One of the pious men of Lebanon, whose spiritual ranks were well-known in the Arab lands and whose miracles were famous, entered the mosque of Damascus and was performing ablution by the side of the Kallasa pond. His foot slipped, and he fell into the pond, struggling to get out.
After the prayer, one of his companions said, “I have a question, if you permit me to ask.”
He said, “What is it?”
The companion said, “I remember that the Sheikh walked on the waters of the Western Sea without getting his feet wet. What happened today that he almost drowned in this small amount of water?”
The Sheikh pondered deeply and after much reflection, he raised his head and said, “Have you not heard that the Master of the World, peace be upon him, said: ‘I have a time with God that no close angel or sent prophet can share.’ And he did not say ‘always’? At such times, he did not attend to Gabriel and Michael, and at other times, he was with Hafsa and Zainab.”
The vision of the righteous is between manifestation and concealment.
They show themselves and then disappear.
You show yourself and then withdraw
You inflame your own market and our fire
I see the one I love without any means
And I am struck by a state that leads me astray.
