Rabiya (also Rabia) , a great Sufi mystic, was passing…. It was the street she used to pass every day on her way to the marketplace, because in the marketplace she would…
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A heap of skulls
This is a story about Bayazid, a Sufi mystic. Once, he was passing through a cemetery and he came upon a heap of skulls. Out of curiosity he took one skull. He…
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Identification is misery
Junaid, a famous mystic, was going through the market-place of the town with his disciples. And it was his way to take any situation and use it. A man was dragging his…
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Change the world
Bayazid, a Sufi mystic, has written in his autobiography, “When I was young, I thought and I said to God, and in all my prayers this was the base: ‘Give me energy…
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People are just the way you are
A man was sitting at the gate of a town, an old man. A rider stopped, a horse-rider, and asked him, “What are the people of this town like?” The old man…
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Scissors or needle?
It is reported in the life of a great Sufi mystic, Farid, that once a king came to see him. He brought a present for him: a beautiful pair of scissors, golden,…
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Trust in Allah but tether your camel first
This saying comes from a small story. A Master was traveling with one of his disciples. The disciple was in charge of taking care of the camel. They reached a caravanserai in…
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Bundle of miseries
A man used to call God every night with the same prayer. Again and again he would ask, “Do me one favour, just one favour — and I have been asking my…
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The wisdom of the sands
A stream, from its source in far-off mountains, passing through every kind and description of countryside, at last reached the sands of the desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier,…
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The ant and the grasshopper
In a garden there lived an ant and a grasshopper who were very good friends. It was springtime and the grasshopper was having a lot of fun playing, singing, and dancing in…