Are You a Slave?

Posted on April 21, 2004 in Consuming Hope and Joy Myths & Mysticism

Intolerant people, I think, see intolerance in the religions they hate. Tolerant people find wisps of civility and wisdom in nearly all faiths. If any attitude unites the majority of modern Muslims, Christians, and Jews (and probably many others including atheists) it is purblindness to their own failings, a desire to find loopholes that allow them to enjoy what they criticize nonbelievers for.

I was struck by this anecdote contained in Essential Sufism (p. 85):

A sultan was riding through the country surrounded by courtiers and soldiers. Everyone bowed as the sultan passed, except for a single dervish.

The sultan halted his procession and had the dervish brought to him. He demanded to know why the man did not bow to him.

The dervish replied, “Let all these people bow to you. They all want what you have — money, power, rank. Thank God these things mean nothing to me.” Then he added, “Furthermore, a free man should not bow down to a slave.”

“What do you mean?” the sultan cried.

“You are a slave to anger and greed,” the dervish said calmly, looking the sultan full in the face. “I have made them my servants and become a free man.”

Recognizing the truth of what he heard, the sultan bowed to the dervish.

  – Sheikh Muzaffer

The question should be, therefore, not “Who is John G*lt”, but “Who is free of hero worship and fear?” A good parable beats a R*ndenoid slogan any time.