Interest in Life

Hazrat Maulana Jamiat Ali, the father of Hazrat Nazim Saheb, Maulana Abdul Lateef, was a teacher at Bhawalpur. Once he was checking something, thus looking into a kitab for about an hour. A wood-carver was sitting near him. After about an hour and a half, the wood carver said: "Moulvy-ji, you have been staring at this book for all this time. What have you found? Look at me. In all this time I have already cut so many pieces of wood."

Maulana burst out laughing: "We, each of one of us, have our own taste and interest. I can also ask you what you have done in this time. Tell me, what is your interest in life?"

He replied, "Maulana Saheb, now you are talking. I would like to lie down upon a comfortable charpai with a nice pillow under my head and a 'huqqa' (pipe) nearby, while the voices of people working in the fields float to my ears."

This story has always been an enjoyable one for me. It gives one an indication of the types of interest and longings different people have. I have also seen some people whose greatest desire is to remain in solitude in meditation, while from all around them, voices of people making Zikr reaches them. I have also seen some people whose health depends upon the hearing of the voices of Zikr; this acts like an injection of strength into their bodies, and in the absence thereof, illness overtakes them.