Venerable Shaikh

I lamented to a venerable Shaikh, that someone

had accused me falsely of lasciviousness. He replied, “Put him to shame by your

virtue. Let your conduct be virtuous, when it will not be in the power of the

detractor to convict you of evil. When the harp is in tune, how can it suffer

correction from the hand of the musician? ”

Shaikhs of Damascus

They asked one of the Shaikhs of Damascus,

What was the condition of the sect of Softies? He replied, “They formerly were,

in the world, a society of men apparently in distress, but in reality contented;

but now they are a tribe in appearance satisfied, but inwardly discontented.”

When your heart is continually wandering

from one place to another, you will have no satisfaction in solitude. Though

you possess riches, rank, lands and chattels, if your heart is with God you are

a recluse.

Whole night with the caravan

I recollect that once I had travelled the whole

night with the caravan, and in the morning had gone to sleep by the

side of a desert; a distracted man, who had accompanied us in the journey, set

up a cry, took the road of the desert, and did not enjoy a moment’s repose.

When it was day, I asked him what was the matter? He replied, “I heard the

nightingales on the trees, the partridges in the mountains, the frogs in the

water, and the brutes in the desert, uttering their plaintive notes and doleful

lamentation. I reflected that it did not become a human being, through neglect

of my duty, to be asleep, whilst other creatures were celebrating the praises

of God.”

Last night, towards morning, the

lamentations of a bird deprived me of reason, patience, power, and sensation.

When my voice reached the ears of a sincere friend he said, “I could not have

believed that the notes of a bird would in such a manner have deprived you of

your senses.” I replied, “ It is not consistent with the laws of human nature,

that whilst a bird is reciting the praises of God, I should be silent.”

Beni Hullal

Once I travelled to Ilejaz along with some

young men of virtuous disposition, who had been my intimate friends and

constant companions. Frequently, in their mirth, they recited spiritual verses.

There happened to be in the party an Abid, who thought unfavorably of the

morals of Durweshes, being ignorant of their sufferings. At length we arrived

at the grove of palm-trees of Beni Hullal, when a boy of dark complexion came

out of one of the Arab families, and sang in such a strain as arrested the

b’rds in their flight through the air. 1 beheld the Abid’s camel dancing; and,

after flinging his rider, he took the road of the desert, I said, “0 Shaikh,

those strains delighted the brutes, but made no impression on you ; knows thou

what the nightingale of the morning said to me ? ‘ What kind of a man art thou,

who are ignorant of love. The camel is thrown into ecstacy by the Arabic

verses, for which if thou hast no relish, thou art a cross-grained brute. When

the camel is captivated wTith ecstatic phrenzy, that man who can be insensible

is an ass. The wind blowing over the plains causes the tender branches of the

ban-tree to bend before it, but affects not the hard stone. Everything that you

behold is exclaiming the praises of God, as is well known unto the

understanding heart: not only the nightingale and the rose-bush are chanting

praises to God, but every thorn is a tongue to extol him.