Mercy for the Soul- Week Two, 9 March 2013 Notes by Muhsin Hamzah A mother says to her child,

an infant of five years, Go to bed. The boy obeys. He lies down with his head towards the north and his feet towards the south. His mother says to him, I dont want to see you lying like this; turn the other way. The child obeys, but he curls up. His mother intervenes again, I would like to see your body extended to full length and not curled up like a small shell. The obedient child straightens himself to full length and asks, in his small, innocent voice which seeks only to please, Are you happy, mother? Yes, my little father, replies the mother Does my mother wish me to sleep? Of course, my little father. she says The child closes his eyes and sleeps, after having said, My mother, take care with the lamp, so that it doesnt go out, and watch over me so that the naughty mice dont come to nibble my toes. Brother in God, this story, rather than amusing you, should cause you to reflect. Be in the hand of God like this child in the hands of his mother. Seek nothing else but the desire to please God. Dont lose confidence in God. Accept the position He chooses for you; efface your own will and abandon yourself to His. When and how He wishes you to change, thus will you change without complaining. Ask Him to do with you as He pleases. Ask Him, as evidence of His satisfaction, to keep watch over your sleep and over the interior light which illuminates you so that material temptations, which are also kind of perfidious mice, do not slip among the shadows of laxity and gnaw on your two big toes: Love and Charity. Taken from West African Sufi, The Religious Heritage & Spiritual Search of Cerno Bokar Saalif Taal by Louis Brenner

Week1

Mercy for the Soul, 2nd March 2013| Being! www.pathoftheprophet.wix.com/being