Friendship can be wonderful. We have to understand the impulses that give it birth and what is involved.
If we look for a rose without thorns, we’ll have a problem. Allah put thorns on the stem to protect the rose.
With beauty there is also pain. But this life just cannot be an endless fulfillment of joy. If we have faith in Allah, then whatever afflictions come to us, we will not be affected by them, we will not nourish them with our attention. If we are feeling lonely, and we feed that loneliness with our attention, it will grow. Faith in Allah is an inoculation against loneliness.
A Sufi was walking by a madhouse. He looked up, and there was a doctor leaning out the window. He asked the doctor, “Have you discovered a cure for all that afflicts these men?” The doctor said he hadn’t.
One of the crazy inmates was at the next window peering out, and he said, “Do you mind if I answer that question?” The doctor and the Sufi exchanged looks and said. “No! Not at all!”
And the inmate said, “In the pharmacy of Allah, prescribed by Muhammad, you take the root of repentance and the leaf of consciousness. Grind them in the pestle of your heart, add some tears, sift it through your intelligence, cook it with the fire of your heart, taste it with a measuring spoon, then eat it with satisfaction.”
He had given them a dervish recipe.
In the pharmacy of Allah. In the world we live in, prescribed by Muhammad, the doctor, one who was a messenger and sent to show good ways, to educate, to bring a message of Allah. Take the root of repentance. When you take the root of something it is hard and knobby and difficult to pull out of the earth. But once you have uprooted it, it doesn’t grow back. The leaf of consciousness weighs very little. This leaf, you can take only a little bit of it. You grind it in the pestle of your heart. You add some tears, your own tears. This life is feeling the presence of Allah in your repentance.
Then you sift it through your intelligence. Because your intelligence will tell you if it is right. Then cook it in the fire of your heart, in the warmth of your heart. We have said that Allah, who cannot fit into the entire universe, can fit into the heart of the believer. So you cook this potion in the fire of your heart. You taste it with a measuring spoon. Just a little, carefully. And then eat it with satisfaction. You take it into the world, and live according to the recipe.
Last year while travelling in Madinah, we met a man selling odds and ends on the street. We sat down to talk with him. It turns out he was a dervish. He told us of a man from Kayseri. He shined shoes for a living. He was a great dervish. He was simply hidden.
Once he had come to visit Madinah, and he met a man who told him, “Oh, it would be so wonderful if you could stay here. This is the place of the tomb of the Prophet, and you know, it’s just the most wonderful place. There are great blessings. Why don’t you come live here?”
His answer at the time was, “Then who will take care of the people in Kayseri?”
There are hidden beings who take care of people. These are alim, men of knowledge. This is the dervish who said he was convinced that Allah loved him because, he reasoned, how could you not love that which you have created?
Source: When You Hear Hoofbeats Think of a Zebra Shems Friedlander
a very belated
JUMA’AH MUBARAK!
…Insha’Allah may we be constantly using the Mubarak recipes taught to us by our Beloved Prophet SallAllahu alaihi wasallam…and know that Allah Ta’ala loves us…
All good is from Allah Ta’ala whereas mistakes are from this humble speck. May Allah Ta’ala Bless all readers, bringing you all closer to Him and His Rasul SallAllahu alaihi wasallam. May He accept our humble efforts and grant us the capacity to be good and do good. Ameen.
