Fish On The Moon

Sheikh Bahaudin Naqshband was asked:

 

Why do you always say that none can learn Sufism himself, and that nobody who thinks that he is more advanced in the Way than another is of any account at all?

 

He answered:

 

Because it is a matter of my daily experience that those who think that they can learn Sufism by themselves cannot in fact do so: they have too much self-centeredness. Those who think that they cannot learn it alone can in fact do so. But, because of vanity, it is only a real Teacher who can give them leave to proceed alone, since he can diagnose their true condition.

 

‘Whosever thinks that he is more advanced in Knowledge than another is almost completely ignorant, and is not able to learn further. He goes round and round in “Satan’s intestines” of his ignorance. This is because the experience of real knowledge is in no way similar to thinking that one is more advanced than another.

 

You observe that anyone whom I criticize for having self-will is never accepted by me as a pupil. This is because he would certainly feel, no matter what he imagined that my criticism of him was motivated by a desire to teach him. Therefore those whom I criticize I always send away. There is always a hope that they might find a teacher somewhere who does not flatter them, though it is as likely as there are fish on the Moon.’

~ by Shaykh on March 16, 2008.