Winds of Change.NET: Sufi Wisdom: Rabi'a & the Scholar

March 8, 2003

Sufi Wisdom: Rabi'a & the Scholar

by Joe Katzman at March 8, 2003 3:30 AM

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").

The Wahhabi hate them, of course, which constitutes an endorsement in my books. The great poet Rumi was a Sufi, as is the popular folk character Nasruddin (also known in some places as Hodja or Nasreddin Hodja). I've come to appreciate the Sufis for their poetry, their humour, and their body of wisdom. Every Shabbat, therefore, I will be sharing some of that here.

A leading scholar of Basra visited Rabi'a al-Adawiyya while she was ill. Sitting beside her pillow, the scholar spoke about how terrible the world was.

In reply, Rabi'a told him:

"You love the world very dearly. If you did not love the world, you would not mention it so much. It is always the purchaser who first disparages what he wants to buy. If you were done with the world, you would not mention it either for good or evil. As it is, you keep mentioning it because, as the proverb says, whoever loves a thing mentions it frequently."

[From Haqq.com.au. Adapted from the "Memorial of the Saints" by Fariduddin Attar, in the abridged translation called "Muslim Saints and Mystics" by A. J. Arberry, p. 50.]

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Comments

#1 from Dean Esmay at 10:56 am on Mar 08, 2003

I started a project like this some time ago, to regularly mention good things about Islam. I ran out ot steam, although not out of good things to say. I'm glad you haven't run out of steam.

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