tree of life

THE STORY OF THE TREE OF LIFE

A wise man once told a person, just to test him that in India there is such a tree, that whoever eats of the fruits of that tree, never dies. When the King heard of this, he fell in love with it. He immediately sent a messenger to India to search for this tree. The messenger wandered around in india from place to place in search of this tree. He wandered about in quite a distressed state, but nowhere did he find such a tree. Whenever he enquired from people, they would tell him: Only mad people look for such a tree. They used to jeer and scoff at him. At last when he had became tired of roaming around like that in a foreign country and exhaused by the difficulties of travel, he dicided to return home. He was very disappointed. On his return he met a Qutub Sheikh along the way. He said to the Sheikh: O Sheikh this is a time for mercy and benevolence. I have become helpless and disappointed in my quest. This is a time for your kindness. The Sheikh replied: What is your disappointment And what is the nature of your quest? He replied: My King has given me this job to search for such a tree in India That whosoever eats of its fruits will live fore ever. I have wandered around in India for years and searched everywhere But no sign of it did I find. People jeer at me and consider me a mad one. The Sheikh listened to him,laughed and said: O Saleem, this tree is only the bounty of knowledge. Through knowledge a person finds everlasting life And one without knowledge is a dead one. You have searched for the outer form of knowledge and therefore lost the way. You have been deprived of the form of knowledge too, because you failed to understand the inner meaning. LESSON: The wise man who originally told the story about the tree in India actually compared knowledge to a tree. His aim was to test the listener. Knowledge is an abstract concept and such abstract concepts do not stand by themselves alone. For their existence they require an agent or a place on which to exist. Thus knowledge can only be acuired from the Ulama. The Ulama are the tree. By knowledge is meant only that knowledge which caauses one to reach Allah. The knowledge which is to a means of livelihood and leads to employment in industry and trade, is called industrial knowledge and trade knowledge. True knowledge is only knowledge of deen, through which a person tries to please his Master and thereby acquire a life of honour in both worlds. Without this knowledge a person is a corpse, even if he is alive. For this reason, the wise man knowledge, recognition of Allah (Ma'rifat) is impossible. May Allah grant us true knowledge and grant us the ability to practice according to that knowledge, Ameen.
by Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi (R.A)

raja si muraq

salam.

it has been ages since i last wrote. the last time was 1st march, and the last posting was 16th march. Peh! u might be wondering what has happened to me. well, nothing extraordinary took place, except that maybe the venom of this dunia fana has got the better of me, that i just could not sit and write my thoughts. yeah, i was sure busy with the usual chores: teachers' job which is endless, just like house work and responsibilities at home. but thinking back, i would have surely like to come up with a few postings now and then, though i do keep up my reading of the usual blogs such as wak jono and harimau menaip and tukar tiub, to name a few.. tapi tu la dia, keracunan dunia meresap segala rasa.

do you know why i'm using the image of a bird for this posting? sebenonya, i was thinking of 'raja si muraq'. do you know this bird or the story behind it? ala, this bird was mentioned in one of m.nasir's songs, 'tanya sama itu hud-hud', kalau tak silap la. now, do you recall? in the 'tanya sama itu hud-hud' song, it was said that thousands of birds were searching for sirmurgh, but only 30 birds managed to get to the mountain top where the supposedly sirmurgh was living. these 30 birds had to overcome a number of tribulations in order to get to the summit, but when they finally reached the destination, the so-called sirmurgh was nowhere to be found. so what actually was sirmurgh, and why only 30 birds, and what were the obstacles that they had to get over? hmm, care to share your side of the story?

it's getting late, guess this should be ample for now. u guys out there, b good, insyaAllah. ttfn