One day, a group of truth seekers visited the Sufi master Junayd and saw him sitting surrounded by unimaginable luxury. These people left him and went to the house of an extremely austere and ascetic holy man, whose surroundings were so simple that he had nothing but a mat and a pitcher of water. One of the visitors said:
“The simplicity of your behavior and the harsh environment are much more to our taste than the ostentatious and flashy excesses of Junaid, who seems to have left the Path of Truth.”
The ascetic looked heavily and answered:
- My dear friends, so easily deceived by external signs that block a person’s path at every step - understand this and stop being losers! The great Junaid is now surrounded by luxury because he is immune to luxury, but I am surrounded by simplicity because I am immune to simplicity.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru