Preliminary Discourse

One day Fudayl ibn Iyad was holding in his lap a four-year-old child, and by chance placed his mouth on its cheek as is the wont of fathers. “Father, do you love me?” asked the child. “I do,” replied Fudayl. “Do you love God?” “I do.” “How many hearts do you have?” the child asked. “One,” answered Fudayl. “Can you love two with one heart?” demanded the child. Fudayl at once realized that it was not the child speaking, but that in reality it was a Divine instruction. Jealous for God, he began to beat his head and repented. Severing his heart from the child, he gave it to God.

“Tonight Bishr will be your guest.” This conviction entered Bishr’s sister’s mind. She swept and watered her house, and waited expectantly for Bishr to arrive. Suddenly Bishr came like one distraught. “Sister, I am going up to the roof,” he announced. He planted his foot on the stairs and climbed several steps, then remained standing like that till the next day. When dawn broke, he descended. He went off to pray in the mosque. “What was the reason you stood all night?” asked his sister when he returned. “The thought entered my mind,” Bishr replied, “that in Baghdad there are so many people whose names are Bishr – one a Jew, one a Christian, one a Magian. My name too is Bishr, and I have attained the great felicity of being a Muslim. What, I asked myself, did the others do to be excluded, and what did I do to attain such felicity? Bewildered by this thought, I remained rooted to the spot.”

Guard your thymos lest it turns into thanatos .

It’s the commitment to salah , not khilafah , that leads to falah .