by Patzia
Story of the Blind old man’s reading the Qur’an in front
of him and regaining his sight when he read
Once upon a time a dervish Shaykh saw a Qur’an in an old blind
man’s house.
He became the blind man’s guest and the two ascetics were
together for several days.
The Shaykh said to himself, “This man is blind and cannot read, I
wonder what he can do with the Qur’an?”
His perplexity increased while he was occupied with this reflection,
and again he said to himself: “No one lives here except him. He is alone,
yet he has hung the Qur’an on the wall.
I am not so unmannerly or muddled in my wits as to ask him the
reason,
I will be patient, so that through patience I may find out, for
patience is the key to joy!”
At midnight he heard the sound of recitation of the Qur’an; he got
up and beheld a marvel-
The blind man was reciting correctly from the Qur’an. He became
impatient and asked for an explanation:
“Oh you with sightless eyes, how can you read the lines? I can see
that your finger in motion makes it evident that your eyes are resting on
the words.”
The blind man replied: “Oh you who have been separated from the
body’s ignorance, how can you wonder at the work of God?
I begged of God, ‘O You, whose help is sought, I am as covetous
of reading the Book as I am of life.
I do not know it by heart: please give me back my eyes at that
moment, so I may take the Book and read it plain.
The Divine Presence replied: ‘O you have hope of Me in every
grief, whenever you want to read the Qur’an,
At that moment I will restore your eyesight, so you may read’.
And so He did. Every time I open the Book to read, that
incomparable King at once gives my sight back to me.”
On this account, the saint knows that whatever He takes away, He
sends compensation.
If He burns your vineyard, He will give you grapes; in the middle
of mourning, He will give you joy.
To the handless paralytic he gives a hand, to the person who is a
mine of grief, he gives the joyous heart of an intoxicated one.
Inasmuch as heat comes to me without fire, I am content if He
extinguishes my fire.
Inasmuch as He gives light without any lamp, if your lamp is gone,
why are you lamenting?
Mathnawi, Book III (p.103:1835-1841;p.104:1855-1876)