Seek wisdom

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

 

      يُؤتِي الْحِكْمَةَ مَن يَشَاء وَمَن يُؤْتَ الْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلاَّ أُوْلُواْ الأَلْبَابِ 

Al-Baqara  2:269.. granting wisdom unto whom He wills: and whoever is granted wisdom has indeed been granted wealth abundant. But none bears this in mind save those who are endowed with insight. -.



Seek Wisdom from everywhere


When a great Sufi mystic, Hasan, was on his deathbed, someone asked him about his teacher.

He said, "I had thousands of teachers.Just to relate their names it will take months, years and we don't have enough time. But perhaps three of them might be of particular interest to you.

One was a career thief. Once I got lost and wandered into a remote village, quite late at night. Everyone was asleep and everything closed, but I saw a man trying to make a hole in the wall of a house. I summoned courage to ask him about a place to stay. He replied: "'At this time of night it is rather difficult to find a place, but if you don't mind staying with me, you are more than welcome."

And the man was wonderful company, and at his insistence I stayed with him for a month! Every night, he would say , 'I am going to work. You be comfortable, rest and pray.'  Every night he would come back empty handed, but would always say, "Tomorrow it will happen, Insha Allah." He never lost hope and was always happy.

When I was striving for years on end in my spiritual struggle, progress was slow.  At times I would get desperate, and wanted to give up, when I would remember the thief who would say every night, "Tomorrow it will happen, Insha Allah."

I was once by the banks of a river, and saw a dog struggling to drink water. He is the second teacher that I want to tell you about.  Whenever he looked into the river, he saw his own image and was afraid (thinking that there was another dog). His thirst was so much that eventually he overcame his fear and jumped into the water. The image (and the fear) thus disappeared and his thirst was quenched.  That taught me that God wants us to jump despite our fears. Only then will our longing be satisfied.

And the third teacher was a kid, who I saw walking to the masjid with a lit candle in his hands, to place it inside.

I thought of having some fun, and asked 'Have you lit the candle yourself?' He said, 'Yes sir.' And I asked, 'There was a moment when the candle was unlit, then there was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?'

And the boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, 'Now you have seen the light going. Where has it gone? You tell me!'

That shook me, and made me realize that I was being arrogant, and worse, being arrogant about something that I had no knowledge of. The child with his simple reply had put me in my place.

Thus I learnt from everyone that I encountered, and each of them was like a pond or a pool where you can learn how to swim. And then you are able to swim in all the oceans of the world"