A man named Seyfulmulyuk spent half his life in search of truth. He read all the books of ancient wisdom he could, and traveled to known and unknown countries to listen to spiritual teachers. He spent his days at work and his nights thinking about great mysteries.
One day, Seyfulmulyuk heard about another teacher, the great poet Ansari from the city of Herat, and went to him.
Approaching the sage’s house, he, much surprised, read the inscription on the door: “Knowledge is for sale here.” “This must be a mistake, or perhaps a deliberate absurdity, calculated to discourage idle seekers. I have never heard that knowledge can be sold or bought,” thought Seyfulmulyuk and entered the house. In the courtyard he saw Ansari himself, a bent old man, busy writing down a poem.
-Have you come to buy knowledge? - asked the sage, interrupting his work.
Seyfulmulyuk nodded. Then Ansari asked how much money he had with him, and the wanderer pulled out everything he had - about a hundred silver coins.
“For this money you can get three pieces of advice,” said the elder.
- So you're really selling knowledge? But why do you need money if you are a humble person dedicated to knowledge?
“We live in the world, and we have to reckon with its material conditions. My knowledge places new and great responsibilities on me. The fact that I have special knowledge that other people do not have obliges me to spend money, among other things, in order to be useful where there is no need for a kind word or the manifestation of "baraka".
And, taking the silver, the elder continued:
- Listen carefully. The first tip is this: a small cloud warns of danger.
- But is this knowledge?! - exclaimed Seyfulmulyuk. “Your advice tells me nothing about the nature of ultimate truth or about man’s place in the world.”
“If you’re going to interrupt me, then take your money and leave.” What good is it to know about a person's place in the world if that person is dead?
Seyfulmulyuk fell silent and prepared to listen to the next advice.
“If you meet a bird, a cat and a dog in one place,” said the sage, “become their owner and look after them until the end.”
“Very strange advice; maybe there is some metaphysical meaning hidden in it, which will be revealed to me if I think about it long enough,” thought Seyfulmulyuk, but did not express his thoughts out loud.
The third piece of advice was: “If you, remaining true to the previous advice, experience something that seems to have nothing to do with you, then and only then the door will open for you. Enter this door."
Seyfulmulyuk wanted to stay with this mysterious sage and become his student, but Ansari rather rudely sent him away.
He set out again and went to Kashmir, where he studied with a teacher for some time. From Kashmir, Seyfulmulyuk went to Central Asia. Entering Bukhara, he found himself at the city bazaar at the height of trade. A man who had just bought a cat, a bird and a dog walked with them towards the exit. “If I had left Kashmir earlier,” thought Seyfulmulyuk, “I could have bought these animals. My destiny is undoubtedly connected with them.” But then he was overcome by doubts, because after seeing the bird, the cat and the dog, he had not yet met a small cloud. Everything seemed wrong. He was saved from complete confusion by the saying of one ancient sage, which he wrote down: “Events follow each other. People believe that events must happen in one sequence, but it often happens that they happen in a completely different sequence.”
Then he realized that although the animals were bought at the market, Ansari did not tell him to buy them here. Seyfulmulyuk, seeing the animals he needed, did not even think about the fact that the advice reads word for word: “If you meet a bird, a cat and a dog in one place, become their owner and watch them until the end.” That's all.
So he went in search of the man who had bought the animals, and after many inquiries he finally learned that his name was Ashikikhuda, and he had bought these animals to save them from suffering, for they had been languishing in a cage in the market for many weeks, awaiting a buyer. Having learned that Seyfulmulyuk wanted to buy a bird, a cat and a dog, Ashikikhuda agreed to sell them with a light heart.
Seyfulmulyuk could no longer travel with them, and therefore settled in Bukhara. He hired himself to work in a wool spinning workshop. Returning from work in the evening, Seyfulmulyuk brought food for the cat, bird and dog, which he bought with his daily earnings.
Three years passed like this. He had already become a master spinner, was universally respected, and still lived with his pets. One day, while walking outside the city, Seyfulmulyuk noticed a small cloud on the horizon. It looked so unusual that the words of the first piece of advice suddenly flashed through his mind: “A small cloud warns of danger.” He immediately ran home, took his animals, and without hesitation, headed west. He came to Jethagan penniless, and a few days later he learned that that strange cloud was the dust raised by the horde of conquerors approaching the city. The invaders broke into Bukhara and exterminated all its inhabitants. And then Seyfulmulyuk remembered the words of Ansari: “What is the use of knowing about a person’s place in the world if this person is dead?”
The people of Jephagan disliked strangers, despised spinners, and had an aversion to animals. Having been expelled from everywhere, Seyfulmulyuk was brought to extreme poverty, and one day, throwing himself on the ground in complete despair, he prayed: “O guardians of tradition, oh saints, oh traitors! Help me, because my strength is no longer enough to get food, and my animals are suffering from hunger and thirst.” And so, as he lay there, exhausted by hunger, deciding to completely submit to fate, being in some strange state between sleep and wakefulness, he was visited by a vision, so clear and distinct, as if it was happening to him in reality. It was a golden ring with a precious stone that shimmered with different lights and emitted a green light from the depths. He heard a voice: “This ring is the golden crown of wreaths, the Samir of Truth, the ring of King Solomon himself, the son of David, may peace be upon him and may his secrets be preserved.” Then the ring rolled into a crevice under a stone that lay under a tree by the river.
It's morning. Having rested during the night and no longer feeling hunger so acutely, Seyfulmulyuk got up and went to wander around the outskirts of Iefagan. Full of some vague premonitions, still under the power of his nightly experience, he suddenly realized that he was in the very place that he had dreamed of at night: under a tree by a stream, and the same boulder towered nearby. There was a gap under it, and when Seyfulmulyuk fumbled in it with a stick, a ring that was already familiar to him rolled out from under the stone. While washing the ring from dirt in a stream, Seyfulmulyuk exclaimed: “If this is the ring of the great Solomon, may there be a blessing on it, grant me, O Spirit of the ring, deliverance from my torment.”
At the same instant, the ground beneath his feet trembled and a voice like a hurricane thundered in the air:
- Through the centuries, good Seyfulmulyuk, we greet you. You have become the heir to the power of Solomon, the son of David, peace be upon him, the ruler of the genies and people. I am the servant of this ring. Order, Master Seyfulmulyuk, my lord.
“Bring my animals and food for them here,” Seyfulmulyuk immediately ordered, not forgetting to add, “in the name of the Great and in the name of Solomon, our master, the ruler of the genies and people, may he be glorified!”
As soon as he said this, the cat, bird and dog were nearby, and their favorite food lay in front of them. Seyfulmulyuk rubbed the ring.
“Command, O owner of the ring,” the Spirit responded in a thunderous, rolling voice, “and any of your desires will be fulfilled, if only it must be fulfilled.”
- In the name of Solomon, may peace be upon him, tell me, is this the end? For I must take care of these my comrades to the end, as my master, Khoja Ansari from Herat, ordered.
“No,” answered the Spirit, “this is not the end yet.”
Seyfulmulyuk decided to settle in this place. The genie built him a house with a barn for the animals and every day brought them food and everything they needed for life. Residents of the surrounding area, seeing that Seif-baba, father Seif, as they called him, never leaves his home, were amazed at the holiness of a man “who goes without food and lives with tamed animals.”
When Safe Baba was not busy studying his travel notes and thinking about his life, he watched the cat, the dog and the bird, studying their habits. They behaved differently according to their nature. He encouraged good qualities in them, condemned bad ones, and often told them about the great Khoja Ansari and his three pieces of advice.
From time to time he was visited by holy wanderers passing by. Many of them tried to enter into spiritual conversation with him or inform him of their own special paths. But he refused to listen to them and always said in such cases:
— I need to complete my task, which the teacher gave me.
Imagine his amazement when one day the cat spoke to him in a language he understood.
“Master,” said the cat, “you have a task and you must complete it.” But isn’t it surprising to you that the time you call “the end” does not come?
“I’m really not surprised at this,” said Safe Baba, because I understand that this task could take a good hundred years to complete.
“This is where you are mistaken,” the bird suddenly spoke, “because you are not learning what you could learn from travelers passing along this road.” You have not yet realized that although these people outwardly differ from each other in the same way that we animals appear different to you, they all come to you from the same source of teaching. Khoja Ansari himself sends them to check whether you have developed enough insight to follow them.
“If this is so,” said Safe Baba, “which I don’t believe at all, explain to me how it can be that an ordinary cat and a small sparrow see something that I, the owner of wonderful gifts, did not see?”
“It’s very simple,” they answered in unison, “you are so used to looking at things from only one side that your shortcomings are obvious even to the most ordinary mind.”
These words excited Safe Baba.
“But then,” he said, “it turns out that I could have found the door mentioned in the third advice a long time ago if I had been configured accordingly?”
“Of course,” the dog entered the conversation. “The door has already opened many times over the years, but you didn’t see it.” And we saw it, but we couldn’t tell you about it, because we are animals.
- Why are you talking about this now?
“Now you understand our speech because for some time you have become more humane.” Now you have only one chance left, you are already at an advanced age.
“It all seems to me,” Seif-baba thought at first, but then he began to reason like this: they have no right to lecture me, I am their owner, I feed them. But his other self said, “If they're not telling the truth, it doesn't really matter. But if they are right, then I risk losing everything. I can’t miss this saving chance.”
And so Safe Baba began to wait for a favorable opportunity. Several months have passed. One day, a wandering dervish pitched a tent in front of his house. He became friends with Safe Baba's animals, and Safe Baba decided to share his doubts with him.
“Leave me,” the dervish interrupted him rudely, “I shouldn’t listen to your chatter about Master Ansari, about some clouds, about quests, that I don’t care about your responsibility for animals and even about your magic ring.” I know what you should be talking about, but what you are saying now does not interest me.
Feeling deep despair, Safe Baba summoned the Spirit of the Ring.
“I won’t tell you what I shouldn’t say,” the Ring Spirit answered him, “but I know that all your suffering is from an illness called “permanent hidden prejudice.” This disease affects your thinking and because of it you cannot advance on the Path.
Seif Baba again approached the dervish, who was sitting in front of the entrance of his tent, and addressed him:
- Tell me what to do? I feel responsible for the fate of these animals and am completely confused, besides, I no longer receive any guidance from the three councils.
- Now you speak sincerely, and this is the beginning. Trust me with your animals, and I will answer you.
“You’re asking too much, and I don’t know you at all.” And how can you offer me this? True, I have respect for you, but I still have many doubts.
“Your words betray you,” answered the dervish, “it’s not that you care about animals, but that you perceive me incorrectly.” Neither feelings nor logic will help you understand me correctly and take advantage of my help. There is still greed in you; you treat animals as your property. Now go and know that my name is Darvaza. "Darwaza" means "door".
And Seif Baba wondered if the dervish was the very door that Sheikh Ansari was talking about then.
“Perhaps you are the door I am looking for, but I am not sure about it.”
“Get away from your doubts,” cried the dervish, “how do you not understand that the first two pieces of advice were given for your mind, but the last piece of advice can only be understood when you perceive it internally?”
For almost two more years, Safe Baba suffered in doubts and fears, but then one day, suddenly, he realized the truth. He called the dog, the cat and the bird and said to them:
- I'm letting you go. From now on you belong to yourself. This is the end.
Having said this, he realized that they were people and that they were animals only under the influence of a spell. Nearby was the dervish Darvaza, in whom Seif Baba recognized Khoja Ansari himself. The sage, without a single word, opened the door in the tree that grew near the stream, and Seyfulmulyuk entered a wonderful cave, on the walls of which in golden letters were inscribed the answers to questions about life and death, about humanity and philanthropy, knowledge and ignorance - about everything that worried him all his life.
“Attachment to the external has been pulling you back all these years,” Ansari’s voice sounded, “and this is one of the reasons that you came too late.” Take here that part of wisdom that is still not open to you.
This story illustrates, among other things, the idea beloved by the Sufis that truth tries to manifest itself in human society, but for each person it appears again and again in such clothes in which it is most difficult to identify, and these manifestations, at first glance, seem to have nothing to do with each other. Only the development of special perception gives a person the opportunity to penetrate into this invisible process.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru