Part of our weekly Sufi Wisdom series. As militant Islam does its level best to discredit the religion, it's important to remember that there are other voices within the faith.
This week, I wanted to find a Sufi story that would help illuminate Passover in some way, and found one in Idries Shah's The Parable of the Host and the Guests. I thought it provoked insights into the central Passover tradition of the Seder ceremony, as well as Sufi teaching and discipleship:
"The teacher is like a host in his own house. His guests are those who are trying to study the Way. These are people who have never been in a house before, and can only have vague ideas as to what a house may be like. It exists, nevertheless..."
When the guests enter the house and see the place set aside for sitting in, they ask: 'What is this?' They are told 'This is a place where we sit.' So they sit down on chairs, only dimly conscious of the function of the chair.
The host entertains them, but they continue to ask questions, some irrelevant. Like a good host, he does not blame them for this. They want to know, for instance, where and when they are going to eat. They do not know that nobody is alone, and that at that very moment there are other people who are cooking the food, and that there is another room in which they will sit down and have a meal. Because they cannot see the meal or its preparations they are confused, perhaps doubtful, sometimes ill at ease.
The good host, knowing the problems of the guests, has to put them at their ease, so they will be able to enjoy the food when it comes. At the outset they are in no state to approach the food.
Some of the guests are quicker to understand and relate one thing about the house to another. These are the ones who can communicate to their slower friends. The host, meanwhile, gives each guest an answer in accordance with his capacity to perceive the unity and function of the house.
It is not enough for a house to exist - for it to be made ready to receive guests - for the host to be present. Someone must actively exercise the function of host, in order that the strangers who are the guests, and for whom the host has responsibility, may become accustomed to the house. At the beginning, many of them are not aware that they are guests, or rather exactly what guesthood means; what they can bring to it, what it can give them.
The experienced guest, who has learned about houses and hospitality, is at length at ease in his guesthood, and he is then in a position to understand more about houses and about many facets of living in them. While he is still trying to understand what a house is, or trying to remember rules of etiquette, his attention is too much taken up by these factors to be able to observe, say, the beauty, value or function of the furniture."
Your mission, should you choose to accept it... relate any part of this description to either the process of Sufi discipleship, or the Passover Seder. In the latter case especially, if you think about it you'll find some personal experiences that ring bells - this doesn't have the be highfalutin' stuff.
This reminds me of an unusual wedding I attended in Chicago some years ago. The Christian couple lived in the inner city and had the reception at their church hall. They invited many street people to the affair. The dinner was Mexican cuisine, because it was easy to prepare for so many guests. When the guests sat at the table there were bowls of condiments placed in anticipation of the entrees to come. Shreded lettuce, diced onions and tomatoes, salsa. The street people had never see anything like this, but they had seen salads. They took all the condiments and built salads and ate them. By the time the meal came there were no toppings, but the other guests smiled and said nothing. It was really nice to see everyone come together to celebrate the couples wedding.