The key to living the right way is to create a state of...

The key to living the right way is to create a state of immunity in our soul that eventually protects us. Sa‘dī, in his famous book of poetry Gulistan , says: I beheld an illustrious man in a mountain region Who had contentedly retired from the world into a Cave Why, said I, comest thou not into the city For once to relax the bonds of thy heart? He replied: ‘Fairy –faced maidens are there.

When clay is plentiful, elephants will stumble.’4 In the above poem, the man who secluded himself in the mountains refrains from returning to the city because of the “fairy-faced maidens” who may eventually cause him to “stumble.” This is the first kind of “taqwa”. However, it is not to a person’s advantage to keep himself away from a slippery surface to refrain from slipping. Better than that is to know how to walk on it without losing his balance.

Baba Taher says: Beneath the tyranny of eyes and heart I cry, For, all the eyes see, the heart stores up: I'll fashion me a pointed sword of steel, Put out mine eyes, and so set free my heart. Undoubtedly, our heart will be captivated by everything our eyes fall upon. However, blinding ourselves is not our only option. A better way is to create a power in our heart so that our eyes do not captivate our heart.

If we want to make a dagger with an iron point to release our heart from our eyes, we need another dagger for our ears because everything our ears hear, our heart turns to it. The same goes for the senses of tasting, touching, and smelling. In this case, a human being becomes like a lion without a tail, belly, and head which Mulawi (Jalal al-Dim Rumi) described in his story in Mathnawi . Previous…