Pleasant Stories & Anecdotes — Page 49
Pleasant Anecdotes—Why Did You Backbite 49 Why Did You Backbite A saint had two disciples. One of them drank alcohol and fell unconscious in a gutter. The other complained to the saint. The saint said, ‘You are very insolent that you complain about him, and do not go and pick him up and take him home’. The disciple went there immediately, picked up the drunkard and proceeded. When people saw this, they said that one drank excessively and the other drank a little less and is carrying the drunkard back home. The saint wished to reproach him for backbiting on his brother. (Malf ūzā t, vol. 7, p. 78) Success in Difficulty A narration is given in Mathnawī that once a sage had nothing to eat and he and his friends were hungry. A boy happened to pass by selling dessert. The sage ordered his friends to snatch the dish from the boy. They acted accordingly. The sage and his friends ate the dessert. The boy wept and cried. His friends questioned the sage, ‘What was the wisdom in snatching the dish from a child’. The sage said that dish was child’s total asset and he cried in extreme pain when he lost it. His painful cry resulted in relief from his difficulty and anguish that our prayers could not have