Don’t Grieve for What Doesn't Come

Remember the incident of Muhammad [PBUH] and the eagle.

It happened that as he was listening to this inspired baby, he heard a voice calling him to prayer. He asked for water to perform ablutions. He washed his hands and feet, and just as he reached for his boot, an eagle snatched it away! The boot turned upsidedown as it lifted, and a poisonous snake dropped out.

The eagle circled and brought the boot back, saying, "My helpless reverence for you made this necessary. Anyone who acts this presumptuously for a legalistic reason should be punished!"

Muhammad [PBUH] thanked the eagle, and said, "What I thought was rudeness was really love. You took away my grief, and I was grieved! God has shown me everything, but at that moment I was preoccupied within myself."

The eagle, "But chosen one, any clarity I have comes from you!"

This spreading radiance of a True Human Being has great importance. Look carefully around you and recognize the luminosity of souls. Sit beside those who draw you to that. Learn from this eagle story that when misfortune comes, you must quickly praise. Others may be saying, Oh no, but you will be opening out like a rose loosing itself petal by petal.

Someone once asked a great sheikh what sufism was.

"The feeling of joy when sudden disappointment comes."

The eagle carries off Muhammad's boot saves him from snakebite.

Don't grieve for what doesn't come. Some things that don't happen keep disasters from happening.


Maulana Jalal-uddin Rumi, RA