Layla through the Eyes of Majnun

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

To love is to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and to remember the other before the Self for the Self is annihilated in the other.  Once there was a king who heard about the story of Layla and Majnun, and knew that Majnun left his life in the city, and stayed in the wilds.  He told his ministers to bring Majnun to his palace.  Soldiers went to the field, found Majnun, and brought him before the king.  The king asked Majnun, “Why did you leave people, leave your home, and stay in the caves and deserts: Why did you not find our way of life pleasing?” 

Majnun replied, “I left my family and my friends because they were blaming me for my love for Layla.  O how I wish the day will come when they see that beauty and they will all fall in love with her and regret the blame they put on me.”  Majnun talked and talked about Layla’s beauty so much that the king became eager to see Layla.  So he asked his soldiers to bring her to his court. 

Soldiers went to Layla’s tribe and brought her to the presence of the king.  To the king’s astonishment, Layla was weak, dark skinned, and not pretty.  “She is plain, so very plain and common.  My servants are prettier than she is.  She has no grace, she has no beauty,” the king thought. 

Majnun sensing the king’s thought, said, “O king, you should see the beauty and the grace of Layla through my eyes.  You have to have Majnun’s eye for the mystery of her beauty to be revealed to you.”