BAYAZID BASTAMI
(D 874 AD)
Bayazid Bastami, whose grandfather was a Zoroastrian converted to Islam,
was distinguished for his piety while still a child. His mother used to
send him regularly to the mosque to read the Koran with a mullah. When
he reached the chapter "Luqman," he read the verse, "Show thy gratitude
in serving Me, and show thy gratitude to thy parents in serving them."
He asked his teacher the meaning of the verse, and had no sooner heard
it explained than he immediately ran home. When she saw him, his mother
said, "Why have you come home so early, my child? Have they sent you for
the fees?" "Mother," answered Bayezid, "I have just read the verse in
which the Lord commands me to serve Him, and to serve thee; but, as I
cannot serve in two places at once, I have come to propose to you that
you should ask the Lord to give me to you in order that I may serve you,
or that you should yourself give me to the Lord that I may serve Him."
"Since that is the case," said his mother, "I give you up to the Lord,
and renounce all my rights over you." Accordingly, a few years
afterwards, Bayazid left his native village Bastam, and for thirty years
lived as a bare-footed ascetic in the deserts of Syria. Once during
this time Bayazid came home and listened at the door of his mother's
house before going in. He heard her saying in prayer, "May God bless my
poor exile, may the hearts of the pious be rejoiced by him and accord
him grace." Bayazid, hearing these words, wept, and knocked at the door.
"Who is there?" she asked. "Thy exile," he answered. No sooner had she
opened the door than, embracing Bayazid, she said to him, weeping, "O my
son, separated from thee as I have been, my eyes have lost the power to
see, and my back is bent," and they both mingled their tears together.
Some time after Bayazid said to a friend, "What I ought to have known
most clearly is just what I have only learnt when too late--to serve my
mother. That which I sought in devoting myself to so many religious
exercises, in putting myself at the service of others, and in exiling
myself far from my kindred and my country, see, how I have discovered
it. One night when my mother asked for water, as there was none in the
pitcher, I went to the canal to draw some. It was a winter night, and
the frost was very sharp. While I had gone for the water, my mother had
fallen asleep again. I stood waiting with the full pitcher in my hand
till she should awake. When she did so, she asked for water, but when I
wished to give it her, I found that the water was frozen, and the handle
of the jug stuck fast to my hand. 'Why,' said my mother, 'did you not
put it down?' 'Because I feared,' I answered, 'not to be ready when you
asked for it.' That same night the Lord revealed to me all that I wanted
to know."
Bayazid used to tell the following story. "A man came to see me, and
asked where I was going. 'I am going to Mecca,' I said, 'to make the
circuit of the Kaaba.'[16] 'How much money hast thou?' he asked. 'Two
hundred pieces of gold,' I answered. 'Very well,' he said, 'give them me
and walk seven times round me. By this act of charity thou wilt deserve
a greater recompense than thou wouldest obtain at the Kaaba.'[17] I did
as he asked, and that year I did not make the pilgrimage."
One day the thought crossed Bayazid's mind that he was the greatest Sufi
of the age. But no sooner had it done so, than he understood it was an
aberration on his part. "I rose immediately," he said, "and went some
way into the desert of Khorassan, where I sat down. I took then the
resolution of not moving from the spot where I was seated till the Lord
should send me someone who would make me see myself as I really was. I
waited thus for three days and three nights. On the fourth night a rider
on a camel approached. I perceived on his countenance the marks of a
penetrating mind. He halted, and, fixing his eyes on me, said, 'Thou
desirest doubtless, that in the twinkling of an eye I should cause to be
swallowed up the village of Bastam and all its population, together with
its riches, and Bayazid himself.' At these words I was seized with an
indescribable fear, and asked him, 'Whence comest thou?' 'O Bayazid,' he
answered, 'while thou hast been seated here I have travelled three
thousand miles. Take care, O Bayazid, to place a curb on thy heart, and
not to forget the road; else shalt thou infallibly perish.' Then he
turned his back and departed."
One night Bayazid, having gone out of his house, went to the
burial-ground to perform his devotions. There he found a young man
playing a guitar, who came towards him. Bayazid, considering music
unlawful, exclaimed, "There is no might or power except in God."[18] The
young man, irritated, struck the head of Bayazid with his guitar,
breaking it, and wounding him. Bayazid returned home. The next morning
very early he placed some sweetmeats and some pieces of gold in a dish
and sent it to the young man, charging the messenger to say from him,
"Last night you broke your guitar by striking my head with it; take,
therefore, this money, buy another guitar, and eat the sweetmeats so
that there may remain no rancour in your heart." When he had received
the message, the young man came in tears to Bayazid, asked his pardon,
and repented.
On another occasion, Bayazid was saying his prayers in company with a
friend. When they had finished their devotions, his friend said to him,
"Tell me, Bayazid, you do not ask anything of anyone, you do not engage
in any industry; whence do you get your provision?" "Wait a little,"
said Bayazid, "I am going to say my prayers again." "Why?" "Because it
is unlawful to pray with a man who does not know Who is the Bestower of
daily bread."
Hatim Assam used to say to his disciples, "If, on the Day of Judgment
you do not intercede for those who will be conducted to hell, you are
not my disciples." Bayazid, having heard this, said in his turn, "Those
only are my disciples who, on the Day of Judgment, will stand on the
brink of hell, in order to seize and save the wretches cast down
thither, even were it necessary to enter hell themselves for the
salvation of the others."
Bayazid related as follows. "One day I heard a Voice, which said, 'O
Bayazid, our treasure-house is brimmed full with acts of adoration and
devotion offered by men; bring Us something which is not in Our
treasury.' 'But, O God,' I cried, 'what then shall I bring?' And the
voice answered me, 'Bring Me sorrow of heart, humility, contrition.'"
Another time he said, "After having endured the rigours of asceticism
for forty years, one night I found myself before the doors and curtains
which hide the throne of God. 'For pity's sake,' I exclaimed, groaning,
'let me pass.' 'O Bayazid,' cried a Voice, 'you still possess a pitcher
and an old cloak; you cannot pass.' Then I cast away the pitcher and the
cloak, and I heard the Voice again address me, 'O Bayazid, go and say to
those who do not know: "Behold, for forty years I have practised
rigorous asceticism. Well, till I cast away my broken pitcher and torn
cloak, I could not find access to God; and you, who are entangled in the
ties of worldly interests, how shall you discover the way to Him?"'"
One night, after having said his evening prayer, Bayazid remained
standing till the morning, and shedding tears. When morning came, his
servant asked him, "What has happened to you to-night?" "Methought I had
arrived at the throne of God," replied Bayazid, and I said to it, 'O
Throne, we are taught that the Lord rests on thee.' 'O Bayazid,' replied
the throne, 'it is said here that the Lord dwells in a humble heart; but
where is the intelligence capable of penetrating this mystery? Heavenly
beings question earthly ones concerning it, and they only cast the
question back.'
Bayazid said once, "When I had arrived at the station of Proximity, I
heard a Voice say to me, 'O Bayazid, ask what thou hast to ask.' 'My
God,' I answered, 'Thou art the Object of my desire.' 'O Bayazid,' the
Voice replied, 'if there lingers in thee an atom of earthly desire, and
till thou art reduced to nothing in the station of Annihilation, thou
canst not find Me.' 'My God,' I answered, 'I shall not return from Thy
Court empty-handed; I wish to ask something from Thee.' 'Very well, ask
it.' 'Grant me mercy for all men.' The Voice said, 'O Bayazid lift up
thine eyes.' I lifted them, and I saw that the Most High was far more
inclined to have mercy on His servants than I. 'Lord,' I cried, 'have
mercy on Satan.' 'O Bayazid,' the Voice answered, 'Satan is made of
fire, and fire must needs go to the fire. Take heed lest thou thyself
deserve to go there.'"
One day, when Bayazid was walking along the road, a young man who
followed him closely, setting his feet in his tracks, said to him, "Tear
off a piece of thy cloak and give it me, in order that thy blessing may
rest upon me." Bayazid answered, "Although thou strip Bayazid of his
skin and clothe thyself with it, it will profit thee nothing, unless
thou reproduce the actions of Bayazid."
Amongst other remarkable utterances of Bayazid are the following. "When
from hatred to the world I fled to the Lord, His love so filled my heart
that I hated myself." "He who relies on his acts of piety is worse than
he who commits sin." "There are those among the servants of the Lord who
would utter groans like the damned in hell if one put them in possession
of the eight paradises without Him." "A single grain of the love of God
is worth more than a hundred thousand paradises." "He whom the Lord
loves is known by three distinct signs--his liberality is like the sea,
his kindness is like the sun, his humility is like the earth, which
allows itself to be trampled on by everyone." "Whoso has the knowledge
of the Lord receives from Him intuitional wisdom in such a manner that
he needs not to have recourse to anyone to learn anything."
Being asked his age, he replied, "I am four years old." "How is that,
Sheikh?" they said. "For seventy years," he said, "I have been enveloped
in the veils of this dull world; it is only four years since I
disentangled myself from them and see God." Being asked to define
Sufism, he said, "Sufism consists in giving up repose, and accepting
suffering."
In the last moments of his life he put on a girdle and seated himself in
the "mihrab"[19] of the mosque. Then, turning his cloak and cap inside
out, he said, "My God, I ask for no reward for the austerities I have
practised all my life. I say nothing of the prayers which I have prayed
during whole nights, of the fasts I have kept during the day, of the
number of times I have said the Koran through. O my God, thou knowest
that I think nothing of the works which I have done, and that so far
from putting trust in them, I would rather forget them. Besides, is it
not thou who hast covered my nakedness with the raiment of these good
works? As for me, I consider myself as a fire-worshipper who has grown
to old age in a state of infidelity. But now I say 'Allah! Allah!' and I
cut the girdle of the idolator. I enter Islam as a new proselyte, and I
repeat the profession of the Moslem faith. I reckon all that I have done
nothing. Deign, for Thy mercy's sake, to blot out all my evil deeds and
transgressions." When he was dying, he again ejaculated "Allah! Allah!"
Then he cried, "My God, I have passed my life in neglect of thee; I have
not served Thee faithfully," and expired.
[16] Pilgrims at Mecca go round the Kaaba seven times.
[17] An allusion to the mystics' doctrine that man himself is the
true Kaaba or House of God.
[18] A formula used by devout Mussalmen at the sight of anything
evil.
[19] The "Mihrab" is the niche or apse in the wall of the mosque
facing towards Mecca.