Sufi Tales
Do you know
who the Sufis are? Their religion was born out of Islam
and other influences. They arose in the lands which
are now called Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey.
And there were Sufis in India. Sufism is called a mystical
religion because Sufis often seek silence and solitude,
and meditate. They search for truths which are unseen
and difficult to discover by ordinary means. One of
their ideas of God is, the Light which illuminates the Heart.
Today we shall catch the flavor of their thought through
several stories.
The first is by one of the most famous: Shams-e
Tabrizi
I have been a misfit
since childhood. I knew that no one understood me, not
even my father. He once said, "You are not a madman, fit
to be put in a madhouse, nor are you monk to be put in a
monastery. I just don't know what you are!"
I replied: "You
know, father, I can tell you what it is like. Once a
duck egg was put under a hen to be hatched. When the egg hatched,
the duckling walked along with the mother hen until they
came to a pond. The duckling took a nice dip in the
water. But the hen stayed on the bank and clucked.
Now, my dear father, after having tried the sea I find
it my home. If you choose to stay on the shore, is
it my fault? I am not to be blamed."
There are some who are
born to go a very different way.
There was an old man who went to
a goldsmith and said, "May I use your scales to
weigh my own gold?" Goldsmiths keep very sensitive
scales.
The goldsmith replied: "Sorry, sir, I don't have
a sieve."
"Don't make fun of me, " said the man: "I
asked for your scales, not a sieve."
"I don't have a broom either," the goldsmith
said.
"Come on," said the man impatiently, "Don't
play deaf."
"I am not playing deaf, my good man, and I heard
everything you said."
Then the goldsmith explained: "Your hands are
shaking with old age and your gold is in tiny bits
and pieces. When you start weighing, you'll scatter
them on the floor. Then you'll ask for a broom to pick
them up. And then, to separate the gold from the dust and
dirt, you'll ask for a sieve."
(How would you describe the wisdom of this goldsmith?)
A fox who lived in the
deep forest of long ago had lost its front legs. No
one knew how: perhaps escaping from a trap. A man who lived
on the edge of the forest , seeing the fox from time to
time, wondered how in the world it managed to get its
food. One day when the fox was not far from him he
had to hide himself quickly because a tiger was approaching.
The tiger had fresh game in its claws. Lying down on
the ground, it ate its fill, leaving the rest for the
fox.
Again the next day the
great Provider of this world sent provisions to the
fox by this same tiger. The man began to think: "If this
fox is taken care of in this mysterious way, its food sent
by some unseen Higher Power, why don't I just rest
in a corner and have my daily meal provided for me?"
Because he had a lot
of faith, he let the days pass, waiting for food. Nothing
happened. He just went on losing weight and strength until
he was nearly a skeleton. Close to losing consciousness,
he heard a Voice which said: "O you, who have
mistaken the way, see now the Truth! You should have
followed the example of that tiger instead of imitating
the disabled fox."
(And Rumi said, "You have feet; why pretend that
you are lame?")
Sa'di of Shiraz
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