Three Tales Of Sufi Wisdom

1. ‘Ya Junayd!’


One day a disciple of Imam Junayd was at the banks of the river Euphrates when, suddenly, he spotted his Master approaching the river. He followed Imam Junayd and, to his astonishment, watched the Imam approach the river and begin walking on the water, saying “Ya Allah! Ya Allah!” as he began to cross the mighty Euphrates on foot. The disciple was still dumbfounded at this miracle of his Shaykh when Imam Junayd, whilst walking on the water, turned around and, smiling at his disciple, called to him to follow his lead, saying ‘Just follow me and keep on repeating the words, “Ya Junayd!” as you walk on the water and you will be fine.’ Trusting in his Shaykh, the disciple began to cross the river and due to his faith he was able to walk on the water too. As he walked he kept on repeating ‘Ya Junayd’ as a litany.

When he had reached the middle of the river and the Imam had gone a little further, Iblis, the accursed Satan, suddenly swooped down to him and began his mendacious whisperings in the disciple’s ear. Satan said to him, “Look at the Imam! He is saying Allah’s name, while he asks you to commit shirk and repeat his own name! Why don’t you also trust in Allah alone and say, ‘Ya Allah!’ too?”

Having said this the Accursed One disappeared. The disciple was convinced by the logic of the Devil and stopped saying the words ‘Ya Junayd’ and began to say ‘Ya Allah’ instead. As soon as he began to repeat the name of Allah, he started to sink into the water! As he was on the verge of drowning he became terrified and shouted out ‘Ya Junayd’ again. Immediately, he rose to the surface of the water and began to walk on the water again. He continued repeating Ya Junayd until he had reached the other bank of the river safely. The Imam had reached the river bank a few minutes before him.

When he had reached the other side of the Euphrates river he went up to Junayd of Baghdad and asked him, “O’ Shaykh what is the meaning of this? I was able to walk on the river whilst I said your name but as soon as I said Allah’s name I began to sink! And yet you yourself repeated Allah’s name whilst you crossed the river. Please explain this to secret to me!’

“You are trying to reach Allah and yet you haven’t even reached Junayd yet!” replied Imam Junayd Baghdadi.


2. The Tale of How Rumi First Met Shams of Tabriz

One day Mawlana Rumi was sitting with his students and disciples near a pond which was in the middle of his garden giving them a lesson in one of the Islamic intellectual sciences. The Mawlana was surrounded by a large pile of handwritten books and scrolls and was teaching from them when suddenly a strange fellow, dressed in a large turban and old flowing robes which were tattered and dishevelled, approached him and, smiling, pointed to the pile of books and asked, “What is this?”

Taking the man to be a wandering dervish and illiterate, Rumi smiled back and said, “This is something which you do not know!”

Still smiling, the dervish picked up the pile of books and threw them into the pond. Rumi was horrified and cried out, “You ignorant fellow! What have you done? You have ruined all my precious books!”

The dervish continued to smile and, nonchalantly approaching the pond and putting his hand into the water, retrieved all the books. Amazingly, all the books instantly became dry and as good as new!

Astonished at this charismatic miracle Rumi cried out, “What is this?”
“This is something which you do not know!” answered Shams of Tabriz.



3. The Tale of the Thief Who Became A Saint.

In Baghdad in the twelfth century there lived a pious saint who was the most famous in the whole Islamic world and all the other saints accepted him as their spiritual leader and bowed down their necks before his feet. His name was Shaykh ‘Abd al Qadir al Jilani and he was known as the Ghawth al Azam (the Greatest Helper) and the Qutb al Aqtâb (‘the Pole of the spiritual Poles’ i.e. he who is at the apex of the spiritual hierarchy of saints).

One night, a notorious thief entered the house of Shaykh Abd al Qadir Jilani and tried to steal something. However, the Shaykh’s servant was awake and captured the man. The thief was terrified of what would become of him for trying to rob the house of such a pious and respected saint of Allah and asked for forgiveness. The servant was very cross and held him tightly. Presently, hearing the commotion, the Shaykh –who was in his little room engaged in his nightly vigils and worship—came to the scene and asked what was the matter. The servant explained what had happened and the Shaykh approached the thief and said, “Young man! You have come to the house of ‘Abd al Qadir al Jilani to steal something. Yet, if you go away with nothing people will think that you returned from my house empty-handed! I am from that family which never sends away anybody empty-handed! I am from the family of the Beloved Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and his family and give him peace!) It has been revealed to me by inspiration by Allah that one of the Poles (qutb) has just passed away tonight. Go! I make you into a Pole so that you may replace him who has passed away!”

Thus the thief entered the house of the Shaykh a robber and a criminal and left as one of the chief saints! Know from this the closeness of the Sultan of the Shaykhs to Allah and the power he has been granted to help!