Here is a story that was told by Hazrat Inayat Khan about an event in the life of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, who lived some eight hundred years ago in Delh, and whose tomb still draws thousands of pilgrims every day.  To make the story clear, it must be understood that Hazrat Nizamuddin’s murshid (Baba Farid Ganj-i-Shakar) was no more in his physical body when this event occurred.  And like many Sufi stories, it perhaps leaves more questions in the mind than answers.

The disciples of Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya, a great saint of Delhi, were once sitting waiting for him to come and speak upon a very abstruse and difficult matter, when to their astonishment they saw his servant come into the room and sit down on the murshid’s seat.

Nizamuddin then came in, made a very deep bow to the servant and sat before him. The servant began to speak, and spoke for some time, explaining some very subtle and deep questions.

Then a change came over his face. He looked around and ran from the room in great confusion.

Afterwards Nizamuddin told his disciples that he had asked his murshid for the answer to some very difficult question. The subject was so complex that the murshid needed a human form in order to explain it exactly, and that was why he had spoken through the servant.