Send us a textSohbet April 13, 2025:Rumi Poem: Moses and the ShepherdLiving In Troubled TimesMoses and the ShepherdMoses heard a shepherd on the road praying, “God, Where are You? I want to help You, to fix Your shoes and comb Your hair. I want to wash Your clothes and pick the lice off. I want to bring You milk, to kiss Your little hands and feet when it’s time for You to go to bed. I want to sweep Your room and keep it neat. God, my sheep and goats are Yours. All I can say, remembering You, is ayyyy and ahhhhhhhhh.”Moses could stand it no longer. “Who are you talking to? The One who made us, and made the earth and made the sky. Don’t talk about shoes and socks with God! And what’s this with ‘Your little hands and feet?’ Such blasphemous familiarity sounds like you’re chatting with your uncles. Only something that grows needs milk. Only someone with feet needs shoes. Not God! Even if you meant God’s human representatives as when God said, I was sick, and you did not visit me, even then this tone would be foolish and irreverent.“Use appropriate terms. Fatima is a fine name for a woman, but if you call a man Fatima, it’s an insult. Body-and-birth language are right for us on this side of the river, but not for addressing the Origin, not for Allah.”The shepherd repented and tore his clothes and sighed and wandered out into the desert. A sudden revelation came then to Moses. God’s voice:“You have separated Me from one of my own. Did you come as a Prophet to unite, or to sever? I have given each being a separate and unique way of seeing and knowing and saying that knowledge. What seems wrong to you is right for him. What is poison to one is honey to someone else. Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence in worship, these mean nothing to Me. I am apart from all that. Ways of worshiping are not to be ranked as better or worse than one another.It’s all praise, and it’s all right. It’s not Me that’s glorified in acts of worship. It’s the worshipers! I don’t hear the words they say. I look at the humility. That broken-open lowliness is the Reality, not the language! Forget phraseology. I want burning, burning. Be friends with your burning. Burn up your thinking and your forms of expression! Moses, those who pay attention to ways of behaving and speaking are one sort. Lovers who burn are another.Don’t impose a property tax on a burned out village. Don’t scold the Lover. The wrong way he talks is better than a hundred right ways of others.Inside the Kaaba it doesn’t matter which direction you point your prayer rug! The ocean diver doesn’t need snowshoes! The Love-Religion has no code or doctrine. Only God. So the ruby has nothing engraved on it! It doesn’t need markings.”God began speaking deeper mysteries to Moses. Vision and words, which cannot be recorded hereSalaam Alaykum, murids, seekers, curious and interested listeners,We appreciate you, and are happy to share our Sufi Message. Your donation will help support our Sufi Centre in Sydney where we offer Zikr, Sohbet, spiritual counselling and healing services. We believe the message should be free, but it costs equipment, rental, services, software and hardware to get this to you. Thank you for choosing our podcast amongst all the millions available. If Support the showPlease send your questions to:
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