Joy at Sudden Disappointment

Whatever comes, comes from a need,
a sore distress, a hurting want.

Mary’s pain made the baby Jesus.
Her womb opened its lips
and spoke the Word.

Every part of you has a secret language.
Your hands and your feet say what you’ve done.

And every need brings in what’s needed.
Pain bears its cure like a child.

Having nothing produces provisions.
Ask a difficult question,
and the marvelous answer appears.

Build a ship, and there’ll be water
to float it. The tender-throated
infant cries and milk drips
from the mother’s breast.

Be thirsty for the ultimate water,
and then be ready for what will
come pouring from the spring.

A village woman once was walking by Muhammad.
She thought he was just an ordinary illiterate.
She didn’t believe that he was a prophet.

She was carrying a two-month-old baby.
As she came near Muhammad, the baby turned
and said, “Peace be with you, Messenger of God.”

The mother cried out, surprised and angry,
“What are you saying,
and how can you suddenly talk!”

The child replied, "God taught me first,
and then Gabriel."
                           "Who is this Gabriel?
I don't see anyone."
                             "He is above your head,
Mother. Turn around. He has been telling me
many things."
                    "Do you really see him?"
                                                         "Yes.
He is continually delivering me from this 
degraded state into sublimity.”

Muhammad then asked the child, 
"What is your name?"

“Abdul Aziz, the servant of God, but this family 
thinks I am concerned with world-energies.
I am as free of that as the truth of your prophecy is."

So the little one spoke, and the mother
took in a fragrance that let her surrender
to that state.
                   When God gives this knowing,
inanimate stones, plants, animals, everything, 
fills with unfolding significance.

The fish and the birds become protectors. 
Remember the incident of Muhammad and the eagle.

It happened that as he was listening 
to this inspired baby, he heard a voice 
calling him to prayer. He asked for water 
to perform ablutions. He washed his hands 
and feet, and just as he reached for his boot,

an eagle snatched it away! The boot turned upsidedown 
as it lifted, and a poisonous snake dropped out.

The eagle circled and brought the boot back, 
saying, “My helpless reverence for you 
made this necessary. Anyone who acts 
this presumptuously for a legalistic reason 
should be punished!”
                               Muhammad thanked the eagle.
and said, "What I thought was rudeness 
was really love. You took away my grief,
and I was grieved! God has shown me everything, 
but at that moment I was preoccupied within myself."
The eagle,
                "But chosen one, any clarity I have
comes from you!"
                          This spreading radiance
of a True Human Being has great importance.

Look carefully around you and recognize 
the luminosity of souls. Sit beside those
who draw you to that.
                                Learn from this eagle story
that when misfortune comes, you must quickly praise.

Others may be saying, Oh no, but you
will be opening out like a rose
losing itself petal by petal.

Someone once asked a great sheikh
what sufism was.
                         "The feeling of joy
when sudden disappointment comes.'

The eagle carries off Muhammad's boot 
and saves him from snakebite.

Don't grieve for what doesn't come. 
Some things that don't happen 
keep disasters from happening.