Cerita hari Jumaat: God and His lover

Moses once heard a shepherd praying as follows:

''O God, show me where your art that I may become your servant. I will clean your shoes and comb your hair, and sew your clothes and fetch Thee milk.''

When Moses heard him praying in this senseless manner he rebuked him saying:

''O foolish one, though your father was a Mosalman, you have become an infidel. God is a spirit and needs not such gross ministrations as in your ignorance, you suppose.''

The shepherd was ashamed at his rebuke and tore his clothes and fled away into the desert. Then a voice from heaven was heard saying

''O Moses wherefore have you driven away my servant?

Your duty is to reconcile my people with me, not to drive them away from me.

I have given to each race different usages and forms of praising and adoring me.

I have no need of their praises being exalted above all such needs.

I regard not the words that are spoken, but the heart that offer them.

I do not require fine words but a burning heart.

Men's way of showing devotion to me are various, but so long as the devotions are genuine they are accepted

So far as possible engage not in dissevering

The thing most repugnant to me is divorce

To each person have I allotted peculiar forms

To each have I given particular usages.

What is praiseworthy in you is blameable in him

What is poison for you is honey for him

What is good in him is bad in you

What is fair in him is repulsive in you

I am exempt from all purity and impurity

I need not the laziness or alacrity of my people

I created not men to gain a profit from them

But to shower my beneficence upon them

In the men of Hind the usages of Hind are praiseworthy

In the men of Sind those of Sind

I am not purified by their praises

I regard not the outside and the words

I regard the inside and the state of heart

I look at the heart if it be humble

Though the words may be the reverse of humble

Because the heart is substance and words accidents

Accidents are only a means, substance is the final cause

A burning heart is what I want; consort with burning

Kindle in your heart the flame of love!

Though your praises be better compared with his

Yet in regard to God they are full of defects

Your own prayers are accepted only through mercy''

(From Al-masnavi written by Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi page 122-124)