(One of my fond leisure activities is reading & contemplating sufi's traditions & wisdoms)
1.
Pada
suatu hari, ada seseorang menangkap burung. Burung itu berkata kepadanya, Aku
tak berguna bagimu sebagai tawanan. Lepaskan saja aku. Nanti aku beri kau tiga
nasihat.
(Catatan:
Dalam lingkungan darwis, kisah ini dianggap sangat penting untuk mengakalkan
fikiran siswa sufi, menyiapkannya menghadapi pengalaman yang tidak boleh dicapai
dengan cara-cara biasa. Di samping penggunaannya sehari-hari di kalangan sufi,
kisah ini terdapat juga dalam karya klasik Rumi, Matsnawi. Kisah ini juga
ditonjolkan dalam Kitab Ketuhanan karya Fariduddin Aththar, salah seorang guru
Rumi. Kedua tokoh sufi itu hidup pada abad ketiga belas.)
2.
Pada
suatu hari, Hasan Al-Basri pergi mengunjungi Habib Ajmi, seorang sufi besar
lain. Pada waktu salatnya, Hasan mendengar Ajmi banyak melafalkan bacaan
salatnya dengan keliru. Oleh karena itu, Hasan memutuskan untuk tidak salat
berjamaah dengannya. Ia menganggap kurang pantaslah bagi dirinya untuk salat
bersama orang yang tak boleh mengucapkan bacaan salat dengan benar. Di malam
harinya, Hasan Al-Basri bermimpi. Ia mendengar Tuhan berbicara kepadanya,
“Hasan, jika saja kau berdiri di belakang Habib Ajmi dan menunaikan salatmu,
kau akan memperoleh keridaan-Ku, dan salat kamu itu akan memberimu manfaat yang
jauh lebih besar daripada seluruh salat dalam hidupmu. Kau mencoba mencari
kesalahan dalam bacaan salatnya, tapi kau tak melihat kemurnian dan kesucian
hatinya. Ketahuilah, Aku lebih menyukai hati yang tulus daripada pengucapan
tajwid yang sempurna.
3.
Suatu
hari, Malaikat Maut datang menemui Nabi Ibrahim as untuk mengambil nyawanya.
Ibrahim bertanya, “Apa kau pernah melihat seorang kekasih mematikan orang yang
dikasihinya?”
4.
Suatu
hari, Isa as sedang berjalan di tengah gurun. Beberapa orang pencinta dunia
mengikutinya. Mereka meminta Isa, "Katakanlah pada kami mantra apa yang kau
pakai untuk menghidupkan orang mati." Isa menjawab, "Jika kukatakan,
kalian akan menyalahgunakan bacaan itu." Mereka bersumpah bahwa bacaan itu
akan mereka gunakan untuk kebaikan dan kemaslahatan umat. Mereka tetap meminta
Isa untuk memberitahukan bacaan itu. "Kau tak tahu apa yang kauminta,"
ujar Isa. Tetapi mereka tak mendengarkannya. Akhirnya Isa memberitahukan bacaan
rahasia itu. Tak lama sesudah itu, kelompok orang tersebut menemukan tumpukan
tulang belulang di tengah padang pasir. "Mari kita coba, mantra ini
berhasil atau tidak," ucap mereka. Bacaan itu pun digumamkan. Keajaiban
segera terjadi. Tumpukan tulang itu diliputi kembali oleh darah dan daging,
berubah menjadi binatang buas, dan mengoyak-koyakan tubuh orang-orang yang
menghidupkannya.
5.
Di suatu
hari, seorang lelaki sedang dalam perjalanan pulang ke kampung halamannya. Ia
berjalan dengan menuntun seekor domba di belakangnya. Seorang pencuri melihat
hal ini. Ia mengendap-endap dan memutuskan tali kekangnya dan mengambil domba
itu. Setelah beberapa saat, sang empunya domba menyadari bahwa miliknya telah
hilang. Ia berlari ke sana kemari mencari dombanya dengan panik. Sampailah ia
pada sebuah sumur. Di tepi sumur itu ia melihat pencuri yang tadi mengambil
dombanya tapi ia tak tahu bahwa orang itulah yang telah mencuri domba miliknya.
Ia bertanya kepada orang itu apakah ia melihat seekor domba di sekitar tempat
itu. Pencuri itu tidak menjawab, ia malah menangis, bersimpuh di tepian sumur.
"Mengapa kau menangis?" tanya pemilik domba kehairanan. "Dompetku
jatuh ke dalam sumur ketika aku menimba air. Jika kau dapat membantuku
mengambilnya, aku akan berikan kau seperlima dari wang yang ada dalam dompet itu.
Kau akan mendapatkan seperlima dari seratus dinar emas di tanganmu!"
Pemilik domba berfikir, "Wah, wang itu cukup untuk membeli lebih dari
sepuluh domba! Bila satu pintu tertutup, sepuluh pintu lain akan terbuka."
Ia segera membuka pakaiannya dan turun ke dasar sumur. Tentu saja, di dalam
sumur itu tak terdapat apa-apa. Dan si pencuri pun melarikan pakaian orang itu.
Apabila satu kerugian saja membuatmu amat gelisah, maka kerugian-kerugian lain
akan datang kepadamu dengan mudah. Setan menampakkan dirinya kepadamu dalam
beragam penyamaran. Selamatkan dirimu kepada Tuhan dan Ia takkan menipumu.
6.
Suatu
hari, Fudhail bin Iyadh, duduk memangku anaknya yang berusia empat tahun.
Sesekali ia mencium pipi anak itu sebagai ungkapan rasa sayang.
“Ayah,
apakah kau mencintai aku?” tanya anak itu.
“Ya,”
jawab Fudhail.
“Apakah
kau mencintai Tuhan?”
“Ya.”
“Berapa
hati yang kau miliki, Ayah?”
“Satu.”
“Dapatkah
kau mencintai dua hal dengan satu hati?” anak itu bertanya lagi.
Saat itu
pula Fudhail terhenyak. Ia sadar yang berbicara bukanlah anak kecilnya melainkan
Yang Mahakuasa. Merasa malu, ia mulai memukuli kepalanya dan bertaubat. Sejak
saat itu, ia hanya persembahkan hatinya untuk Tuhan.
7.
A
certain man asked the famous Mulla Nasrudin, "What is the meaning of fate,
Mulla?"
Mulla
replied, "Assumptions."
"In
what way?" the man asked again.
Mulla
looked at him and said, "You assume things are going to go well, and they
don't -
that you call bad luck. You assume things are going to go badly and they
don't -
that you call good luck. You assume that certain things are going to
happen
or not happen - and you so lack intuition that you don't know what is
going to
happen. You assume that the future is unknown. When you are caught out
- you
call that Fate."
8.
"May
the Will of Allah be done," a pious man was saying about something or the
other.
"It always is, in any case," said Mullah Nasruddin.
"How
can you prove that, Mullah?" asked the man.
"Quite
simply. If it wasn't always being done, then surely at some time or another my
will would be done, wouldn't it?"
9.
Walking one evening along a deserted road, Nasruddin saw a troop of horsemen rapidly approaching. His imagination started to work; he saw himself captured or robbed or killed and frightened by this thought he bolted, climbed a wall into a graveyard, and lay down in an open grave to hide.
Puzzled at his bizzare behaviour, the horsemen - honest travellers - followed him.
They found him stretched out, tense, and shaking
"What are you doing in that grave? We saw you run away. Can we help you? Why are you here in this place?"
"Just
because you can ask a question does not mean that there is a straightforward
answer to it," said Nasruddin, who now realized what had happened. "It
all depends upon your viewpoint. If you must know, however, I am here because of
you - and you are here because of me!"
10.
A man was walking along the street when he passed another man with a lot of stubble on his face standing outside a shop. The first man asked:
"How often do you shave?
" Twenty or thirty times a day," answered the man with the stubble
"What! You must be a freak!" exclaimed the first man.
"No,
I'm only a barber," replied the man with the stubble.
11.
Once, the people of The City invited Mulla Nasruddin to deliver a khutba. When he got on the minbar (pulpit), he found the audience was not very enthusiastic, so he asked "Do you know what I am going to say?" The audience replied "NO", so he announced "I have no desire to speak to people who don't even know what I will be talking about" and he left.
The people felt embarrassed and called him back again the next day. This time when he asked the same question, the people replied "YES" So Mullah Nasruddin said, "Well, since you already know what I am going to say, I won't waste any more of your time" and he left.
Now
the people were really perplexed. They decided to try one more time and once
again invited the Mullah to speak the following week. Once again he asked the
same question - "Do you know what I am going to say?" Now the people
were prepared and so half of them answered "YES" while the other half
replied "NO". So Mullah Nasruddin said "The half who know what I
am going to say, tell it to the other half" and he left!
12.
One
day , one of Mullah Nasruddin's friend came over and wanted to borrow his donkey
for a day or two. Mullah, knowing his friend, was not kindly inclined to the
request, and came up with the excuse that someone had already borrowed his
donkey. Just as Mullah uttered these words, his donkey started braying in his
backyard. Hearing the sound, his friend gave him an accusing look, to which
Mullah replied: "I refuse to have any further dealings with you since you
take a donkey's word over mine."
13.
Once, Mullah Nasruddin bought a violin. And he began to play.
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE....
Same note, same string, over and over.
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE....
After a few hours his wife was at her wits' end. "Nasruddin!" she screamed.
NEEE..
Nasruddin put down the bow. "Yes dear?"
"Why do you play the same note? It's driving me crazy! All the real violin players move their fingers up and down, play on different strings! Why don't you play like they do?"
"Well dear, I know why they go up and down and try all different strings."
"Why is that?"
"They're looking for *this* note." And he picked up his bow and resumed his playing.
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE....
14.
A
certain man claimed to be God and was brought before the Caliph, who said to
him, "Last year someone here claimed to be a prophet and he was put to
death!" The
man replied, "It was well that you did so, for I did not send him." (9th
century joke)
15.
A
certain man claimed to be a prophet and was brought before the Sultan, who said
to him, "I bear witness that you are a stupid prophet!" The
man replied, "That is why I have only been sent to people like
you."(9th century joke)
16.
A certain conqueror said to Nasruddin:
"Mulla, all the great rulers of the past had honorific titles with the name of God in them: there was, for instance, God-Gifted, and God-Accepted, and so on. How about some such name for me?"
"God
Forbid," said Nasruddin.
17.
"When I was in the desert," said Nasruddin one day, "I caused an entire tribe of horrible and bloodthirsty bedouins to run."
"However did you do it?"
"Easy. I just ran, and they ran after me."