This happened during the time of Omar, the great Islamic Caliph. He fought his enemy for 30 years. The enemy was very strong, and the battle lasted all my life. Finally, it happened one day that a favorable opportunity arose: the enemy fell from his horse, and Omar jumped on him with his spear. In just a second the spear could pierce the enemy's heart and it would all be over. But at that moment the enemy did one thing: he spat in Omar's face, and the spear stopped.
Omar touched his face, stood up and said to the enemy:
- Tomorrow we will start over.
The enemy was confused. He asked:
- What's the matter? I have been waiting for this moment for 30 years, I have been waiting, hoping that someday I will put a spear to your chest and it will all be over. Such luck never came to me, but it came to you. You could end me in an instant. What happened to you?
Omar said:
— This was not an ordinary war. I made a vow, a Sufi vow, that I would fight without anger. For 30 years I fought without anger, but now anger has come. When you spat, I only felt anger for a moment, and it all became personal. I wanted to kill you, ego came into it. Up until this point, for 30 years, there had been no problem at all: we were fighting for a reason. You were not my enemy, this was in no way personal. I was in no way interested in killing you, I just wanted to win the case. But now, for a moment, I forgot about the reason: you became my enemy, and I wanted to kill you. That's why I can't kill you. So tomorrow we'll start again.
But the battle never began again, as the enemy became a friend. He said:
- Now teach me. Be my master and let me be your student. I also want to fight without anger.
This is the whole secret: fight without ego, and if you can fight without anger, then you can do everything without ego, because fighting is the highest point of ego. If you can do this, then you can do anything. But now you cannot even love without ego.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru