THE HANDSOME YOUTH AND THE WEALTHY YOUNG LADY

A youth, very handsome, was passing by. In a mansion along the way there lived a young lady. She was of a good, well-to-do home. It so happened that she was alone at home – her parents had gone somewhere in the neighbourhood for some necessary work. Standing at the entrance of the mansion was one of these mischievous maids. On seeing the handsome youth approaching, she quickly went inside and instigated the young lady of the house. “There is such a marvelous and handsome youth outside!” “Go quickly, and call him,” the young lady responded. He was called on the pretext that the young lady in the mansion was ill. “Please make dam on her. You appear to be a durwesh from your appearance.” He went in, unsuspectingly. Some people are innocent and trusting.

The young lady addressed him, “Come in, come in. My illness is such that I need you to fulfil my desires

The door behind him had been locked. He became terrified. What to do? He suddenly clutched his stomach. He grimaced and said, “Ofo! My stomach has a severe cramp! Instruct your bandi to place some water for me in the toilet”.

In those days the toilets had no running sewerage like we like we have these days. Water had to be taken specifically to the toilet for istinja, and the night-soil was removed by special groups of cleaners.

The water was placed in the toilet for him and he went out. One does not know whether there was some there was some excreta lying there or he had a bowel action, but, in any case, he took the faeces and smeared some on his face, some on his hands and some on his clothes. With this the flies also started swarming around him. In this amazing condition, he re-entered the bedroom. The young lady saw him and started screaming at the bándí, “A mad man! What madman did you bring here? Get out! Get him out from here!” The bándí opened the door and let him out.

You understood the strategy the youth used to save himself? On the other hand, take our youth, our young men: should they see some beautiful girl, they will try different schemes to meet her. Whereas, in the incident just mentioned, without wanting to, he had a beautiful lady within his reach, but he devised a scheme to escape her clutches. He was at the stage of Nafse-mut-ma’innah.

Do you now recognise this phase of the nafs, Nafse-mut-ma’innah, or not yet? This is what it means to have haqíqí nisbat ma-Alláh. Those who are older will relate these incidents to the younger people, to the tálib, from person to person – from Hadhratwálá (RA) to me and then from me to you. These are not related without real reasons. To the tálibe-tazkiyah, to the person in the Khánqah, to the sincere and truthful searcher, these have lessons in them.

“Ofo! This is an amazing effect of having a Nafse-mut-ma’innah.” Faeces – something which is impure (ná-pák) – was taken in his bare hands and smeared on his face and arms, and on his clothes and then he presented himself to her. She was revolted by the sight and the smell of him and got rid of him, screaming, “A mad man! What madman did you bring here? Get out! Get him out from here!” He went home, changed his soiled clothes and put on clean clothes. Is my voice reaching you?

This same youth was once going somewhere, sometime before the above incident took place. Along the way he had come across Shaitán, who was carrying a net with him. This person had addressed Shaitán, saying, “Prepare a net for me also. The net you are carrying looks beautiful.” Shaitán had replied, “Very well. I shall see to it some time.”

Now, after the above incident, the youth again met Shaitán along the way and said, “Where is my net? I had asked you to prepare one for me also.” Shaitán replied, “Ari yár! I had prepared a net for you! However, you became insane!”

It comes in the Hadíth Sharíf:

ألنساء حبالة الشياطين

Women are the nets (snares) of Shaitán.

So, Shaitán said that he had prepared such a net for him, but instead of falling into his net, he resorted to the ploy of appearing insane. How did he resort to this scheme of appearing mad? It comes in the Hadíth Sharíf:

لا يؤمن أحدكم حتى أن يقال له أنه لمجنون

This means: Just see, O you Mu’mins, you will not be kámil (perfect) Mu’mins until those who see you do not tell you that you are mad, completely mad. Did the kuffár and mushrikín not tell Rasúlulláh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) that he was mad? Yes, they did! Nowadays, do not the general populace, the intellectuals, the politicians and national leaders, say, “How much knowledge do the ulemá have? What do the ulemá know? Just see from where to where has the world not progressed! From where to where has the world not advanced! What do these ulemá know? This is the age of progress. Man has reached the moon already. What do the ulemá know? Ulemá have no knowledge of today’s world.”