Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi (R.A.) mentions in his Mathnavi, a story of Sultan Mahmood : One day the Sultan decided to test his ministers and ordered them to crush the most prized pearl of his treasury. One by one, each of 65 ministers declined, stating that the pearl was far too valuable to be destroyed.The King then summoned his closest and trusted courtier, Ayaaz, and ordered him to crush the pearl. Without any delay or hesitation, Ayaaz crushed the pearl into fragments. When the ministers expressed disbelief and shock at such audacity, the King asked Ayaaz to inform them as to the reason for him having broken the pearl.
In response, Ayaaz asked these ministers : ” Which is more important, the Royal Decree or the pearl ? “
The question we pose to ourselves is : ” Which is more important, the command of my Allah or the desire of my heart ?”
The desires of the heart are akin to pearls, which appear to be quite beautiful but we should not fulfil these desires at the cost of breaking the decrees of Allah.
Ayaaz attained closeness to the king through his loyalty and faithfulness and his obedience and submission. Similarly, we will gain the extreme nearness and intimate closeness to the King of Kings through loyalty and faithfulness. This in turn is dependent upon sincere obedience and complete submission to His decrees.
(Taken from http://ahledil.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/suppressing-the-nafs/)
1 comment:
Salaam,
This just shows us how, sometimes, one has to choose the command of Allah (swt) over the desire of one's heart, whatever the desire may be...
It's hard to choose the command of Allah (swt) over one's desires, no doubt about it, but when the iymaan is strong and solid, then it's easy. We just have to strengthen our iymaan so that such desires won't affect us and force us to commit sins.
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