Sufi parable from Sanaya The Righteous Caliph Omar, once, while walking outside his palace, accidentally came across a company of people who told him that they formed a close community and brotherhood.
— How do you feel about each other’s property? Does it happen that you spend property and money without the knowledge of the one who owns it? - asked the Caliph.
- Each of us spends only his own. “We don’t know anything about each other’s gold and silver and don’t want to know,” people from this “commonwealth” answered him.
Caliph Omar thought about what he heard and then said:
“Things are not going well with you, and your speeches testify to this.” You will only be able to consider yourself close in heart when you use your friend’s gold and silver without any misunderstandings, so that your worries and money are not separate, so that one of you does not have enormous wealth, and the other at the same time needs warm clothes. All of you must be equal - both the rich and the poor, and so that one does not have more gold and silver, and another less. Then you will become a true brotherhood of people.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru