Ramadan Special: Tales of Sufi Wisdom

The sacred month of Ramadan is almost upon us again and to celebrate the onset of the holiest month of the Muslim calendar I felt it would be an opportune moment to add a few more stories from the lives of the saints as it is well known that, ‘remembrance of the saints causes God’s mercy to descend’.

Here then are some more episodes from the lives of the Sufi saints which I hope will be enjoyable and instructive and, also, for all of us, informative and reformative. Since Ramadan is supposed to be a month for bringing dead hearts back to life all the episodes here chosen have the theme of life and death.


1. The Funeral of Khwaja Baqibillah

One of the mureeds of Khwaja Baqibillah asked him the meanings of the Sufi terms ‘fana’ [annihilation in God] and ‘baqa’ [Everlasting subsistence in God]. The Shaykh said, "When I die, ask this question to the person who reads my funeral prayer." The Shaykh had left a condition that only a person who has never missed a single tahajjud prayer (a superogatory prayer in the middle of the night in addition to the five canonical prayers a Muslim must perform in a day) in his life should read my funeral prayer (namaz-e-janazah) and when this condition was read out during his funeral everyone present lowered their heads and no one dared to come forward to read his namaz-e-janazah. Finally a man, his face veiled, came forward and read the funeral prayer. After the prayer as the veiled man walked off the mureed remembered his Shaykh's answer and ran to the veiled man and grabbed him by the arm. "My Shaykh asked me to ask you a question about what is fana and baqa'" he said. At this the veiled man removed the veil from his face. It was Khwaja Baqibillah himself! "The man whose funeral prayer you have just read is fana", he said, "and what you see before you is baqa!"


(Reference: a talk given by Shaykh Professor Tahir ul Qadri called Waliyon ki Pehchan at the shrine of Data Sahib Shaykh Ali Hijwiri in Lahore and available at minhaj.org)


2. The Shackled Physician

After the tragedy of Karbala, Imam Zayn al Abideen Ali ibn Husayn was led towards Damascus in shackles and handcuffs along with the survivors by the soldiers of the Umayyad army. As this caravan marched on its journey towards Damascus they passed threw many villages and hamlets along the way. People wept at the sight of the Prophet’s great-grandson in shackles and handcuffs being frog-marched in this manner by those who called themselves Muslims. As this caravan was passing through one hamlet an old woman came forward running and screaming, tears pouring down her face. She stopped the leading soldier and asked, “Is there a physician amongst you? My only son is dying and I need a physician to heal him! Please help me!” Seeing the plight of the old woman Imam Zayn al Abideen called out, “Mother! There is a physician present but as you can see he is a prisoner!” The woman begged the soldiers in charge to let the Imam come with her to treat her son. Thinking that this will be some amusement for them a group of soldiers escorted Imam Zayn al Abideen to the old woman’s house. Amongst the group that went was also Shimr. As they approached the old woman’s house her daughter came wailing out of the house saying, “Mother! My brother is dead! Tell the physician to go away!” Seeing this the old woman, weeping, said to the Imam, “Son, please forgive me for having put you through this trouble but my son has passed away now and there is nothing you can do.”

“Mother,” replied the Imam, “Now that I have come I would still like to see your son.” Puzzled, and to the amusement and mocking of the soldiers, the old woman led the group to the bed of her son who was lying there, obviously dead. “See”, said the old lady, “Son, I told you he was dead.” The Imam moved near to the dead boy’s corpse and recited three times in Arabic the phrase, “Assalatu wa assalamu alayka Ya Rasool Allah.” Then he ordered in Arabic, “Rise! By the command of Allah!” and to the astonishment of all present the dead boy came back to life and recited the Kalimah. Now weeping with joy the old woman turned on the soldiers and said, “This man can quicken the dead and yet you have him shackled and handcuffed?” Angered at this display of the Imam’s charismatic miracle [karamat] Shimr said, “O’ Ali ibn Husayn! Now you are showing miracles! We killed many of your family and compatriots at Karbala! Why didn’t you bring them back to life too?” The Imam replied, “O’ Shimr! Have you not read Allah’s Qur’an where He says: ‘And reckon not those who are killed in Allah's way as dead; nay, they are alive (and) are provided sustenance from their Lord [3.169]’.

(Ref: Talk by Mawlana Ghulam Rasul about Karbala)


3. Shaykh Sayyid Abdul Qadir Jilani and the Chicken

A woman who was a disciple of the greatest saint Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani Baghdadi vowed that she would give her son to the saint to raise in his Sufi hospice and make her son into a dervish like the saint himself.
When her son reached about seven years she left him with the Shaykh as per her vow. One day she came to visit her son and was surprised to see the Shaykh sitting on a couch eating a chicken whereas her son was being fed bread with a weak, watery, soup. Her maternal instincts couldn’t be suppressed and she asked the Shaykh, “O’ my Shaykh! What is this? You are eating chicken and my son is eating soup?” The Shaykh smiled and put all the bones of the chicken he had eaten together and ordered it to come back to life! Immediately the cooked and eaten chicken came back to life and flew around the room. “When your son can do this”, said the Shaykh, “he too can eat whatever he wishes.”

(Ref: biographies of the greatest Shaykh Ghawth al Azam are replete with accounts of his miracles. The scholars have written that so many different people have witnessed the miracles of Ghawth al Azam that they have reached the level of tawattur or mass-transmission. This particular miracle was from another talk by Dr. Tahir ul Qadri called “Shaan e Ghawth”.)