As militant Islam does its level best to discredit the religion, it's important to remember that there are other voices within the faith. One such is the Sufis, the Islamic mystics who live islam (submission), iman (faith) and ishan (awareness of G-d, "to act beautifully").
This week's tale is a story about Junaid of Baghdad, one of the early Sufi masters.
The people of Baghdad asked Junaid to tell them the meaning of generosity. He said "I will hear another define it first."When you read our next entry, by S. Greenbaum, the truth of Junaid's words will become more deeply apparent."Generosity is not identifying with yourself, and acting as well as possible," said Hasan. The people applauded his wisdom.
Junaid commented: "Hasan has spoken well, but he has not emptied the cup. I feel that generosity is doing justice without requiring justice."
Hasan said to the others: "I shall sit at Junaid's feet, for I spoke only about mankind. His speech came from a divine source."
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