Sufism

BY IDRIES SHAH: THE WAY OF THE SUFI, THE SUFI,

THINKERS OF THE EAST.

SOME EXAMPLES OF THE SUFI WISDOM OF THE EAST:

In 1977 on my way out of Liverpool to Leeds via the M62 Motorway in my 3-ton Leyland Terrier. It was raining hard as I turned onto the slip road off the M57 Motorway. Immediately to my left, there stood a man thumbing a lift. I stopped for him as he looked like a drowned rat. He climbed into the cab and as I drove off, I asked him where he wanted to go? He replied: "Where are you going?" I replied: "To Leeds." He then said: "I'm going to Leeds." As I proceeded onto the M62 proper, I thought: "How strange? It was almost as if I had made his mind up for him!"

During the journey, which took about an hour, it transpired he was a teacher of Philosophy at Leeds University. His name was Chris Searle as I can still recall. He asked me many questions about me and my life, the things that made me think a lot, and what impressed me mostly about my life and beliefs of life itself. As I was dropping him off near The Yorkshire Post Building in Leeds, he handed me a piece of paper, torn from his small pocket diary. He said: "These book titles I have noted down here for you, you will read at some time in the future, without doubt you will read them...not yet, but in the future. I have, during our short time together, gotten more sense and wisdom out of you than all the students I have ever had before me as a teacher in the past. Good day to you, and thank you for the lift." And with that, off he went to wherever - I was dumfounded.

During my ten years in Germany between 1980 and 1990, my encounter with Chris Searle played on my mind. I kept the piece of paper he'd given me; often wondering about the titles of 3 books he'd scribbled on it along with his name. Shortly before Christmas of 1988, I had befriended many soldiers in my Unit attached to 52 Ordnance Company, and one friend in particular was off home to England on leave and asked me if I would like him to bring me back something I especially missed from England. I had long gotten over missing things like Oxo cubes, Real English tea, Bisto gravy powder etc, as the wisdom of the Queen's Regulations promulgated by Customs & Excise, had decided that misplaced UK citizens like me, were not entitled to buy from the NAAFI stores because although a British subject working as a civilian in Her Majesty's Britannic Army of the Rhine, I was not UK based! I asked my friend if it was at all possible, if he could buy me the 3 books Chris Searle said I would read at some time in the future.

My friend went off on leave, duly returning in the first week of January, with the 3 books in question. I paid him the cost of the books, stashed them on my book shelf and that was that. When my marriage broke up in 1990, I made my miserable way back to the UK with basically one suitcase full of junk I'd collected over the years, representing if you will, 23 years of my married life. Among the junk was the three books in question, which I finally began to read during the early part of 1997 after I had moved in with a friend, to whom I became companion, lover, friend and carer to.

By Idries Shah: The Sufis, Thinkers of the East and The Way of the Sufi:

These were the 3 books in question. I read them over and over again, realising 2 important things: The first, in 1977 I was probably unready, mentally and intellectually to receive the so-called calibre of thought employed in the Wisdom oozing out of their pages. Secondly, now that I had reached the stage of having gone through so many traumatic experiences, touched the lives of so many people, lived through my circumstances good and bad, having waited for so long to feast my mind on those very pages that a vast majority of the so-called, plethora of wisdom, was in fact, virtual rubbish. What a let down, what a disappointment. I still strain for meaning of the entire affair. Idries Shah slated Edward Fitzgerald for his translation of Omar Khayyám's Rubáiyát claiming he had misrepresented Omar Khayyám when he translated it from Persian into English. What went totally amiss in this slating was the fact that Edward Fitzgerald actually brought it into rhyming poetry. Notwithstanding Edward Fitzgerald has long since passed away and therefore, cannot defend his work. Edward Fitzgerald's book, Omar Khayyám's Rubáiyát, has to be the most translated and purchased book throughout the world, even far more so than those written by Idries Shah...oops...not a mere oversight I would say!

4 excerpts from Idries Shah's book The Way of the Sufi:

The Moon was asked: "What is your strongest desire?"

The Moon replied: That the sun should vanish, and should remain veiled for ever in clouds."

Diagnostics of logic and wisdom:

Obviously, the moon was jealous of the sun shining much brighter than itself. Firstly, if the sun was to vanish, it could not be for ever veiled in clouds - it would simply not be there! Finally, if the sun either vanished or was shrouded in clouds, the moon would not shine at all! It is my opinion that this story is utter nonsense and contains no wisdom whatsoever.

One of Junaid's followers came to him with a purse containing five hundred gold pieces. "Have you any more than this?" asked the Sufi. "Yes, I have." Came the reply. "Do you desire more?" He asked. " Yes, I do." He replied "Then you must keep it, for you are more in need than I; for I have nothing and desire nothing. You have a great deal and still want more."

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Diagnostics of logic and wisdom:

Firstly, the purse must have been huge to contain 500 gold pieces, no mention of the trolley he would surely have needed to bring the massive purse on considering the weight of 500 hundred gold pieces. Secondly, it would appear that Junaid had found a way to live through life without anything, as he said he had nothing and desired nothing, but wasn't giving up the secret. Finally, the story is devoid of essential details just to keep it short, through which the meaning would have had more depth.

A muezzin in Isfahan had climbed to the top of a minaret and was giving the call to prayer. Meanwhile, a madman was passing by, and someone asked him: "What is he doing up there, in that minaret?" The madman said: "That man up there is in fact shaking a nutshell which has nothing within it." Narration: When you speak the ninety-nine names of God, you are similarly, playing with a hollow nutshell. How can God be understood through names? Since you cannot speak in words about the essence of God, best of all speak about nobody at all.

Diagnostics of logic and wisdom:

Firstly, the practice of climbing a minaret to call all to prayer is intrinsic commonplace in such a land that only a foreigner who knew nothing about the local custom would perhaps question what a man up such a minaret would be doing there i.e. the inquisitor. Secondly, if a madman was so full of such wisdom, why would he be labelled a madman? Thirdly, the narrative suggests that the ninety-nine names of God are tantamount to playing with a hollow nutshell, why then have names for God at all? And was the ulterior motive of giving God ninety-nine names to ensure that there would be understanding of God? Finally, unless the speaking of the ninety-nine names of God was done by the man up the minaret, [this is not mentioned in the story prior to the narrative, so I have no idea who actually spoke those names] then if he would in fact be playing with an empty nutshell, then it would go to say he was misrepresenting the idea of why he was up there in the first instance, and is allowed up there doing what he did notwithstanding he could not speak of the essence of God. So, was the man up the minaret attempting to speak of the essence of God by naming the ninety-nine names of God whilst playing with an empty nutshell? In my opinion, this story not only lacks wisdom, intellect and logic, it is full of inconsistency as to why have a minaret at all? It is commonplace in a great many of such writings in these 3 books, where a madman is called upon to throw stacks of wisdom into the story by the writer just to impress the reader, I fear. If Idries Shah was to write a book based on the wisdom of madmen, then perhaps I just might read it...I just might!

The books are so full of this type of attempts to mince words into some form of wisdom, whilst lacking mostly, the ability of the many Sufi writers to actually put the reader into the frame of understanding of why the story at all. This last one is my favourite, for it gives a fuller picture, if practiced on a wide scale throughout Persia - at the time of their writing - then many innocent people were maimed for no fault of their own...by the Law itself!

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A thief broke into a shop. While he was there, a sharp awl which the shopkeeper had left on a shelf entered his eye, and blinded it. The thief went to law, saying, "the penalty for stealing is prison, but the penalty for negligence causing injury to an eye is considerable damages." He complained. "He came to steal from me," said the shopkeeper, in his own defence. "That will be dealt with by another court," said the judge, "and cannot concern us here." He said. "If you take all my possessions," said the thief, "my family will starve while I am in prison. That is clearly not fair upon them." He moaned. "Then I shall order the shopkeeper's eye to be put out in retaliation," said the judge. "But if you do that," said the shopkeeper, "I shall lose more than the thief did, and it will not be equitable. I am a jeweller, and the loss of one eye would ruin my capacity for work." He concluded. "Very well," said the judge, "since the law is impartial, and none must suffer more than he should, and since the whole community shares in the gains and losses of some of its members, bring a man who needs only one eye - an archer for instance - and put out his other eye." And this was done.

Diagnostics of logic and wisdom:

Well! Where shall I start? Firstly, there is no mention as to whether or not, the jeweller took his case to court against the thief, who admitted breaking into the jeweller's shop. I'd dread to think what the judge on that case finally decided, if he did! Secondly, the law was impartial, but partial to taking out an innocent man's eye who had nothing to do with neither man in the court, nor the case as a whole, just for the sake of pacifying the thief! Thirdly, it appears those who commit crimes in the land of this story, get off Scott-free, whilst members of their community pay the ultimate price for something they clearly have not done as in accordance with the law! Finally, there is not one shred of this "Knowledge" this "Wisdom" Idries Shah attempts to impress his readership with of the "Great" Sufi of the East. I am glad I live in England, even though I think the law here is an ass as it obviously is there and manages to vilify victims of crime and turns the criminals into heroes.

I wondered long and hard as to what Chris Searle was actually trying to tell me all those years ago as we trundled towards Leeds on a murky, miserable, very wet day...I still do I must confess! Perhaps, although I was articulate enough in the vernacular at that time, I was missing certain aspects of wisdom and knowledge with regards to my perception of my life. Perhaps, I was devoid of the greater aspects of wisdom and knowledge, which is, application, throughout my normal humdrum life at the time, and I needed to mature more, become more tolerant, learn to be patient without asking for patience, accept that some things are beyond me and get on with living my life instead of pondering over it. One thing is for sure, nothing would be served here to pour over any more of Idries Shah's works, which centre on self importance, often referred to as, "Delusions of Grandeur" in my opinion, rather than actual wisdom. All 3 books have found a temporary use; chocking up my bed as one of the legs fell off, now they were useful after all! The thing that pains me more than anything, is the fact that the man made money out of me, and perhaps like the man with the 500 gold pieces, the author needs the money more than I do. One thing is for sure, as opposed to the cost of the 3 books, a new bed costs a hundred times more, so wisdom applied; a passing madman said: "Wisdom cannot be found under a three-legged bed!"

"Oh, those madmen!"

Pictures Of Minarets