85. DOES THE DEVIL EXIST? -- More Sufi Wisdom

Excerpts

from

"The Tale

of the Reed Pipe:
Teachings
of the Sufis",

by

Massud Farzan,

E. P. Dutton,

1974

 
Lessons from
Mohammad Ghazali:
 
DOES THE DEVIL EXIST?
 
One can entertain
such thoughts
as
whether
Satan
is
a real entity
and,
if so,
whether
something material
can enter
man's body.
 
But
such questions
are
irrelevant
to
transactional knowledge.
 
The person
who occupies himself
with
such problems
is like
the one who
finds a snake
creeping
up his sleeve;
instead of
ridding himself
of
the danger
immediately
by
removing the snake,
he wants
first
to
ascertain its color,
measure
its size,
and
determine its shape.
 
This
is
sheer lunacy.
 
[p. 61]
 
+++

A TALENTED MAN

LIKE YOU
-- AN EXAMPLE
 
The Devil
may address
a scholar
in this way:
"Don't you see
how
people
are suffering
from
their ignorance?
 
Don't you
want
to alleviate
their sorrow
through
your
teaching
and
guidance?
 
God
has given you
intellectual
and
verbal talents.
 
Why
shouldn't you
avail yourself
of them
instead of
letting
God's bounties
go to waste?
 
How
can you
remain silent?
 
The Devil
keeps hammering
his subtle persuasions
until
the learned man
becomes convinced
that he should
set about
teaching people.
 
But then
the Devil
intimates
to the scholar:
"You should
embellish
your thoughts
with
pretty language
and
impressive conceits.
 
Also
play up
your
qualifications.
 
Otherwise
your words
won't have
much effect;
they
won't reach
people's hearts
and
they
will not succeed
in attaining
the truth."
 
He
will go on
whispering such
innuendoes
in
the poor
scholar's ears.
 
What
the Devil
is
actually doing
is
subtly leading
his victim
into hypocrisy,
to
the desires
of
fame,
prestige,
and
respectability,
to
the desire
for
selling
his knowledge
and
for becoming
more and more
self-important.
 
The Devil
goes on
in this fashion,
pulling his victim
further and further
into the marshes
of doom.
 
And the scholar
gives lectures
and interviews,
thinking
that
his intentions
are good
and godly.
 
[p. 61 - 62]
 
+++
 
Lessons from
Sa'di of Shiraz
(who died in 1291):
 
ON BEING
A DERVISH
 
Ten dervishes
will sleep
under
a blanket,
while
two rulers
cannot be
accommodated
in
one continent.
 
[p. 34]
 
+++
 
THE VIZIER
WHO LOST HIS OFFICE
 
A certain vizier
who had been
expelled
from
the royal court
sought
the company
of
the dervishes.
 
The blessing
of their
proximity
affected him
favorably
and
soon his mind
attained peace
and
tranquility.
 
About this time
the king's
previous opinion
of
the dismissed vizier
changed
and
he
asked the man
to
accept
his office back.
 
The king's offer
was
turned down.
 
Trying to win
the abused
vizier over,
the king said:
"But
you are
the only
intelligent man
worthy
of my court."
 
The ex-vizier
replied:
"How can
a person
be
intelligent
and do
what
the holders
of these offices
are
supposed to do?"
 
[p. 35]
 
+++
 
PEARLS
 
I once heard
an Arab
telling this story
amidst
a group
of jewelers
from Basra:
 
Once upon
a time
I lost my way
in
the middle
of a desert.
 
I had
nothing to eat
and
pretty soon
gave myself up
for lost.

Then,

all of a sudden,
I found
a full sack.
 
I'll never forget
the joy
I felt,
for
I thought
that the sack
was full
of
roasted wheat
or
rice.
 
And
I shall
never forget
the feeling
of
utter bitterness
and
disillusionment
when
I saw
that
the contents
of the sack
was
nothing
but
pearls.
 
[p. 39]
 
+++

84. Tales of the Dervishes, excerpts from the writing of Idries Shah

Excerpts

from

"Tales of the Dervishes:

Teaching-stories
of the Sufi Masters
Over the Past Thousand Years",

by Idries Shah,

Dutton Books,
1967

"When
the Waters
Were Changed"
 
Once upon
a time
Khidr,
the Teacher
of Moses,
called upon
mankind
with
a warning.
 
At
a certain date,
he said,
all the water
in the world
which had not
been
specially hoarded,
would
disappear.
 
It
would then
be renewed,
with
different water,
which
would
drive men mad.
 
Only
one man
listened
to
the meaning
of
this advice.
 
He
collected water
and went
to a secure place
where
he stored it,
and waited
for the water
to change
its character.
 
On the
appointed date
the streams
stopped running,
the wells
went dry,
and
the man
who
had listened,
seeing this
happening,
went
to his retreat
and drank
his
preserved water.
 
When
he saw,
from
his security,
the waterfalls
again
beginning
to flow,
this man
descended
among
the other
sons of men.
 
He found
that they were
thinking
and
talking
in
an entirely
different way
from before;
yet
they had
no memory
of
what
had happened,
nor
of
having been
warned.
 
When
he tried
to talk
to them,
he realized
that
they thought
that
he was mad,
and
they showed
hostility
or
compassion,
not
understanding.
 
At first
he drank
none
of the new water,
but
went back
to
his concealment,
to draw
on his supplies,
every day.
 
Finally,
however,
he took
the decision
to drink
the new water
because
he
could not bear
the loneliness
of
living,
behaving
and thinking
in
a different way
from
everyone else.
 
He drank
the new water,
and
became
like the rest.
 
Then he forgot
all about
his own store
of special water,
and
his fellows
began
to
look upon him
as a madman
who
had miraculously
been
restored to sanity.
 
+

[From page 21]

+++
 
"The Blind Ones
and
the Matter
of the Elephant"
 
Beyond Ghor
there was a city.
 
All
its inhabitants
were blind.
 
A king
with
his entourage
arrived
near by;
he brought
his army
and
camped
in the desert.
 
He had
a mighty elephant,
which he used
in attack
and
to increase
the people's awe.
 
The populace
became anxious
to see
the elephant,
and
some sightless
from among
this blind
community
ran like fools
to find it.
 
As they
did not
even know
the form
or shape
of the elephant
they groped
sightlessly,
gathering
information
by touching
some part of it.
 
Each thought
that
he knew
something,
because
he could feel
a part.
 
When they
returned
to
their fellow-citizens
eager groups
clustered
around them.
 
Each of these
was anxious,
misguidedly,
to learn the truth
from
those who
were themselves
astray.
 
They asked
about the form,
the shape
of the elephant:
and
listened to all
that
they were told.
 
The man
whose hand
had reached
an ear
was asked
about
the
elephant's nature.
 
He said:
"It is a large,
rough thing,
wide and broad,
like a rug."
 
And the one
who had felt
the trunk said:
"I have
the real facts
about it.
 
It is like
a straight
and
hollow pipe,
awful
and destructive."
 
The one
who had felt
its feet and legs
said:
"It is mighty
and firm,
like a pillar."
 
Each
had felt
one part
out
of many.
 
Each
had
perceived it
wrongly.
 
No mind
knew all:
knowledge
is not
the companion
of the blind.
 
All imagined
something,
something
incorrect.
 
The created
is not informed
about divinity.
 
There is
no Way
in
this science
by means of
the
ordinary intellect.
 
+

[From page 25]

+++
 
"How to
Catch Monkeys"
 
Once upon a time
there was a monkey
who was
very fond of cherries.
 
One day
he saw
a delicious-looking
cherry,
and
came down
from his tree
to get it.
 
But
the fruit
turned out
to be in
a clear glass bottle.
 
After
some
experimentation,
the monkey found
that he could
get hold
of the cherry
by
putting his hand
into the bottle
by way
of the neck.
 
As soon as
he had done so,
he closed his hand
over the cherry;
but
then he found
that
he could not
withdraw
his fist
holding the cherry,
because
it was larger
than the
internal dimension
of the neck.
 
Now
all this
was deliberate,
because
the cherry
in the bottle
was a trap
laid
by
a monkey-hunter
who
knew
how monkeys think.
 
The hunter,
hearing
the monkey's
whimperings,
came along
and
the monkey
tried
to run away.
 
But,
because
his hand was,
as he thought,
stuck
in the bottle,
he could not
move
fast enough
to escape.
 
But,
as
he thought,
he still
had hold
of the cherry.
 
The hunter
picked him up.
 
A moment later
he tapped
the monkey
sharply
on the elbow,
making him
suddenly
relax his hold
on the fruit.
 
The monkey
was free,
but
he was captured.
 
The hunter
had
used
the cherry
and
the bottle,
but
he still had them.
 
+

[From page 29]

+++
 
"Why the Clay Birds
Flew Away"
 
One day Jesus,
the son of Mary,
while a child,
was fashioning
small birds
out of clay.
 
Some
other youngsters
who
could not do so
ran
to the elders
and told them,
with
many complaints.
 
The elders
said:
"This work
cannot
be allowed
on
the Sabbath,"
for
it was
a Saturday.
 
Accordingly
they went
to the pool
where
the Son of Mary
was sitting
and
asked him
where
his birds were.
 
For answer
he pointed to
the birds
which
had been
fashioned:
and
they flew away.
 
"Making birds
which fly
is impossible,
therefore
it cannot be
a breaking
of the Sabbath,"
said one elder.
 
"I should learn
this art,"
said another.
 
"This is
no art,
it is
but deception,"
said a third.
 
So
the Sabbath
was
not broken,
the art
could not
be taught.
 
As for deception,
the elders
as well a
 the children
had
deceived themselves,
because
they
did not know
what
the object
of the fashioning
of the birds was.
 
The reason
for doing
no work
on Saturday
had been
forgotten.
 
The knowledge
of
what is
a deception
and
what is
not
was
imperfect
to those elders.
 
The beginning
of art
and
the
end of action
was
unknown
to them:
thus it was
also
with
the lengthening
of
the plank of wood.
 
It was
further related
that one day
Jesus,

the son of Mary,

was
in the workshop
of
Joseph
the Carpenter.
 
When
a plank of wood
was found
to be too short,
Jesus pulled it,
and
it was found
to
have become
in some way
lengthened.
 
When this story
was told
to the people,
some said:
"This is a miracle,
therefore
this child
will be
a saint."
 
Others said:
"We
do not believe it,
do it again
for us."
 
A third party said:
"This cannot
be true,
therefore
exclude it
from the books."
 
The three parties,
with
their
different feelings,
yet
got
the same answer
because
none knew
the purpose
and
the real significance
lying within
the statement:
"He stretched
a plank."
 
+
 
[Commentary:]
 
Sufi authors
make
frequent reference
to Jesus
as
a Master of the Way.
 
There is,
in addition,
an enormous body
of oral tradition
about him
current
in the Middle East,
which
awaits a collector.
 
This tale
is found,
in slightly different
forms,
in
more than one
dervish collection.
 
Sufis say
that
"Son
of a Carpenter"
and
other vocational
names
given
to Gospel characters
are
initiatory terms,
not necessarily
describing
the individual's work.
 
[From pages 56 and 57]

+++