It is said that when Bayazid Bestami was asked who his master was, he explained:

She was an old woman.

One day, I was possessed by such ecstasy and yearning and sense of unity that not even a hair of anything else could be found in me. In this selfless mood, I went for a stroll in the desert, where I happened to meet an elderly lady burdened with a bag of flour.

She asked me to carry the flour for her, but I was incapable of taking it, so I beckoned to a lion to take the load. The lion came up to me and I laid the sack upon its back. I then asked the old lady what she intended to say to the townspeople since I did not want them to apprehend who I was.

"I'll tell them," she replied, "that I met a vain tyrant."

"What are talking about?" I exclaimed.

The lady explained thus, first asking: "Has the lion been put to trouble or not?"

"No," I answered. -

"Except for the fact that you burden down those whom God Himself has not burdened!" she objected. "Is that not oppression?

"So it is", I admitted.

"And, despite this", she continued, "still you desire the townspeople to know that you have subjected a lion and are a miracle worker. Is that not vanity?"

"Yes, it is", I confessed.

So I repented, experiencing abasement from my former exaltation.

Indeed that old woman's words performed the function of a spiritual guide and master for me.

SOURCE: Attar, Tadhkerat al-Auliya

Mahmud was a very pious man, but he was not very attractive looking. One day, he was walking along the road, minding his own business, when a lady came up to him, and started calling him names and abusing him. This lady kept saying all kinds of nasty things, and Mahmud just listened to her patiently. Finally, when she was finished calling him names and abusing him, Mahmud just greeted her, smiled, and said

"and a nice day to you," and continued on his way.

Why did Mahmud, the pious man, behave this way?

It is because he knew that everything she said was just a reflection of her own inner self.

If you use bad language, you are just making obvious to everybody how far away you really are from Allah, since your words are in reality a reflection of your own inner self.

from Irshad by Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak al-Jerrahi

Hazrat Hasan al-Basri once fell sick. His neighbour, an unbeliever, came to pay him a visit.

"O Imam," he exclaimed, "I detect a bad smell." The Imam told him it was caused by illness, but the neighbour insisted: "That is not the odor of sickness. It is a lavatory smell. For the love of Allah, tell me what it is!"

He had not noticed that sewage was leaking from his house into that of the Imam.

When the neighbour pressed him, the Imam finally said: "For some months your drain has been seeping through to our side. I tried to fix it, but without success."

His neighbour asked why he had not told him before, but the venerable Imam said: "I might have offended you."

The unbeliever was so impressed by this ethical refinement that he was ennobled with True Faith, for he recognized the Imam's morality as a ray of Islam

from Irshad by Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak al-Jerrahi

Once upon a time, there lived in Basra an old man whose only occupation was caring for and loving his only son who was a handsome young man. The old man invested all his money on his son's education. The young man went away for a few years and acquired an education at a well known university under the great scholars of that age.

The day had arrived for the son to return from his studies and the old man waited at the door for his son. When the son came and met his father, the old man looked into his eyes and felt great disappointment. "What have you learnt my son?" he asked, "I have learnt everything there was to be learnt, father", he said. "But have you learnt what cannot be taught?" asked the father. "Go, my son and learn what cannot be taught", said the old man.

The young man went back to his master and asked him to teach him what cannot be taught.

"Go away to the mountains with these four hundred sheep and come back when they are one thousand", said the master.

The young man went to the mountains and became a shepherd. There for the first time he encountered a silence. He had no one to talk to. The sheep did not understand his language. In his desperation, he would talk to them but they would look back at him as if to say he was stupid. Slowly but surely he began to forget all his worldly knowledge, his ego, his pride and he became quiet like the sheep and great wisdom and humility came to him.

At the end of two years when the number of sheep had grown to one thousand, he returned to his master and fell on his feet. "Now you have learnt what cannot be taught," said the master.

NB. It is interesting to note that the Nabis of Allah Taala (Alayhimus salaam) at some time in their lives, generally before Nubuwwat, tended to sheep, and other such animals.

from http://www.jamiat.org.za, Jamiat of South Africa

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Allah's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If Allah allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never "fly"!

I asked for Strength.........
And Allah gave me Difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for Wisdom.........
And Allah gave me Problems to solve.
I asked for Prosperity.........
And Allah gave me Brain and Brawn to work.
I asked for Courage.........
And Allah gave me Danger to overcome.
I asked for Love..........
And Allah gave me Troubled people to help.
I asked for Favours.........
And Allah gave me Opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted ........
I received everything I needed!
"fatabâraka-LLahu aHsanu-l khâliqîn"
"So blessed be Allah, the best of creators!"
Sura The Believer (23) verse 14

Mullah Nasruddin had lost his ring, so he set out to search for it under the street light. Others came to help him search.
Finally when asked if he was certain he had dropped it in this spot, he said, "No, I lost it there," and pointed to his house.
The others asked incredulously:
Then why are you looking for it here?"
Mullah Nasruddin said, while trying to look clever:
"Because it is dark where I lost it, and it is light out here!"
From Juz `Amma; Sh. Fadhlalla Haeri; Zahra Publ; 1985

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