking for water," the man said. The sheikh told him, "It's unlikely that you will find water by digging two hundred holes that are only two feet deep. You have a better chance of finding water if you dig one hole two hundred feet deep."

REFERENCE: WHEN YOU HEAR HOOF BEATS THINK OF A ZEBRA
BY SHEMS FRIENDLANDER

THE OATH

A man who was troubled in mind once swore that if his problems were solved he would sell his house and give all the money gained from it to the poor.
The time came when he realized that he must redeem his oath. But he did not want to give away so much money. So he thought of a way out.
He put the house on sale at one silver piece.Included with the house, however, was a cat. The price asked for this animal was ten thousand pieces of silver.
Another man bought the house and cat. The first man gave the single piece of silver to the poor, and pocketed the ten thousand for himself.
Many people's mind work like this. They resolve to follow a teaching; but they interpret their relationship with it to their own advantage. Until they overcome this tendency by special training they cannot learn at all.


REFERENCE: TALES OF THE DERVISHES BY IDRIES SHAH

UNTIL OUR SUSTAINER COMES

Mhammad (s.a.s) once clarified the nature of judgement day:
"In the future, there will be a certain community composed of immature believers. Allah will manifest itself to them an aspect other than what would they are used to and will say to them, "I am your sustainer- follow me."
"'No, we take refuge in Allah from you,' they will answer. 'we will not move from here until our sustainer comes to meet us, and we will know our sustainer instantly.'
"Allah will then return in the form they are used to and say. 'Here I am: your sustainer.' Then they will rejoice-'You are really our sustainer!'-and will follow.
"When they have reached the other side of the bridge over the fire of time and judgement then Allah will tell them.'Who ever worship me in any one of my infinite qualities should follow me confidently from their understanding of that quality.

ABID

REFERENCE:THE SUFI BOOK OF LIFE BY NEIL DOUGLAS-KLOTZ

THOSE WHO TRUST IN ALLAH HAVE NO FEAR

There was a king who was frightened to learn from his studies of astrology that a great calamity would soon befall him, so he built a room of solid rock to hide within and surrounded it with guards. When he was in it, He noticed a little chink of light that he filled in to prevent any harm reaching him. Thus he become a prisoner and died in the room.

ATTAR

REFERENCE: THE HEART OF ISLAM BY TIMOTHY FREKE

BRING THE MAN TO ME

A Perfect One was traveling Through the desert.
He was stretched out around the fire one night
And said to one of his close once,

"There is a slave who is not far from us.
He escaped today from a cruel master.
His hands are still bound behind his back,
His feet are also shackled.

I can see him right now praying for God's help.
Go to him.
Ride to that distant hill;
About a hundred feet up and to the right
You will find a small cave.
He is there.

Do not say a single word to him
Bring the man to me.
God requests that I personally untie his body
And press my lips to his wounds."

The disciple mounts his horse and within two hours
Arrives at the small mountain cave.

The slave sees him coming, the slave looks frightened.
The disciple, on order not to speak,
Gestures toward the sky, pantomiming:

God saw you in prayer,
please come with me,
A great MURSHID* has used his heart's divine eye
To know your whereabouts.

The slave cannot believe this story,
And begins to shout at the man and tries to run

But trips from his bindings.
The disciple becomes to subdue him.

Think of this picture as they now travel:

The million candles in the sky are lit and singing
Every particle of existence is a dancing alter
That some mysterious force worships.

The earth is a church floor whereupon
In the middle of a glorious night
Walks a slave, weeping, tied to a rope behind a horse,
With a speechless rider
Taking him toward the unknown.

Several times with all of his might the slave
Tries to break free,
Feeling he is being returned to captivity.
The rider stops, dismount-bring his eyes
Near the prisoner's eyes.

A deep kindness there communicates an unbelievable hope.
The rider motions-soon, soon you will be free.
Tears roll down from the rider's cheeks
In happiness for this man.

Anger, all this fighting and tormenting want,
MASHUQ*
God has seen you and sent a close one.

MASHUQ
God has sent your heart in prayer
And sent Hafiz.


MURSHID: Teacher (Persian)
MASHUQ:sweetheart (Persian)

HAFIZ

REFERENCE:THE GIFT POEMS BY HAFIZ
TRANSLATIONS BY DANIEL LADINSKY

BECOMING HUMAN

Once a man came to me and spoke for hour about
"His great vision of God"he felt he was having.

He asked me for confirmation, saying,
"Are these wondrous dreams true?"

I replied, "How many goats do you have?"

He looked surprised and said,
"I am speaking of sublime visions
And you ask
About goats!"

And I spoke again saying,
"Yes, brother-how many do you have?"

"Well, Hafiz, I have sixty- two,"

"And how many wives?"
Again he looked surprised, then said,
"Four"

"How many rose bushes in your garden,
How many children,
Are your parents still alive,
Do you feed the birds in winter?"

And to all he answered.

Then I said,
"You asked me if I thought your visions were true,
I would say that they were if they make you become
More human,

More kind to every creature and plant
That you know."


HAFIZ

REFRENCE: THE GIFT POEMS BY HAFIZ
TRANSLATIONS BY DANIEL LADINSKY

DO WHAT YOU PREACH

There was a saint who wanted to stop hunters catching songbirds for sale at the market. He trained a parrot so that whenever it saw a net covered in bird food it squawed, "Don't eat the food! It's a trap! When the other birds heard the parrot's warning they flew away and were saved.The parrot, however, had no idea what he was saying and, seeing the food, flew down to eat it and was captured. When we pay wisdom lip-service but don't live it, we are like that parrot. No matter how wise we seem to be, we will end up getting caught in the net of illusion.

Reference: THE HEART OF ISLAM BY TIMOTHY FREKE

LOUSY AT MATHS

Once a group of thieves stole a rare diamond
Larger than a goose egg.

Its value could have easily bought
One thousand horses

And two thousand acres
of the most fertile land in Shiraz.

The thieves got drunk that night
To celebrate their great haul,

But during the course of the evening
The effects of the liquor
And their mistrust of each other grew to such
An extent

They decided to divide the stone into pieces.
Of course then the priceless became lost.

Most everyone is lousy at math
And does that to God-

Dissects the Indivisible One,

By thinking, saying
"This is my beloved, he looks like this
And acts like that,
How could that moron over there
Really
Be
God"

Hafiz

Reference:THE GIFT poems by HAFIZ the great sufi master
Translations by DANIEL LADINSKY

THE SERVANT WHO LOVED HIS PRAYERS

A dawn a certain rich man
wanted to go to steam baths.
He woke his servant, Sunqur,
"Ho! Get moving! Get the basin
and the towels and the clay for washing
and let's go to the baths."
Sunqur immediately collected what was needed,
and they set out side by side along the road.
As they passed the mosque, the call to prayer sounded.
Sunqur loved his five-times prayer.
"please, master,
rest on this bench for a while that I may recite sura 98,
which begins,
'you who treat your slave with kindness.'"
The master sat on the bench outside while Sunqur went in.
When prayers were over, and the priest and all the worshipers
had left, still Sunqur remained inside. The master waited
and waited. Finally he yelled into the mosque,
"Sunqur
why don't you come out?"
"I can't. This clever one
won't let me. Have a little more patience.
I hear you out there."
sever times the master waited,
and then shouted. Sunqur's reply was always the same,
"Not yet. He won't let me come out yet."
"But there's no one
in there but you. Everyone else has left.
Who makes you sit still so long?"
The one who keeps me in here is the one
who keeps you out there.
The same who will not let you in will not let me out."

The ocean will not allow its fish out of itself.
Nor does it let land animals in
where the subtle and delicate fish move.

The land creatures lumber along on the ground.
No cleverness can change this. There's only one
opener for the lock of these matters.

Forget your figuring. Forget your self. Listen to your Friend.
When you become totally obedient to that one,
you'll be free.

Rumi

Reference: THE ESSENTIA
RUMI
TRANSLATIONS BY
COLEMAN BARKS
WITH JOHN MOYNE

WASTEFUL ACCOMPLISHMENT

A sultan once said, "I will give a bag of gold to anyone who has accomplished the most unusual thing." People came to the court with all kinds of accomplishments. One man had a friend hold a needle at one end of the courtyard. The man then took a thread and threw it a hundred feet through the air. It went through the eye of the needle. It was the most unusual thing, and the sultan gave him the bag of gold, saying, "you've accomplished a feat that I learned has taken you twenty years to perfect, and it is truly a remarkable feat, but it is useless. And because you're spent twenty years of your life accomplishing such a useless thing, I also give you one hundred lashes."

Refference:When You Hear Hoofbeats Think Of A Zebra by Shems Friedlander

THE EAGLE'S TALE

One day an eagle rose up from his rock
and, full of greed, spread all his plumage out,
arranged his wings correctly and spoke thus:
'Today the world is all beneath my wings!
If I fly high the sun no longer see me,
While I see dust specks in the ocean's depth;
and should a gnat be crawling in the dust,
My eye behold the insect's movements too !
Thus he showed off, not fearing God's decree-
What happened to him from the cruel sphere?
For suddenly from out a hidding place
an arrow came, shot from a mighty bow.
The piercing arrow hit the eagle's wing
and cast him from the cloud onto the dust.
He wriggled in the dust just like a fish
and all his plumage fell there left and right.
'How strange!' said he, 'this thing is steel and wood.
How could it be so swift, so piercing sharp?'
He looked and saw his feathers on the arrow
and screamed: 'From me come what come over me!'
Cast out your ego and your selfishness
Look at this eagle, full of selfish pride!


Refference: Make A Sheild From Wisdom
selected verses from Nasir Khusraw diwan translated by
Annemarie Schimmel

KNOCK AND THE DOOR WILL OPEN

Prayer is a the way that we can ask to be brought closer to Allah. Salih of qazwin assures us. "Knock and the door will open for you." When the sufi saint Rabia heard this, however, she admonished him. "What are you talking about. Salih, the door has never been shut."
There is nothing dividing us from Allah except our own sense of separation, for in reality Allah is our own deeper identity. Rumi exclaims, "I knocked and the door opened, but I found I'd been knocking from the inside!"

Refference:The Heart of Islam by Timothy Freke

WAIT A MINUTE IS IT ALL REALLY DIFFERENT

The Sufiis tell the story of a man who gave some money to four friends- a Persian an Arab, a Turk, and a Greek. The Persian suggested " Let's spend this on 'angur' . "No" said the Arab, " I want to spend the money on 'inab'. The Turk demanded, "we should spend the money on 'uzum' The Greek shouted, "stop all this arguing. We're going to buy 'istafil'. And so they began to fight. All because they did not know that each one of them was talking about grapes.

reference:The Heart of Islam by Timothy Freke

A MOUSE AND A FROG

A mouse and a frog meet every morning on the riverbank. They sit in a nook of the ground and talk.
Each morning, the second they see each other, they open easily, telling stories and dreams and secrets, empty of ant fear or suspicious holding back.
To watch and listen to those two is to understand how, as it's written, sometimes when two being come together, Christ becomes visible.
The mouse starts laughing out a story he hasn't thought of in five years, and the telling might take five years!
There's no blocking the speech flow-river-running- all carrying momentum that true intimacy is.
Bitterness doesn't have a chance with those two.
The God- messenger, Khidr, touches a roasted fish, It leaps off the grill back into the water.
Friend sit by Friend, and the tablets appear. They read the mysteries off each other's foreheads.
But one day the mouse complains, "There are times when I want sobat, and you're out in the water, jumping around where you can't hear me. We meet at this appointed time, but the text says, Lover pray constantly. Once a day, once a week, five times an hour, is not enough. Fish like we are need the ocean around us!" Do camel bells say, Let's meet back here Thursday night? Ridiculous. They jingle to gather continuously, talking while the camel walks.
Do you pay regular visit to your self? Don't argue or answer rationally-
Let us die,
and dying, reply-

Rumi

Refference The Essential
Rumi
Translations by Coleman Barks with John Moyne

REASON TO HEAVEN

One of the friends of great sufi al-Shibli tells of seeing him in a dream after he had died. He asked him what God had done with him, to which al-Shibli replied that God had placed him before Him and asked him if he knew why He had forgiven him his sins. Al- Shibli had suggested that it might be because of the good works he had done, the prayers he had performed, his fasting and pilgrimages, his having associated with pious people and his journeying in search of knowledge. To all this God replied that these were not the reason. Al-Shibli had answered that these were the only things he could think of that might have saved him, to which God had said: ‘Do you remember when you were walking in the lanes of Baghdad and you found a small cat made weak by the cold creeping from wall to wall because of great cold and ice, and out of pity you took it and put in inside a fur you were wearing so as to protect it from the pains of cold? Because of the mercy you showed that cat I have had mercy on you.

AL-DAMIRI

Reference: The Island of Animal

TIME TEST

Did you hear? There was a gourd that grew

twenty days long near a plane tree high;

then it asked; ‘How many days have you?’

Said the plane ‘it’s more than thirty years!’

And the gourd laughed: ‘Look, in twenty days

have I grown so high! Say, what’s old age?’

Said the tree: ‘today, my little gourd,

Is no time for quarrel between us!

Wait! Tomorrow, when the winter storm

Blows we’ll see who is a real man!’

Nasir-i-Khusraw

Reference: MAKE A SHIELD FROM WISDOM

(title is given by me for the convenience of a reader)

UNANSWERED PRAYERS

Sometimes our prayers seem to go unanswered, but Islam teaches that we do not see the bigger picture. The Sufi convey these teachings with a story of a man who had his pet snake stolen. When the thief got home the snake bit him and he died. When the original owner heard about this he remarked, ”Well, look at that my stolen snake robbed the thief of his life. I was begging Allah day and night that I might find this thief and get my snake back. Thank Allah my prayer went unheeded, otherwise this could have been me. What I thought was a loss was actually a gain.

Ref: The Heart of Islam By Timothy Freke