THE STORY OF MAJNOON WRITINO LAYLA'S NAME ON THE SAND

By Hazrat Shah Hakim Muhammad Akhtar Saheb

Once Majnoon was sitting on the bank of a river repeatedly writing the name of Layla on the sand. A
passer by saw him and asked:
"O Majnoon, what are you busy doing? To whom are you writing this letter?"
Majnoon replied:
"When parting from my Layla distresses me, I write her name
repeatedly
And in this way give consolation to a heart grieved by separation. " ;
Now Moulana Rumi (R.A.) gives advise: I
"0 people, this is the effect of sensual love.
Can the true love for the Master be any less than that?"
LESSON:
In this story there is an answer to those without inner sight who criticise those who continuously and
repeatedly recite the name of Allah. They ask: "Why do these devotees make so much Zikr and project
so much love for Allah. Why do they continue pouring
out before Him their complaints, sighs and lamentations? We have also studied so many books. We also
possess libraries. We also give lectures and talks. Why is it that we do not acquire the same state as
them? "
Then after these questions, they explain their own deprivation by saying: "These devotees do their Zikr,
spiritual vigils, their sighs and crying before Allah, to be seen by men, to attract people towards them
and to-gain worldly benefit." If only these unjust ones could observe these saintly ones in the privacy of
their inner rooms, engaged in praying and Zikr. Who is there to witness their" prostrations. For whom
are these prostration's made in privacy, for whom do they wet their places of prostration with their
tears?
Who is there to see them sending their sighs and Ah's up to Allah, before whom they complain of all
their pains and distresses?
"Majzoob has cried over all the calamities of this world;
Now to grant him blessings and acceptance is left to you, Dh! Allah".
These are the saints of Allah whose Ah's, their Salaams and their messages continuously reach up to the
Throne of Allah and who have a strong connection with Him. They remain silent here on earth but still
their hearts declare their love for Him.
"The saintly ones are silent
But their repetition of their cries reach the Beloved
And reach up to His Throne.
To whom are they showing their blessed solitude,
So that they reap material benefit?
In fact their "Ah's" are hidden from the whole universe."
Now from this story we turn to something else. If Layla, who was a mere corpse, producing stinking
urine and faeces could make someone fall madly in love, then what about that Being who creates
thousands of Laylas and then destroys them, and who is the fountain head of all beautiful forms and the
centre of all beauty? Can that Being with its perfect beauty and love not make one mad in love with
Him. He is that Holy and Perfect Being. His mad ones are also holy. The Prophets and Saints are His mad
lovers who will continue to be His successful and honoured ones in both worlds. Allah grants this
bountiful present to His lovers.
In contrast to that, what does Layla's Majnoon get? Majnoon gets worldly love which is something
figurative - not true love. Figurative means something which is not the true thing. As such, he who is
involved with figurative love will always be in deception. The beauty, for which he is prepared to die,
departs when the object of that beauty dies. On the other hand the one who is involved with Divine
Love, his object of Love is the Being of Allah, which is Everlasting and never perishes. For this reason, his
love remains forever and when the lover passes away he carries with him the pleasure of the hope of
meeting his true Love.
"When either the lover or the beloved dies
Or through old age there is a lessening of beauty,
Figurative love fades.
While true love remains as strong as ever".
After death from the life of "Barzakh" (the grave) till the gathering place of Qiyamat and right up to
paradise, the Lovers of Allah will continue to have His name on their lips repeatedly.
From the story of Layla and Majnoon one should not have the doubts about the permissibility of 'illicit'
love which is completely haraam. Illicit sensual love is the opposite of true love and the meeting of two
opposite entities is impossible.
Moulana Rumi (R.A.) narrates the story of Layla and Majnoon to give the lesson of love for Allah. This is
like teaching small children how to read Urdu by starting to teach the letters of the Alphabet: 'Laam' is
for 'Laddu' (a sweetmeat). Everyone knows
the aim is not to draw attention to Laddu. It is only used to teach I the letter Laam.
Similar is the case in teaching the 'Alif'.1f one says 'Alif' is for Ullu (Owl). The aim is not to draw attention
to the owl but by taking into consideration the temperament of children, this is a means of teaching
them to remember the alphabets.
"The whole creation are children except the lovers of Allah and the
darling servants of Allah,
And for as long as one does not attain freedom from the jungle of
desires of the, self that body will remain immature".
In other words even if the body becomes a hundred years old it will remain immature as long as it is not
freed from the desires of the flesh. Readers would have understood clearly that Moulana's aim in telling
the story of Layla and Majnoon is taking into consideration our childlike nature, so that through this we
should learn the love of Allah. If Majnoon had. to dig up the grave of Layla and see her rotten and
smelling corpse, he would have considered his own life as having been wasted and would surely have
repented of his love. Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanwy (RA.) said that the deeds Majnoon committed after
becoming mad will not be taken into account on the day of reckoning and there will no punishment.
But he could be called to account for those actions which led him to become mad, which could have
been avoided i.e. "Why did he give his life for worldly love?"
Hazrat Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanwy (RA~) says: "Figurative, sensual, illicit love is a form of Allah's
punishment." May Allah protect us all from it. Once Moulana's nephew Moulana Shabbir Ali sent a
handsome young beardless student to him on an errand. Moulana was at that time busy writing in an
upstairs room in solitude. The young student came into Moulana's room. As soon as Moulana saw him,
he got out of the room and came down to the ground floor. He did not find it suitable to stay with the
young boy in the privacy of the room for one minute.
He said to Moulana Shabbir Ali: "Don't ever send a beardless young boy to me in private". Moulana
Thanwy (RA.) wanted to teach his mureeds a lesson of Taqwa.
In the path of Allah privacy with a strange woman and with a handsome beardless boy is as dangerous
as deadly poison. Those who desire to follow the path 'of tassawuf and those who are seekers after
Allah, should avoid these things just as they would
avoid a poisonous snake.
"If you are going to go after passing beauty,
This is a spotted snake which will bite you".
From no other sins will the Saalik be more harmed, than from casting evil glances and from illicit love.
Very strong darkness is caused by figurative love. In fact a person's direction of Qiblah becomes
changed through it. If we take the heart to be a compass and take the needle to point towards Allah, at
ninety degrees west, other sins will cause the needle to move away two or four degrees towards the
south or north. By making towbah it will quickly move back to ninety degrees. But when the heart
becomes involved with Haraam love for women or young boys and this love settles in the heart, the
needle of the compass moves to one hundred and eighty degrees to the east and the heart moves very
far away from Allah.
May Allah protect Akhtar and his physical as well as spiritual children as well as all Muslims of this world
from Haraam love and its punishment. Ameen. 0 Lord of the Universe, through Your Mercy and through
Your Nabi, the Nabi of Mercy.
If it should happen that a person becomes plagued with bad desires and involved in illicit love, one
should speedily take refuge with one of the Saints of Allah. These Walis have the perfect and effective
treatment for this disease. Thousands of Allah's bondsmen have been healed of it. Their prescriptions
are most effective against this great poisonous disease. Just as arsenic is deadly, similarly to act upon
the demands of the self is also deadly poison for our spiritual and physical self. To remove these poisons
from the path of truth is beneficial indeed.