First Grain of Sand — Page 73
A KGB SPY ENTERS OUR MIDST 57 Persian, he is asking Abdullah Khan to translate. His question was about Maulana Rumi's book Masnawi, which had been trans- lated and interpreted in Turkish as well and contains a statement in its preface from Bayazid Bastami [a 9th century Persian Sufi] who says, 'Glory be to Me! How great is My majesty!' But on the other hand, the Prophet Muhammadsas said to God Almighty: 'Glory be to Thee. We haven't even recognized You the way we should have. So comparing these two statements, Abdul Qadir said that the rank of Bayazid Bastami seems to be greater than that of Prophet Muhammadsas and he wanted to know my opinion of it. Abdul Qadir was explaining this question to Abdullah Khan at great length, but once I heard him say the two Arabic quotes-the one attributed to Bayazid Bastami and the other attributed to the Prophet Muhammad sas—I immediately understood his question. I told Abdullah Khan to calm him down and tell him I have understood his question, to which Abdul Qadir fell silent. I first repeated his question in two to three sentences in Persian—that since Bastami's statement apparently demonstrates his glory, whereas the Prophet Muhammadsas maintained all glory only belongs to God Almighty, does this mean that, God forbid, the status of Bastami is greater than the Prophet Muhammadsas? I was repeating this question in Persian, and immediately Abdul Qadir nodded in agreement at my understanding of his question. I immediately realized that he had previously said he did not know any Persian, but somehow he completely understood my Persian summary of this question. He cleverly picked up on my realiza- tion and told Abdullah Khan to tell me that if someone speaks in Persian, he can understand, but he cannot speak it. For any matter, I explained to him that comparing Bayazid