One day a dervish boarded a ship to go on a sea voyage. Seeing him on board the ship, other passengers began to take turns approaching him for parting words. He said the same thing to all of them and seemed to be simply repeating one of those phrases which every dervish from time to time makes the object of his attention. He said: “Remember death until you know what death is.”
Almost none of the travelers paid much attention to this advice.
Soon a fierce storm broke out. The sailors, and with them all the passengers, fell to their knees, praying to God for salvation. They groaned in horror, considering themselves dead, and in a frenzy awaited help from above.
All this time, the dervish sat calmly, thoughtfully fingering his rosary and not reacting at all to what was happening around him. Finally the waves subsided, the sea and sky calmed down. Having come to their senses, the passengers remembered how serene the dervish was amid the general horror.
“Didn’t you realize during the storm that only fragile ship planks separated you from death?” - asked one of them.
“Oh yes, of course,” answered the dervish, “I knew that anything could happen at sea.” But even on land, I often thought that in ordinary life, among the most everyday events, something even less durable separates us from death.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru