A True Story
In breach of his usual habit, it happened that one of the disciples of Sheikh Emin Keftaro did not attend the meeting of citation (reminding ourselves of God’s Attributes) for a number of successive days. The sheikh did not feel at ease about his absence! He wondered about what it was that was engaging him, although he had devoted himself to the meetings of citation. The sheikh decided to visit his disciple at home. When the sheikh entered the disciple’s house and asked about the secret behind his absence from the meetings of knowledge and citing, the disciple’s mouth gaped open in astonishment and he stood up to address the sheikh:
“Have you not been told?”
“About what?! What is the matter?” asked the sheikh.
The disciple said: “If you were not my sheikh, I would not inform you. He – I mean the greatest magnate – comes to my house every night, and stays with me as a guest. I have the honor of his service”.
The sheikh cried: “The greatest magnate! What is his name? Can you describe him to me? Why has he chosen you from among all people, and how could you recognize him?”
Showing ardor, the disciple answered, “He is the greatest magnate himself, the basin of the tenure, the reliever magnate. He told me that God has chosen me to be in his service, and has honored me by making him my guest and making me spend money for his sake”.
“But how could you know that he is the greatest magnate?” the sheikh asked.
His disciple said, “Every day, after I put food out for him for his dinner and give him the money which God has donated to me, obeying him and asking for his blessing, I leave him alone for a while; he then soon flies away on the wing of pleasure and on the carpet of righteousness to the honorable Medina, where he spends the night near the most greatly beloved, Mohammad (cpth).”
The sheikh then turned his attention inwards and set about studying this case and considering it carefully. He knew very well that God chooses His saints from among His creation so that they will help people to love Him and will guide them to the path of obedience to Him. In this way, they achieve bliss and enjoy closeness to Al’lah. Surely the Almighty never chooses an ignorant saint; even if He does, He will teach them. However, He teaches them only to make them, in turn, show the rest of creation the way that leads to their happiness and benefit. This being true, would it be the wisdom of God, the Great Almighty, to make a selection of a group of people obedient to Him, in order that they just spend their nights at people’s houses in such a way as to straiten them in their livelihood, to eat their food and drink their drinks, and moreover, to stand in the way of their attendance at meetings of goodness and knowledge? He said to himself: “In all probability, this man is just a sly liar that exploits the simplicity of people! So, he intrudes upon their dining tables and their houses, masked by any name and character that he likes”. So, Sheikh Emin looked at his disciple and said:
“Did he tell you that he goes there and spends the night near God’s messenger (cpth)?”
“Yes.”
“Have you seen him do that with your own eyes?”
“No, but whenever I leave him alone in the room for his own privacy, and then come back to see him, I do not find his body therein, and yet I see his honorable body again in the morning”.
“Is there any other door in your room?”
“No.”
“Is there any window?”
“No.”
“Is there a hole in the wall for your bedclothes?”
“Yes, there is!”
Thereupon, Sheikh Emin Keftaro (may God have mercy upon him) said: “Then, search it tonight, for I think that he will spend the night inside it”.
In the evening, when the suspect magnate came and ate his dinner and then put the money in his pocket, the disciple left him to his privacy. But that night, he entered the room again. He was still very uncertain until that moment. He was asking himself: “Where is the magnate at this hour? Has he been carried by the wing of pleasure on the carpet of righteousness, or is he sleeping inside the hole in the wall?”
It only took a moment for the suspicion to change into certainty, for when the disciple shook one of the bedclothes that were arranged inside the hole in the wall, he saw His Excellency, the greatest magnate, having wrapped himself in one of them, snoring away in a deep sleep.
In fact, the cosmic laws are strictly accurate and God never changes their rules or vainly breaks them. Is it reasonable that on one hand, He let His beloved (cpth) suffer the troubles of migration, but He meanwhile makes the wind carry such a slothful, dull and inane traveler, just after he has eaten a fatty dinner?! Absolutely not.