Abu Said and his friend had studied together under the same teacher many years ago.
"Now you are a great teacher," said his friend. "How did you learn so much more than I did?"
Abu Said said, "One day the lesson was 'surrendering to God's will is to be happy and content with what one has.' What did you do with that lesson?" asked Abu Said.
"I wrote it down, memorized it, and then proceeded to the next lesson."
"I memorized nothing," said Abu Said. "I surrendered to God's will and was happy and content, and on that path I reached the Truth."
Inspired by: Under the Sufi's Cloak: Stories of Abu Said and His Mystical Teaching by Mohammad Ali Jamnia and Mojdeh Bayat
Notes: This story is on p. 41 of the book. The full lesson from the Prophetic Tradition referenced in the story goes as follows: "To surrender to God's will is not only to be happy and content with what one has, but also to let go of the thought of that which one does not own."
No comments:
Post a Comment