There was, once upon a time, a certain Pir who, by divine grace and the consequence of his own faithful efforts, had begun to develop powers that the ordinary world considers miraculous. Every Friday, for example, as the time for midday prayers approached, he would stand in front of the humble hut where he lived and then suddenly fly into the sky and disappear.  When he returned he was always radiant, and the mureed who looked after the Pir suspected that his master was flying to Mecca to offer his prayers, although the Pir never said anything about where he went.

One Friday, as the mureed saw the Pir preparing to  depart once again, he said, “Master, may I come with you?”

“Oh, yes,” said the Pir, as if it were a very natural request. “Certainly. Hold on to my robe, and repeat ‘Ya Pir! Ya Pir!’ [O Pir, O Pir]  as we fly.”

The mureed did as he was told, and soon he was flying though the air at a tremendous height, clutching the robe of his master.  But as he repeated over and over again, ‘Ya Pir! Ya Pir!’ he became aware that the Pir himself was saying ‘Ya Allah! Ya Allah!’ [O Allah, O Allah]

‘But surely I should follow the ways of my master,’ the mureed thought to himself.  ‘To say one thing while he says another is perhaps an error, or at least a sign of disrespect.’  Thereupon he stopped saying ‘Ya Pir’ and began to repeat ‘Ya Allah.’

To the mureed’s astonishment, he instantly fell from the sky like a stone, and it was only the quick reaction of the Pir that saved him from being smashed to pieces on the rocks below.

When they stood together on solid ground again, the mureed begged the Pir’s pardon for having caused a problem, and then asked, “But please tell me, why is it that I was able to fly while saying Ya Pir, but when I said Ya Allah, as you do, I fell?”

“It is very simple,” said the Pir.  “You have faith in what you can see. That is a good beginning. But your faith in the unseen is not yet strong enough. You have not yet reached that level.”