SECRETS OF SAINTHOOD

What are they like, the miracle-workers who are friends of Allah?

There is a wondrous story about this; read it too:

Hazrat Dawud al-Ta’i was sitting on the riverbank fishing, and his students were beside him. A boat appeared on the river; in it two men and a woman were drinking wine and making merry. The students said: “Teacher, say a dua over these sinners, so that they too may flee from sins as we do.” While the students were waiting for a curse, Hazrat Dawud al-Ta’i prayed that Allah let their merriment continue in paradise as well. The boat changed course and came to the bank beside them. And unexpectedly those in the boat embraced faith in the presence of Dawud al-Ta’i. (From the book “The Scent of Water,” p. 170)

Yes, the saints are the heirs of the prophets; the prophets were sent not to cast people into the whirlpool of despair, but to pull them out of the whirlpool of despair onto the shore of piety. And the saints are those who carry on their work.

In the book “The Perfect Man” by Hazrat Aziz Nasafi there is a wondrous saying: “The mercy of the Truth is for the whole world. The mercy of the prophets is for their own ummah. The mercy of the saints is for those who follow them and love them.”

Those who turn away from their followers are not saints. They too belong to the common folk like everyone else and merely appear in the guise of a saint.