Saturday Reading!

 Saturday Reading

1) 

Young ladies, this is for you!!! 

A woman arrived in a store wearing clothes that showed her body all too well. The shop owner, being a wise older man, took a good look at her, asked her to sit down, looked straight into her eyes, and said something she would never forget for the rest of her life.

“Young Lady, everything that God has made valuable in this world, is covered up and hard to see or find."

For example:

1. Where can you find diamonds?

• In the ground, covered and protected.

2. Where are the pearls?

• Deep in the ocean, covered and protected in a beautiful shell.

3. Where can you find gold?

• Underground, covered with layers of rock, and to get there you have to work very hard and dig deep.

He looked at her again and said, "Your body is sacred and unique to God."

You are far more precious than gold, diamonds, and pearls, therefore you must be covered too.

He then added: "If you keep your precious minerals like gold, diamonds, and pearls deeply covered, a “reputable mining organization” with the necessary machines, will work for years to mine those precious goods.

* First, they will contact your government (family),

* Second, sign professional contracts (marriage),

* Third, they will professionally extract those goods, and tenderly refine those precious goods. (marital life).

But if you let your minerals, find themselves on top of the Earth's surface (exposed to everyone), you will always attract many illegal miners to come, exploit, illegally, and freely take those riches and leave you without the precious goods God gave you!

WOMEN, YOU ARE VALUABLE!! 

Remember - Class is more desirable than Trash

2)

                           "Mutwa qibla in tamutwa"

 A lesson from Rumi's masnavi:

There was once a man who had a talking parrot. One day the man had to go on a journey and asked his parrot what could he bring on his way back. “I wish only for one small favor.” The parrot replied. “Just this – when you see other parrots like me in the trees at the place you’re going to, please tell them about my conditions here. That they are free to fly and eat whatever they want to. But I am locked up in a cage.” When that man, during his trip, found such a tree, he addressed to the parrots and gave them his parrot's message. As soon as he finished speaking, one of the parrots fell dead on the ground. 

The man held his head in grief and thought how saddening the message was to the other parrots. He returned home and talked about it to his own parrot. "Did they send me any message?", parrot asked. "No. But there is one thing. As soon as I delivered your message, a parrot fell dead on the ground", man replied. As soon as his parrot heard this, he too fell to the bottom of his cage, dead. The man was now even sadder. He opened the cage and carried out his beloved parrot in his hands. No sooner had he done so, the parrot returned to life and flew up to the branches of the nearest tree and let out a shrill of joy at finding its freedom. The man was confused about all this and eventually asked. The parrot replied: “The parrot who fell on the ground, was not dead, but was actually sending me this message. If I want to be free, I have to present myself dead to my Master. Only then will I be able to attain my desires."

N.B.

Mutwa qibla in tamutwa" -Persian- translates to "Die before you die" 

The Masnavi is an extensive Persian masnavi (a poetic form) written by Rumi, and one of the most influential works in the history of Sufism.

Searched, compiled and Illustrated by Tejinder Kamboj

                 ( 1940-20?? )