The famous Sufi sage Baba Saifdar once had a disciple named Miri, who always complained that Saifdar barely noticed him ever since he was admitted to discipleship.
“I was in a better position before he made me a disciple,” he told one and all, “because then I was treated at least as a friend and could benefit from such fellowship.”
Baba Saifdar, however, knew the inner state of his disciple, but did not make any comments about it during his rare meetings with him. He preferred to wait for an opportunity to present an effective demonstration of the student-teacher relationship and its importance.
One day Miri had to testify in the open courtyard. At that time, Baba Saifdar was passing by. The judge had just before said to the witness: “Do you really remember that you saw the accused participate in the theft?” Miri, instead of focusing on the question, looked at his teacher and, by association, remembering the self-remembering exercise that he had studied with him during the last meeting, involuntarily uttered the key words of the exercise: “I remember!”
The alleged thief was immediately convicted based on the testimony of a witness who allegedly saw everything with his own eyes. And he was innocent!
Miri, through whose accidental fault a man was put behind bars, achieved a review of the case, and he himself was convicted of false testimony. When he was finally released, Baba said, “This is a parallel in ordinary things to what can happen in deeper matters. If anyone praises his teacher or complains about him, then this leads to stupidity. Any disrespect for his rules leads to this. What is visible to the teacher is not visible to the student.”
“I can only hope that my example will be of value to others so that they can not only avoid these kinds of situations, but also advance to higher things through it,” Myrie said.
For this reason, this tale is sometimes called Miri's Lesson.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru