The Association of Dogs

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Shah Baha’ ad-Din Muhammad an-Naqshband (q.s.) said, “In the beginning of my travel on this Way, I met a lover of Allah and he told me, ‘It seems as if you are from us.’ 

I told him, ‘I hope you are from us and I hope to be a friend to you.’ 

One time, he asked me, ‘How do you treat your self?’ 

I said to him, ‘If I find something, I thank Allah and if not, I am patient.’ 

He smiled and said, ‘This is easy.  The way for you is to burden your ego and to test it.  If it loses food for one week, you must be able to keep it from disobeying you.’ 

I was very happy with his answer and I asked his support.  He ordered me to help the needy and to serve the weak and to motivate the heart of the brokenhearted.  He ordered me to keep humility and tolerance.  I kept his orders and I spent many days of my life in that manner.  Then he ordered me to take care of animals, to cure their sicknesses, to clean their wounds, and to assist them in finding their provision.  I kept on that way until I reached the state that if I saw an animal in the street, I would stop and make way for it. 

Then he ordered me to look after the dogs of this association with truthfulness and humility, and to ask them for support.  He told me, ‘Because of your service to one of them you will reach great happiness.’  I took that order in the hope that I would find one dog and through service to him, I would find that happiness.  One day I was in the association of one of them and I felt a great state of happiness overcome me.  I began crying in front of him until he fell on his back and raised his forepaws to the skies.  I heard a very sad voice emanating from him and so I raised my hands in supplication and began to say ‘Amin’ in support of him until he became silent.  What then opened for me was a vision which brought me to a state in which I felt that I was part of every human being and part of every Creation on this Earth.”