Sufi parable from Attar One man in Sufi clothes was walking along the road one day and, seeing a dog on the road, hit it hard with his staff. Squealing in pain, she ran to the great sage Abu Said. She threw herself at his feet and, showing her wounded leg, told him everything and asked him to be a judge between him and the Sufi who treated him so cruelly. The sage called them both to him and said to the Sufi:
- Oh headless! How dare you do this to a dumb creature?! Look what you've done!
“I have nothing to do with this,” the Sufi objected. “The dog itself is to blame for everything.” I hit her not out of whim, but because she got my clothes dirty.
However, the dog continued to consider itself unfairly offended; and then the incomparable sage said to her:
“So that you don’t hold a grudge until the Great Judgment, let me give you compensation for your suffering.”
The dog replied:
- O wise and great! Seeing this man in Sufi clothes, I thought that he would not harm me. If I saw him in ordinary clothes, of course, I would try to stay away from him. My only fault is that I considered the outward attributes of a minister of truth to be a guarantee of safety. If you want to punish him, take away from him the garment of the chosen ones. Deprive him of the right to wear the costume of a man of righteousness.
The dog itself was at a certain stage of the path. It would be a mistake to think that a person must necessarily be better than a dog.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru