Hazrat Inayat Khan told this story about a murshid coming to the aid of a mureed. When the link of sympathy is strong and the heart is fully awakened, and when we rise above the limitations of name and form, then much becomes possible that once seemed only imagination.
Some time ago, there was in Delhi a mystic or murshid whose name was Shah Alam. One day he was having a haircut. He was looking in a little looking glass [i.e. a mirror] such as are used in India, while the barber was cutting his hair.
Suddenly he dashed the mirror on the ground so that it broke into pieces. His mureeds, who were with him, were astonished. The barber also was amazed., wondering what had caused him to thrown down the mirror with such violence.
Afterwards he told them what had happened. At that time one of his mureeds was travelling by sea from Arabia to India. A storm had struck the ship he was sailing in, and he was in great danger. He called upon his murshid for help, and the murshid saw his peril in the mirror and saved him.
This seems to imply that this teacher is wholly receptive towards his mureed (s) and has the power to distroy any evil that befalls him/them. Could you tell us, murshid Nawab, which lesson or inspiration we may learn from this story? With warm regards, Sakina
Dear Sakina,
Yes, it is a good question. Perhaps, most importantly, we could recognise the power of sympathy. The mystic or murshid responded to the call of the mureed – and the mureed, in the moment of peril, put his hope in the murshid. There was a link between their hearts, and we might recall that Hazrat Inayat Khan said that this kind of spiritual relationship is the deepest and purest, for it is free from any selfish motive. Sometimes in our personal life we can see such a link, for example when a parent knows about the distress of a child. In this story, though, the murshid was highly evolved, and therefore had the power to help.
With kindest greetings, Nawab