Abandon Envy
Every person who thinks of themselves as a seeker of Truth must know that this world is not for anyone but for everyone. Once they have understood this wisdom, they will be at peace and content.
The foolishness of envy was demonstrated to me once when I went to Tower Bridge to see the Royal Treasury and toured the place where the robes of the emperors of the British Empire are kept.
I asked: “Where are the emperors? How is it that they have gone away and left their majestic clothes here? How could they just leave them behind after they had fought so many rivals to keep those royal cloaks and prevent them from falling into the hands of those contenders for the throne? Where have they gone now, abandoning their elegant raiments so carelessly?” People told me, “The emperors are downstairs, underground, where they each have a ‘basement flat.’”
And so it is very foolish to be envious and complain that someone has been granted what you have not, since, in the end, what we are quarrelling over will also be taken away from them. We, the general public, are now looking at the emperor’s clothes in a public museum—so, for what do you envy them? Do you covet their basement flats? Listen, everything we have is just on loan. You will use things and then give them to the next in line, and they to the next, and so on. Therefore, there is no wisdom in envying anyone for anything. You must be vigilant not to kindle that fire in your heart.
Excerpts from the book: The Timeless Sufi Wisdom of Shaykh Nazim.
By: Ibrahim Shukrullah Gutmann
