The Morals Of Dervishes - Chapter III

Story 9
One of the devotees of Mount Lebanon, whose piety was famed in the Arab country and his miracles well known, entered the cathedral mosque of Damascus and was performing his purificatory ablution on the edge of a tank when his feet slipped and he fell into the reservoir but saved himself with great trouble. After the congregation had finished their prayers, one of his companions said: ‘I have a difficulty.’ He asked: ‘What is it?’ He continued: ‘I remember that the sheikh walked on the surface of the African sea without his feet getting wetted and today he nearly perished in this paltry water which is not deeper than a man’s stature.

What reason is there in this?’ The sheikh drooped his head into the bosom of meditation and said after a long pause: ‘Hast thou not heard that the prince of the world, Muhammad the chosen, upon whom be the benediction of God and peace, has said: I have time with God during which no cherubim nor inspired prophet is equal to me?’ But he did not say that such was always the case. The time alluded to was when Gabriel or Michael inspired him whilst on other occasions he was satisfied with the society of Hafsah and Zainab. The visions of the righteous one are between brilliancy and obscurity.

Thou showest thy countenance and then hidest it Enhancing thy value and augmenting our desire. I behold whom I love without an intervention. Then a trance befalls me; I lose the road; It kindles fire, then quenches it with a sprinkling shower. Wherefore thou seest me burning and drowning.

Story 10
One asked the man who had lost his son: ‘O noble and intelligent old man!
As thou hast smelt the odour of his garment from Egypt
Why hast thou not seen him in the well of Canaan?’
He replied: ‘My state is that of leaping lightning. One moment it appears and at another vanishes. I am sometimes sitting in high heaven. Sometimes I cannot see the back of my foot. Were a dervish always to remain in that state He would not care for the two worlds.’

Story 11
I spoke in the cathedral mosque of Damascus a few words by way of a sermon but to a congregation whose hearts were withered and dead, not having travelled from the road of the world of form, the physical, to the world of meaning, the moral world. I perceived that my words took no effect and that burning fire does not kindle moist wood. I was sorry for instructing brutes and holding forth a mirror in a locality of blind people. I had, however, opened the door of
meaning and was giving a long explanation of the verse We are nearer unto Him than the jugular vein till I said:
‘The Friend is nearer to me than my self, But it is more strange that I am far from him.
What am I to do? To whom can it be said that he Is in my arms, but I am exiled from him.’
I had intoxicated myself with the wine of these sentiments, holding the remnant of the cup of the sermon in my hand when a traveller happened to pass near the edge of the assembly, and the last turn of the circulating cup made such an impression upon him that he shouted and the others joined him who began to roar, whilst the raw portion of the congregation became turbulent.

Whereon I said: ‘Praise be to God! Those who are far away but intelligent are in the presence of God, and those who are near but blind are distant.’

When the hearer understands not the meaning of words Do not look for the effect of the orator’s force But raise an extensive field of desire That the eloquent man may strike the ball of effect.


Story 12
One night I had in the desert of Mekkah become so weak from want of sleep that I was unable to walk and, laying myself down, told the camel driver to let me alone. How far can the foot of a wretched pedestrian go When a dromedary gets distressed by its load? Whilst the body of a fat man becomes lean A weak man will be dead of exhaustion.

He replied: ‘O brother, the sanctuary is in front of us and brigands in the rear. If thou goest thou wilt prosper. If thou sleepest thou wilt die.’ It is pleasant to sleep under an acacia on the desert
road But alas! thou must bid farewell to life on the night of departure.

(From "Gullistan" - The Book Of Shaykh Sa'di as Shirazi)

The Morals Of Dervishes - Chapter II

Story 5
Several travellers were on a journey together and equally sharing each other’s troubles and comforts. I desired to accompany them but they would not agree. Then I said: ‘It is foreign to the manners of great men to turn away the face from the company of the poor and so deprive themselves of the advantage they might derive therefrom because I for one consider myself sufficiently strong and energetic to be of service to men and not an encumbrance. Although I am not riding on a beast, I shall aid you in carrying blankets.’ One of them said: ‘Do not be grieved at the words thou hast heard because some days ago a thief in the guise of a dervish arrived and joined our company.’

How can people know who is in the dress? The writer is aware what the book contains. As the state of dervishes is safe, they entertained no suspicion about him and received him as a friend. The outward state of Arifs is the patched dress. It suffices as a display to the face of the people. Strive by thy acts to be good and wear anything thou listest.

Place a crown on thy head and a flag on thy back. The abandoning of the world, of lust, and of desire Is sanctity, not the abandonment of the robe only. It is necessary to show manhood in the fight. Of what profit are weapons of war to an hermaphrodite?

We travelled one day till the night set in during which we slept near a fort and the graceless thief, taking up the water-pot of a companion, pretending to go for an ablution, departed for plunder.

A pretended saint who wears the dervish garb Has made of the Ka’bah’s robes the covering of an ass. After disappearing from the sight of the dervishes, he went to a tower from which he stole a casket and, when the day dawned, the dark-hearted wretch had already progressed a considerable distance. In the morning the guiltless sleeping companions were all taken to the fort
and thrown into prison. From that date we renounced companionship and took the road of solitude, according to the maxim: Safety is in solitude. When one of a tribe has done a foolish thing No honour is left either to the low or the high.

Seest thou not how one ox of the pasturage Defiles all oxen of the village?
I replied: ‘Thanks be to the God of majesty and glory, I have not been excluded from the advantages enjoyed by dervishes, although I have separated myself from their society. I have profited by what thou hast narrated to me and this admonition will be of use through life to persons like me.’

For one rude fellow in the assembly The heart of intelligent men is much grieved. If a tank be filled with rose-water A dog falling into it pollutes the whole.

Story 6
A hermit, being the guest of a padshah, ate less than he wished when sitting at dinner and when he rose for prayers he prolonged them more than was his wont in order to enhance the opinion entertained by the padshah of his piety.

O Arab of the desert, I fear thou wilt not reach the Ka’bah

Because the road on which thou travellest leads to Turkestan.
When he returned to his own house, he desired the table to be laid out for eating. He had an intelligent son who said: ‘Father, hast thou not eaten anything at the repast of the sultan?’ He replied: ‘I have not eaten anything to serve a purpose.’

The boy said: ‘Then likewise say thy prayers again as thou hast not done anything to serve that purpose.’
O thou who showest virtues on the palms of the hand But concealest thy errors under the armpit
What wilt thou purchase, O vain-glorious fool, On the day of distress with counterfeit silver?

Story 7
I remember, being in my childhood pious, rising in the night, addicted to devotion and abstinence. One night I was sitting with my father, remaining awake and holding the beloved Quran in my lap, whilst the people around us were asleep. I said: ‘Not one of these persons lifts up his head or makes a genuflection. They are as fast asleep as if they were dead.’ He replied:
‘Darling of thy father, would that thou wert also asleep rather than disparaging people.’
The pretender sees no one but himself Because he has the veil of conceit in front.
If he were endowed with a God-discerning eye He would see that no one is weaker than himself.

Story 8
A great man was praised in an assembly and, his good qualities being extolled, he raised his head and said: ‘I am such as I know myself to be.’
O thou who reckonest my virtues, refrainest from giving me pain,
These are my open, and thou knowest not my hidden, qualities.
My person is, to the eyes of the world, of good aspect But my internal wickedness makes me droop my head with shame.
The peacock is for his beauteous colours by the people
Praised whilst he is ashamed of his ugly feet.

(From "Gullistan" - The Book Of Shaykh Sa'di as Shirazi)

The Morals Of Dervishes - Chapter I

Story 1
One of the great devotees having been asked about his opinion concerning a hermit whom others had censured in their conversation, he replied: ‘I do not see any external blemishes on him and do not know of internal ones.’

Whomsoever thou seest in a religious habit Consider him to be a religious and good man And, if thou knowest not his internal condition, What business has the muhtasib inside the house?

Story 2
I saw a dervish who placed his head upon the threshold of the Ka’bah, groaned, and said: ‘O forgiving, 0 merciful one, thou knowest what an unrighteous, ignorant man can offer to thee.’

I have craved pardon for the deficiency of my service Because I can implore no reward for my obedience. Sinners repent of their transgressions. Arifs ask forgiveness for their imperfect worship.

Devotees desire a reward for their obedience and merchants the price of their wares but I, who am a worshipper, have brought hope and not obedience. I have come to beg and not to trade. Deal with me as thou deemest fit.

Whether thou killest me or forgivest my crime, my face and head are on thy threshold.
A slave has nothing to command; whatever thou commandest I obey.
I saw a mendicant at the door of the Ka’bah Who said this and wept abundantly:
‘I ask not for the acceptance of my service But for drawing the pen of pardon over my sins.’

Story 3
I saw A’bdul Qadir Gillani in the sanctuary of the Ka’bah with his face on the pebbles and saying: ‘O lord, pardon my sins and, if I deserve punishment, cause me to arise blind on the day of resurrection that I may not be ashamed in the sight of the righteous.’
With my face on the earth of helplessness
I say Every morning as soon as I become conscious:
O thou whom I shall never forget Wilt thou at all remember thy slave?

Story 4
A thief paid a visit to the house of a pious man but, although he sought a great deal, found nothing and was much grieved. The pious man, who knew this, threw the blanket upon which he had been sleeping into the way of the thief that he might not go away disappointed.

I heard that men of the way of God Have not distressed the hearts of enemies.
How canst thou attain that dignity Who quarrelest and wagest war against friends?
The friendship of pure men, whether in thy presence or absence, is not such as Will find fault behind thy back and is ready to die for thee before thy face.
In thy presence gentle like a lamb, In thy absence like a man-devouring wolf.
Who brings the faults of another to thee and enumerates them Will undoubtedly carry thy faults to others.

(From "Gullistan" - The Book Of Shaykh Sa'di as Shirazi)