The Shaykh & His Lion
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is extracted from the “Treatment for Anger” by Mawlana Shah Hakim Muhammad Akhtar Swahib ( r.a. ). Shaykh Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Ahmad al-Kharqani ( q.s. ) used to ride on a lion, bringing with him wood from the jungle on it, and if sometimes the lion would become troublesome, he would whip it with a live snake. A person from Khurasan went to Kharqan to take bay’at , the pledge, at the shaykh ’s hands. When he arrived at the Shaykh Abu al-Hasan’s ( q.s. ) house, he was not home, and the prospective murid encountered his wife. She asked the man why he had come, and he related his reason. She was an ill-tempered woman, and upon hearing this she recited, “ Laa hawla wa laa quwwata illah bi Allah ,” and then said, “Who in this world can know the condition of this man better than I? I am with him day and night. He is a crafty deceiver! How did you get involved with him? Have you n...