Pharmacy of Allah (s.w.t.)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is adapted from “When You Hear Hoof Beats, Think of a Zebra” by Shaykh Shams Ira Friedlander. 

A Sufi was walking by a madhouse.  He looked up, and there was a doctor leaning out of the window.  He asked the doctor, “Have you discovered the cure for all that afflicts these men?”  The doctor said he had not. 

One of the crazy inmates was at the next window peering out, and he said, “Do you mind if I answer that question?” 

The doctor and the Sufi exchanged looks and said, “No, not at all.” 

And the inmate said: “In the pharmacy of Allah, prescribed by Muhammad, you take the root of repentance and the leaf of consciousness.  Grind them in the pestle of your heart, add some tears, sift it through your intelligence, cook it with the fire of your heart, taste it with a measuring spoon, then eat it with satisfaction.” 

He had given them a dervish recipe.  In the Pharmacy of Allah (s.w.t.), in the world we live in, prescribed by Muhammad (s.a.w.), the doctor, one who was a Messenger and Sent to show good ways, to educate, to bring a Message of Allah (s.w.t.).  To take the root of repentance; when we take the root of something, it is hard and knobby and difficult to pull out of the earth.  But once we have uprooted it, it does not grow back.  The leaf of consciousness weighs very little.  This leaf, we can take only a little bit of it.  We grind it in the pestle of our heart.  We add some tears, our own tears.  This life is feeling the Presence of Allah (s.w.t.) in our repentance. 

Then we sift it through our intelligence.  Because our intelligence will tell us if it is right.  Then cook it in the fire of our heart, in the warmth of our heart.  We have said that Allah (s.w.t.), Who cannot fit into the entire universe, can Fit into the heart of a believer.  So we cook this potion in the fire of our heart.  We taste it with a measuring spoon; just a little carefully and then we eat it with satisfaction.