True Faith

A beggar was standing on the side of the dirt laden road. He saw a few smartly dressed men pass him by. They had colourful uniforms with belts that shone as if they had a diamond attached to them. They looked very well fed and seemed like nobility. The beggar asked a person standing beside him, “Who are these men? Are they nobles and ministers from Baghdad?

The man replied, “They are not dignitaries. They are servants of Omid of Khorasan, one of sultan’s minsters.

The beggar, having heard this was dejected. He turned towards the sky and said, “Oh Almighty, why don’t you look after your servants like the Omid of Khorasan does! Why do I have to beg for two meals a day?” The beggar started weeping. He felt betrayed that he had never had enough food to eat or clothes to protect himself from the severe cold of the night. He felt that his master, GOD almighty, before whom he kneeled five times a day, had let him down.

A little while after this incident, the Sultan got upset with his minister Omid. He accused Omid of treachery and ordered for Omid to be arrested and put in jail. Also, Omid’s servants, who the beggar had seen, were arrested. The Sultan believed that Omid had hidden some treasure from him. So, Sultan ordered for Omid and his servants to be mercilessly tortured untill they divulged the whereabouts of the treasure. Omid had been loyal to the Sultan and had been set up for punishment by Sultan's Uncle. Omid’s servants were also loyal to him and never opened their mouth. But, there was no respite from Sultan’s anger.

A month passed by. As luck would have it, the treasure for which Omid was arrested, was found with Sultan's own uncle who was planning a rebellion. The Sultan ordered for Omid and his servants to be released. They servants were famished and badly bruised but had kept their nerve during the ordeal. They were given back their titles and riches.

They beggar who had envied Omid's servants, saw them passing by through his town again. That night, as he was sleeping comfortably at the entrance of the town mosque, he had a dream. In the dream, a sufi approached him and said, “You must be a true servant of your master, like Omid’s men. Only than you are qualified to seek his grace!”

The END

Learnings

1. The beggar sees the smartly dressed servants of Omid and feels let down by GOD. He is upset that while Omid is taking care of his servants, his master, God Almighty has left him to rot. Where is the justice in this world where mere servants can be rewarded with good clothes, be well fed by their master who is a mere mortal while he, a servant of the most powerful, is struggling for two meals a day. This story is about keeping the faith.

2. We need to keep the faith when times are tough. A lot of us when faced with adversity, join a spiritual school. While we may never admit it, the objective of joining the spiritual school is to find a solution to our current problem. If our problem is solved, we love that school. And when that school fails to solve our current problem, we jump schools. We continue to do spiritual shopping till the time either we get tired of it or in some rare cases, the school actually helps us find ourselves. Usually the problem is not with the school. It is us, who most of the time, don’t have patience as we never had the faith to begin with.

3. Sometimes, we face situations that test our faith in ourselves and in the higher power. In those times, it is helpful to look around us and count our blessings. We must be thankful for what we have:- our health, family, friends, money, whatever resources/capabilities GOD has given us to fight the challenge. Agreed, sometimes the challenge looks unsurmountable and we feel low, but it is in these times that keeping the faith matters. The Sufi makes the beggar realize that while he does not have food and clothes, God has blessed him with good health and freedom. All of us have been asked to count our blessings in this story instead of complaining about what we don’t have.

STORY CREDIT: This story has its source in the six volumes of Masnavi by Jalalu'din Rumi, translated by Maryam Mafi