Fables That Fix Lives: Ancient Code for Modern Problems

 'Junaid Of Baghdad' was passing the scene of a public hanging, where a thief was on the scaffold. 'Junaid' bowed towards the criminal. Someone asked him: 'Why did you do that?' Junaid said: 'I was bowing before his single-mindedness. For his aim, that man has given his life.' [Idrees Shah] *** Show a man too many camels' bones, or show them to him too often, and he will not be able to recognize a camel when he came across a live one.                               [Mirza Ahsan Of Tabriz]

The Master Bahaudin was sitting one evening after dinner, surrounded by a large number of newcomers, old and young, all eager to learn.  A silence fell, and the Master asked for a question. Someone said: "What is the greatest difficulty in the learning and the teaching of the Way?" The Master answered: "People go by superficialities. They are attracted by preaching, by rumors and reports, and by that which excited them-like bees to the scent of flowers." The man asked: "But how else are people to approach wisdom, or bees, flowers?" The Master answered: "The human approaches wisdom through report and noise, preaching and reading excitement. After he has approached it, however, he stays near it to demand more of the same: not whatever it can give, which is what it is therefore. "Bees approach flowers by scent, but they do not, once arrived at the proximity of the bloom, demand merely more and more scent. They adjust to the nectar, which they have t...

  ' Hakim al- Mansuri’ was a great sage of Balkh, in Central Asia. He had thousands of disciples, and his mere presence at the courts of kings was regarded as conferring legitimacy upon their rule. But he very seldom spoke. When he did, it was about matters which did not seem to be connected with spiritual concerns. And yet many great masters of the Sufi Way attribute their attainments to having sat at his table, or from being in his guest-house, or even from associating with the other disciples, or working in his house. One day, the Hakim was challenged by a famous preacher to dispute with him on matters of philosophy. The preacher claimed that ‘Al-Mansuri ’ knew nothing about wisdom, and spoke very little on weighty matters because he was ignorant of them. ‘Al-Mansuri’   set   out   for   Herat,   where   the   challenger,   ‘ Qari Mukhtar’ , taught at a famous college. Each of the disputants was attended by hundreds of students, who ...

  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...

There was once a dervish who had sixty disciples. He had taught them as well as he could, and the time had come to undergo a new experience. He called the disciples together and said: ‘We must now go on a long journey. Something, I am not sure what, will happen on the way. Those of you who have absorbed enough to enter this stage will be able to accompany me. ‘But first you must all memorize this phrase, “I must die instead of the dervish.” Be prepared to shout this out at any time, whenever I raise both my arms.’ Some of the disciples started muttering among themselves, now highly suspicious of the dervish’s motives. No less than fifty-nine of the sixty deserted him, saying, ‘He knows that he will be in danger at some time, and is preparing to sacrifice us instead of himself!’ They said to him, ‘You may even be planning some crime— perhaps even a murder; we can never follow you on terms like that.’ The dervish and his sole remaining companion started the journey. Now a most terrible a...

  According to 'Abu-Talib Makki' , Moses related tales of how he learnt to widen his understanding from narrow assumptions to correct perspective. Moses was ill, and he was offered various remedies to treat the sickness. But he refused, saying that God would help him instead. But God, it is related, commanded Moses to use medicines, saying: 'By refusing to accept the mission of the medicine, you have called into question the wisdom of him who endowed the remedies with their virtue!’ It is for this reason that there is a saying, 'Trust in God and tie your camel.’ If you were expected to do nothing, why is there such a thing as a camel-hobble? 'Hadrat Bahaudin Naqshband' of Bokhara has said, in this connection: 'If a withering leaf says by its appearance that it needs water and because you have the power to provide it you also have the duty to do so, these "words” of the leaf are the manifestation of the command of the creator of the leaf, and are addre...

  It is recorded that a man went to 'Ahmad Yasavi ', th e Sufi Master of Turkestan, and said: "Teach me without books, and let me learn to understand without the intervention of a master between me and Truth, for humans are frail, and reading books does not enlighten me." 'Yasavi ' said: "Do you seek to each without a mouth, or to digest without a stomach? Perhaps you would like to walk without feet and buy without paying... I could do as you ask only if you could first dispense with physical organs, as you wish to avoid those things which have been devised for the spiritual organs. 'Just think for a moment whether you could use food without an apparatus, approach the Sufis without having heard of them in the words you so dislike, desire wisdom without a source appropriate to your state.' 'It may be an amusing pastime to think of learning without books as a basis, and experiencing without a teacher. So is it an amusing pastime to think of mag...

 Until you can see yourself clearly and constantly for what you are really like, you have to rely upon the assessment of a teacher: the ‘gardener’ of Rumi’s comparison: ‘A gardener going into an orchard looks at the trees. He knows that this one is a date, that one a fig, the other a pomegranate, a pear or an apple. To do this, he does not have to see the fruit, only the trees.’*

It is recounted among the wise that there was once a great drought at 'Qasr al-Arifin' , and the people went to the ' Master Bahaudin Naqshband' , asking h im to pray, to ask God for rain. He led them through the streets until he came to a place where a woman sat, nursing a small baby in her arms. 'I beg of you to feed that infant,’ said the Master. 'I know when to feed the child,’ said the woman, 'as I am his mother. Why do you concern yourself with things which are disposed of in a manner whereof you know nothing?’ 'Bahaudin'  had the woman’s words written down and read out to the crowd.

 'Nasrudin' was preaching in a mosque at the time of the 'Tatar' conquest of Western Asia. He was no supporter of 'Tamerlane.' ' Tamerlane ' has heard that the ' Mulla ' was against him, and crept into the mosque dressed as a dervish. 'God will strike the Tatars ,' Nasrudin announced at the end of his sermon. 'He will not grant your prayer,' said the dervish, stepping forward. 'And why not? asked Nasrudin . Because you are being punished for what you have done and what you have not done. There is such a thing as cause and effect. How can anyone be punished for doing something which is itself a chastisement?' ' Nasrudin ' began to feel uncomfortable; for dervishes are not too trifled with. 'Who are you, and what is your name?' he asked, blustering a little. 'I am a dervish, and my name is 'Timur.' A number of the congregation now rose, bows and arrows in their hands. They were disguised members ...

  "We will have hanged you, " said a cruel and ignorant king, who had heard of Nasrudin's powers, "if you don't prove that you are a mystic." "I see strange things," said Nasrudin at once, "a golden bird in the sky, demons under the earth." "How can you see through solid objects? How can you see far into the sky?" "Fear is all you need," replied Nasrudin .

  'If I give out an empty book, meaning, "You cannot yet profit from my book', you will perhaps think, 'He is insulting me.' But if I give out a full and understandable book, all readers will take its superficialities for their stimulation, exclaiming 'how magnificent, how profound'. People will follow these outward things after I am gone, making them a source of stimulation and debate. They will read didactics into them, or poetry, exercises or stories. If I give out no books, or a small one, scholars will scoff and ruin the minds of potential and vulnerable students with alternative literature, even more than they do at present. Baffled students become destructive, imagining solutions and then trying to impose them upon others. If I give out a large book, some people will imagine that it is pretentious. All these suppositions are there, you notice, because they suit the people to have them, not because they are even likely to be true. If I give out a cryp...

  Life/soul is like a clear mirror, the body is dust on it. Beauty in us is not perceived, for we are under the dust. -Jalaludin Rumi

A prince, while engaged on a hunting excursion, espied a fair maiden and, by promises of gold, induced her to accompany him. After a time, she fell sick, and the prince had her tended by various physicians. However, as they all omitted to say, “God willing, we will cure her,” their efforts were of no avail. So the prince offered a prayer, and in answer, a physician was sent from heaven. He at once condemned his predecessors’ view of the case and, by a very skillful diagnosis, discovered that the real cause of the maiden’s illness was her love for a certain goldsmith of Samarcand . In accordance with the physician’s advice, the prince sent to Samarcand , fetched the goldsmith, and married him to the lovesick maiden. For six months, the pair lived together in the utmost harmony and happiness. At the end of that period, the physician, by divine command, gave the goldsmith a poisonous draught, which caused his strength and beauty to decay. He then lost favour with the maiden, and she was r...

A lion took a wolf and a fox on a hunting excursion. They successfully caught a wild ox, an ibex, and a hare. The lion then instructed the wolf to divide the prey. The wolf suggested giving the ox to the lion, the ibex to himself, and the hare to the fox. The lion, enraged by the wolf’s presumption to speak of “I” and “Thou,” and “My share” and “Thy share,” when all rightfully belonged to the lion, killed the wolf with a single blow of his paw. Turning to the fox, the lion ordered him to make the division. The fox, wary of the wolf’s fate, declared that the entire catch should be the lion’s portion. Pleased with the fox’s self-abnegation, the lion gave everything to the fox, saying, “You are no longer a fox, but myself.”

' Ahangar ' was a mighty sword smith who lived in one of Afghanistan's remote eastern valley. In time of peace he made steel ploughs, shoed horses and above all, he sang. The songs of ' Ahangar ', who is known by different names in various parts of the valleys. They came from the forests of giant walnut-trees, from the snowcapped 'Hindu Kush', from ' Qataghan' and ' Badakhshan' , from ' Khanabad' and ' Kunar' , from ' Herat' and ' Paghman' , to hear his songs. Above all, the people came to hear the song of all songs, which was 'Ahangar's Song of the Valley of Paradise. This song had a haunting quality, and a strange lilt, and most of all it had a story which was so strange that people felt they knew the remote Valley of Paradise of which the smith sang. Often they asked him to sing it when he was not in the mood to do so, and he would refuse. Sometimes people asked him whether the Valley was truly re...

 A studious and dedicated seeker after truth arrived at the ' tekkia' of ' Bahaudin Naqashband.' In accordance with custom, he attended the lectures and asked no question. When Bahaudin at last said to him: "Ask something of me," this man said: "Shah before I come to you I studied such-and-such a philosophy under so-and-so. Attracted by your repute I journeyed to your ' tekkia .' "Hearing your addressed I have been impressed by what you are saying, and wish to continue my studies with you." "But, since I have such gratitude and attachment to my former studies and teacher, I would like you either to explain their connection with your work, or else to make me forget them, so that I may continue without a divided mind." 'Bahaudin' said: "I can do neither of these things. When I can do, however, is to inform you that one of the surest signs of human vanity is to be attached to a person, and to a creed, and to imagin...

A certain king often became bored with the cares and labours of government and yearned for a change. And when his ears grew tired of hearing the long reports of his counsellors, and his hand weary of pressing the signet-ring in the purple wax of royal decrees he would slip out, as soon as chance offered, with his grand vizier. The two, disguised as merchants, would then stroll through the streets of the city, ready for any adventure which might be fall them. As they were wandering through a distant quarter of the city they came to a small square, where they spied an old dervish squatting on the ground before a pair of scales. Yet he was weighing nothing on his scale, for it was plain that he had nothing to weigh, and this strange sight so excited the curiosity of the king that he said to the dervish: "Tell me, worthy and saintly dervish, what is it you sell, for though I see you adjusting your scales you seem to have no goods to put in them!" The old dervish smiled: "I h...

The great lawgiver Moses was on his way to see God, to ask for guidance about his future work. One the way he met a mendicant, who said: 'Where are you going, Moses?" 'I am on my way to see God.' 'When you see him, will you say that I am poor and that I do not know what to do to improve my condition?" Moses undertook to ask. Presently he came upon a very rich man, who asked: "Where are you going, Moses?" "To see God." "When you do, will you ask him what I am to do?" I have too much money, and still he showers it upon me. Moses agreed to ask. 'Eventually, Moses met God, and said: 'Lord! I have come to ask how I should carry on the work. And I have to ask for advice about two men whom I met on the way.' He told God about the rich man and the poor man. God said: 'O Moses! You ask me to tell you how to continue with your work. But in the cases of the rich and the poor me you did not do what you already knew was equitab...

One day ' Shibli' (Muslim Saint) noticed a block of wood was slowly burning. Being slightly wet, it was oozing out a viscid liquid at its other end. ' Shibli' drew the attention of his disciples to it and said to them pointedly: "Ye professionaists of the Path of Love, how do you say that you are burning in the Love of separation, when I do not see any tears in your eyes?" Take lesson from this piece of wood, how it burns and how it weeps."