Wandering, a certain dervish in a patched robe, with a face blackened by the sun, wandered into Kufa, where a merchant saw him. The merchant spoke to him and decided that he was a lost slave.
“Since you are of a gentle disposition, I will call you Khair (Kind),” he said. —Are you by any chance a slave?
“Yes, I am a slave,” Khair answered.
“Follow me, you can work for me until I find your master.”
“How wonderful,” said Khair, “for I have been looking for my master for so long.”
For many years he worked for this man, who taught him weaving; hence his second name is Nassaj (Weaver).
After many years of service, the merchant, feeling remorse for using him, said:
“I don’t know who you are, but from this day on you are free.”
Khair Nassaj, the great Master of the Path, continued his journey to Mecca without regret, for he had learned how to continue self-improvement even when you are stripped of your name and treated like a slave. He was the Teacher of Shibli, Ibrahim Abbas and many other great Sufi teachers. He died more than a thousand years ago, at the age of one hundred and twenty years.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru