THE STORY OF THE TREE OF LIFE
A wise man once told a
person, just to test him that in India there is such a
tree, that whoever eats of the fruits of that tree,
never
dies. When the King heard of this, he fell in love with
it.
He immediately sent a messenger to India to search for
this
tree. The messenger
wandered around in india from place
to
place in search of this tree. He wandered about in
quite a
distressed state, but nowhere did he find such a tree.
Whenever he enquired from people, they would tell
him: Only mad people look for such a tree. They used to
jeer and scoff at him. At last when he had became tired
of
roaming around like that in a foreign country and
exhaused
by the difficulties of travel, he dicided to return
home.
He was very disappointed. On his return he met a Qutub
Sheikh along the way.
He said to the Sheikh:
O
Sheikh this is a time for mercy and benevolence.
I
have
become helpless and disappointed in my quest. This is a
time for your kindness.
The Sheikh replied:
What is your disappointment
And what
is the nature of your quest?
He replied:
My
King has given me this job to search for such a tree in
India
That whosoever eats of its fruits will live
fore
ever.
I have wandered around in India for years and
searched everywhere
But no sign of it did I find.
People
jeer at me and consider me a mad one.
The Sheikh
listened to him,laughed and said:
O Saleem, this
tree is only the bounty of
knowledge.
Through
knowledge
a person finds everlasting life
And one without
knowledge is a dead one.
You have searched for the
outer
form of knowledge and therefore
lost the way.
You
have been deprived of the form of knowledge too,
because
you failed to understand the inner
meaning.
LESSON:
The wise man who originally told
the story about the tree in India actually compared
knowledge to a tree. His aim was to test the listener.
Knowledge is an abstract concept and such abstract
concepts
do not stand by themselves alone. For their existence
they
require an agent or a place on which to exist. Thus
knowledge can only be acuired from the Ulama. The Ulama
are
the tree.
By knowledge is meant only that knowledge
which caauses one to reach Allah. The knowledge which
is to
a means of livelihood and leads to employment in
industry
and trade, is called industrial knowledge and trade
knowledge. True knowledge is only knowledge of deen,
through which a person tries to please his Master and
thereby acquire a life of honour in both worlds.
Without
this knowledge a person is a corpse, even if he is
alive.
For this reason, the wise man knowledge, recognition of
Allah (Ma'rifat) is impossible.
May Allah grant us
true
knowledge and grant us the ability to practice
according to
that knowledge, Ameen.