Pleasant Stories & Anecdotes — Page 53
Pleasant Anecdotes—Do Not Go For Appearance 53 Do not go for Appearance Dhun-Nūn al-Mi s rī was a very talented person. He was famous far and wide. A man went to his house to see him due to his fame and loudly called his name. Someone from the house responded, ‘God knows where he is gone. He may have gone to the market’. The man went to the market looking for Dhun-Nūn who was shopping dressed in a simple ordinary manner. The man asked around for him and was pointed to Dhun-Nūn. The person noticed that Dhun-Nūn was a dark, short person wearing very simple clothes, non-commanding standing in the market like an ordinary man. The person who had come to meet Dhun-Nūn lost all his enthusiasm and said to Dhun-Nūn that he looked like an ordinary man. Dhun-Nūn asked him, ‘Why did you come to see me while you were thinking only about the looks?’ Dhun-Nūn had figured out visitor’s intentions and said, ‘You are looking for outward conditions and nothing beyond’. Faith is protected when one keeps an eye on the soul. (Malf ūzā t, vol. 8, p. 71–72) Standard of a Miracle I read an anecdote in Tadhkiratul-Auliyā’ that there was a man who was suspicious of a pious man and considered the pious man as an imposter and a liar. One day he went to the pious man and asked him to show