SEEING AND UNDERSTANDING

 

A King was once becoming impatient with a lecture by a Sufi, and made up his mind to score a point or two off him. Thus it was that, as soon as the Sufi had said, for - it seemed to the King - the thousandth time that ‘hundreds were blind and even those who were not blind could not understand what they saw’, he held up his hand.

‘As King of this country I insist that you match allegation with demonstration. On pain of death, show me these people who are blind, and those who are not, but will still not understand,’ he said.

‘Certainly, your Majesty’ said the Sufi. ‘And I will give even you, a mere king, the honor of taking part in my demonstration.’

‘What do I have to do?’ asked the King.

‘You will sit for one day in the bazaar, the local market, in your robes and wearing your crown, hammering upon a brass tray.’

And so the King sat there all day with the Sufi beside him. Every few minutes someone stopped and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ and the Sufi, sitting nearby, took down his or her name.

At the end of the day the Sufi said: ‘Your Majesty - here is the list of all the people who stopped and were so blind that they could not see what you were doing, hammering a brass tray, and had to ask’.

The King was quite impressed; but then a thought struck him. ‘Yes, but what about a list of the people who are not blind but still cannot understand what they see?’

‘That’s easy’ said the Sufi, ‘all you have to do is to make a copy of the same list and it will do just as well.’