Master Naqshbandi
These Muslims have come to see the great master Naqshbandi and they say, “Tomorrow is going to be a holiday, and we are going to deliver an address about God, is there anything you would like to add to our address?”
Naqshbandi replies, “Your God is under my heel.” The Muslims are outraged and take Naqshbandi to court. Five hundred thousand people assemble at the court, and on all sides of the building are messengers who shout out to the people to explain what’s going on.
The judge asks, “Great master Naqshbandi, some Muslims came to see you and asked you to add something to their address about God, what did you say to them?”
“I said your God is under my heel.”
“What did you mean by this?”
“Somebody remove my right sandal and take a look at what is there under my heel.”
The sandal is removed and there is a gold coin.
The judge says, “The great master Naqshbandi teaches us a lesson here and says that we have forgotten God and worship money.”
A Jugful of Rainwater
A man lives in the desert with his wife, they have no money and nothing much to eat. The wife is always pecking away at her husband: “Go out and earn some money!”
He says, “Where do you expect me to earn money in the desert?”
She says, “I’ve come up with a plan: we’ll get a jug, not one made of simple clay, but one that’s made of something that will hold water for a long time and keep it cool, we’ll fill it with rainwater from the water hole, bring the jug to the Sultan and he will give you plenty of gold as a reward.”
They settled on the plan, made a new jug, filled it with water and off the man went to see the Sultan. The walk took him two weeks, but he got there. At the Sultan’s palace, all the courtiers stand and ask, “What have you brought?”
The man replies that he has brought the Sultan this jug of water, but it is no ordinary jug of water, it is made from a special kind of clay, and the water is the very best as it has been drawn from a fresh water hole. The courtiers tell him, “Wait here,” and bring the jug to the Sultan.
This Sultan was a Sufi, a wise man, and he said to the courtiers, “Pour the water onto this plant, then fill the jug with gold and give it to the man, but accompany him home so that no one robs him on the way. When you go with him, take him by the Euphrates so that he can see how much water we have.”
I’ve told this story many times to a lot of different people, but no one has ever heard me. I can’t tell you how much clean water there is on The Path.
Harut and Marut
Two angels, Harut and Marut, told God that the people of Earth were mired in their own lust. God said to them,
“Perhaps if you were in there position you might also be mired?”
“Never!” they said, “and we can prove it!”
God gave them human form and sent them to the Earth. Princess Zuhra would not give herself to them, and so one of them raped her, and then the other one did, too.
God asks, “What should I do with you now?” The angels gave no reply, and God gave them two options: either they go on living and then die, according to the laws of humankind, or they sit in a well in the city of Babylon until the Final Judgement. Harut and Marut chose the second option, and they sit in their well to this day, teaching people sorcery.
In order that she not completely fall apart, God transformed Zuhra into the planet Venus.
My wife said, “How lucky for Zuhra—first she gets raped by an angel, then by another, and then she ends up getting turned into a planet.”
When the Time Comes to Set Out on The Path
Has the time come for me to set out on The Path? Tell me, when will that time come?
It happened on a voyage at sea—the parrot was bored out of his mind and was overjoyed when he discovered that there was a monkey on board the ship.
To make the time go quicker, the parrot suggested, “Shall we play hide-and-seek?”
The monkey said, “I don’t know that game, how do you play it?”
The parrot explained, “It’s very simple, you turn to face the wall, shut your eyes and count to a hundred while I go off and hide. When you get to a hundred, you start looking for me.”
So that’s what they did.
It so happened that the moment the monkey got to a hundred, the ship exploded. The parrot managed to find a plank of wood floating on the sea. In a little while he saw the monkey, who was swimming towards him at the point of total exhaustion. Gripping onto the plank, the monkey looked at the parrot and said, “What a stupid game!”
When you begin to feel that life is a stupid game, it’s time to set out on The Path.