Sufism on "Read a book."

The Self-Congratulating Fruit

It is related in the family of the Jan Fishanis that a certain Emir, attended by a substantial retinue, journeyed from Arabia to see the great Khan. When he arrived, he was treated with honor and given costly presents. Many of the court of Jan Fishan Khan expected that after such a journey the prince would ask innumerable questions, or else remain mute and try to absorb wisdom through companionship with the great Khan.

But the Khan said, just before the Emir was ceremonially announced, "Watch this interchange, for it is only rarely that one experiences such a thing."

The Emir entered and said:

"Confirm me in my Emirate, for I am not of the Family of the Hashimites, and it is from your ancestors that all nobility receives its rank."

Jan Fishan said:

"Do you wish ceremony and courtesy and the verification of rank, or do you seek an answer to a question?"

"Would that I could have both, but if only one is to be given, I desire an answer to my question," said the Emir.

"Since you have asked, with absence of greed, for only one, I shall give you both," said Jan Fishan Khan, "and I shall confirm or deny your title in the answer to your philosophical question."

The Emir asked:

"This is my question. Why do so many Sufis make light of the great deeds, the heroism, the patience and high-mindedness which is the heritage and the glory of the Arab?"

Jan Fishan said:

"And here is the answer, which will not only explain our position but will also show you your own true position as a nobleman among the Arabs.

"We discount, and we even deride at times, the qualities upon which so many men pride themselves because those very qualities should be the minimum, not the maximum, attainable by man. If a man is a hero, or a patient one, or devout, or hospitable, or has any of the other qualities—this is the point from which he starts. Is he a beast, that he should be proud if he learns to conduct himself well in relation to others? Is he a fruit, that people should remember his name and always seek others of the same type? No, he is someone who should be ashamed that he has not always been worthy, and should be grateful that he is capable of great things."

After this the nobleman abandoned the title of Emir, saying, "Emir is the word we use for the kind of man who is at the bottom, so why should I need it to describe me? What we call an ordinary man, with few qualities, is not even to be counted in the Journey until he rises to what we call "Highness" (elevated.)"

One of his companions said:

"What! Will you cast aside the glory of your family for something which you could have read in a book?"

The Emir said:

"I could have read it in a book, and it would have been no less true. Perhaps I have, indeed, read it in a book at some time, but I did not heed it. And, if I have in fact at some time read it, then I am doubly blameworthy, for I have betrayed my literacy through ignoring its value to me in helping me to change back to the status of man, from the status of a self-congratulating fruit."

Submitted August 09, 2016 at 09:38PM by tostono http://ift.tt/2bcnukY