Value without Love

Good Morning, a friend of mine recently told me a story of a Sufi Sheikh from the subcontinent. This sheikh sat down for his midday meal in the subcontinent. A man of a cast considered untouchable passes nearby. The Sufi calls him over and insists on sharing his food and eating together. The man is stunned. Not only because a religious scholar has addressed him, but because sharing food would violate cast purity laws. The man says I am not fit to sit with you. The Sufi replies then how am I to sit with God, if I refuse to sit with you. The man protests that the Sufi will lose his Social standing. The Sufi response what is a religion worth that cannot survive love?”

The Sufi is risking his reputation, but he is choosing ethical divine truth over profane social approval. He is undoing his own ego’s attachment to rank and status. It would be much easier to avoid the man, maintain the illusory structures of manmade hierarchies, but what kind of believer would that make him?

I pray for a life that not only survives but thrives on love, Ameen