By T.L. James of MarsBlog. Part of our weekly Sufi Wisdom series.

As terrorist Islam does its best to discredit the religion, it's important to remember that there are other voices within the faith. One such is the Sufis, a branch of Islamic mystics with roots in many religious traditions. The lessons of Sufism are often communicated through humorous stories and mystical or romantic poetry.

Nasrudin received an invitation to join a nobleman for a day's hunting. Unaccustomed to such grand events, the Mulla was worried that his lack of riding experience would show. With this in mind, he bribed the nobleman's equerry to lend him the horse he was to ride on the big day. In secret, he practised mounting and dismounting until he had mastered the manouvre.

On the day of the hunt the Mulla swaggered to the stables full of confidence, but was dismayed to find that the horse he had trained on had gone lame, and an unfamiliar animal had been saddled up in its place. Nervously, the Mulla got onto the horse's back. Relieved to find that he had executed the mount without apparent hitch, he prepared to ride off. Reaching for the reins, he realised that he was facing the animal's tail.

'Why was I not informed that this was a left-handed horse?' he angrily asked the stable hand.

NOTE: Today's Sufi Wisdom entry is going to be my last for a
while. I have a bit of "blogger burnout" on this feature, so I'm taking a break. Joe will take it back, unless someone else wants to pick it up (email Joe@thisdomain.net if so).