While Amin sheikho was
still a young officer, an incident occurred that changed the whole
course of his life. Two of his soldiers reported that they had been
assaulted by a civilian and one of them had been wounded. In time of
mobilization, such a crime was punishable with death. He had the man
arrested, court -martialed and condemned to death. After the verdict
was announced , a deputation from the town came and begged for the life
of this man who was, they said, much respected and a great benefactor
of the town. He sent the petition to the higher command; the man was
reprieved and, soon after, released. After the release, Amin was
invited to meet the former prisoner and learned that he was enormously
rich and owned great properties which, as being the only son, he had
inherited from his father. The two men became friends and Amin often
visited his house, where he lived in the greatest luxury. Islam allows
a man four wives, but this man used to marry girls of seventeen or
eighteen , and when they reached twenty one, he divorced them and took
others . No padishah could live in greater luxury, for he had none of
the anxieties of power, and all the advantages of wealth.
So it
continued for one or two years, When Amin received the news that his
friend had died. He had been walking in his garden when he reached up
to pluck a ripe cherry from a tree, felt a pain in his heart, and one
or two hours later had died . Amin was present for his burial.
The next day, the police received an anonymous letter to say that he
had been killed by one of his wives whom he was threatening to divorce,
so a post-mortem was ordered. As he had no male relations, Amin was
asked to witness the exhumation on behalf of the family.
When the grave was opened there came a most abominable stench from the
corpse and Amin almost fainted on seeing it. The face was distorted out
of recognition, the abdomen and legs swollen and the skins black and
blotched. Worst of all, his body was covered with white maggots. This
experience made a terrible impression on Amin. He had seen death on the
battlefield, but he had never seen a corpse decompose so rapidly and so
horribly. As a result of this, he turned his thoughts to the meaning of
life and death. He left the army and began to study, but could find no
assurance. He could not accept the routine explanations given by the
hodjas and others he had interrogated.
Then two years later, a second event occurred. One of his workmen had
died and that they wanted to bury him beside his father, but when they
opened the grave they had found something so extraordinary that they
wanted his advice. He went to the graveyard and saw to his amazement
that the corpse was perfectly preserved. He learned that the man`s
father had died forty-seven years previously.
He was so astonished by this that he himself climbed into the grave and
examined the body unblemished. When he smelled his hands, he perceived
a most beautiful order. He took pains to verify beyond any doubt that
this was indeed the body of a man who had died forty-seven years
previously. Then the son was buried beside him and the grave again
closed.
This time, Amin was overwhelmed. He decided first of all to find out
whatever he could about this man`s life. He established that he had
been a man of no great worldly importance but had been noted for his
uprightness and generosity. It was remembered of him that he had never
harmed any person or any animal in his life.
Here were two facts that he had witnessed with his own eyes and senses.
They could not be doubted and yet they were inexplicable. Nothing in
the religious teaching of Islam would account for such strange
occurrences, nor did they make sense according to the scientific and
medical ideas he had learned.
He decided to search for an explanation. For one and a half years, he
found nothing. Then he was advised by someone to seek out a certain
dervish called Sheikh Amin Keftarou. When he found him and told him the
story, the dervish listened attentively, and when he had finished said,
"If you have a room and always keep it closed, how will it be after a
time?"
"Dark and smelly"
"But if you open the room to the air and sun"
"It will keep sweet"
"So it is," replied the dervish, "with the human body. It is like a
room in which we live. It does not open to the visible sun, but to the
sun of Allah. So we must learn to give air and sun to this room in
which we live.
" the first man kept his inner room in darkness, so it became foul and
stinking. He was given by Allah great gifts, which he should have
shared with those who needed them. He did not do this, but he did
worse; he lived only for the satisfaction of his body and thereby
closed it to the air and light that come from Allah. His spirit (nefs)
lived in darkness. Therefore, when he died, his spirit could not free
itself from his body until it was destroyed in the horrible way you
describe. But with the second man, it was quite otherwise. His spirit
had turned toward Allah and left his body without difficulty. His body
had been in his lifetime filled with air and light; therefore, it
remained clean, and being clean it did not decompose."
Amin said to the dervish Keftarou, "for one and a half years only one
thought has obsessed me; how to die like the second man and not like
the first. Can you teach me this."
The dervish answered, "it is quite simple. Three things are needed.
First you must believe that Allah exists. You must believe this not
with your mind only and you must not say it with our lips only. It must
be really true for the whole of your being. Unless you believe that
Allah exists, you can do nothing.
" The second requirement is that you should hear and now make a vow to
Allah that so long as you live you will never willingly do harm to man
or beast or any of His creatures. You cannot ask Allah to help you if
you are not ready to help all His creatures.
" thirdly, you must every day without fail give a certain amount of
time during which you will do nothing whatever except call on the name
of Allah and pray for his help.
" If you can do these three things, I promise you that the air and the
light of Allah will enter your body and you will die as you wish to
die."
Amin was so completely convinced by what the dervish told him that he
decided from then onward to devote himself entirely to fulfilling these
three requirements. He was accepted by Keftarou as his pupil, and
remained with him until he died.

الموضوع الأصلي : a real story  المصدر : منتدى تكنولوجيا العين الذهبية

الموضوع الأصلي : a real story  المصدر : منتدى تكنولوجيا العين الذهبية