The Story of the Royal Falcon

Once a king's falcon flew away from his palace and
landed in the house of an old woman of the
neighborhood. The old woman saw the falcon's long
nails and its big wings and cut them short, saying, "With which
unworthy person have you lived all this time who kept you like
an orphan.” Maulana Rumi (Rahmatullah Alaihe) says, "So is
the love of an ignorant person. For a falcon, long nails and huge
wings are its virtues and required in its hunting pursuits. These
signs of perfection in the falcon were looked upon as faults by
the old woman, due to her ignorance of what constitutes
perfection for a falcon. By cutting the nails and wings, she made
the falcon useless.
The king, in the meantime, searched for the falcon. One
day while searching, he came to the house of the old woman.
Seeing the falcon in this state, he began weeping. The falcon
saw him and said, "O king, I am very much ashamed of myself.
I repent and now make a new promise and commitment to
you".
Maulana Rumi (Rahmatullah Alaihe) now says:
"The world is like that old woman
That whoever inclines to it is just as disgraced and foolish.
He who befriends an ignorant one, will meet the same fate
As the falcon met at the hands of the ignorant old woman".
Hazrat Hakeem Ul Ummat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi
(Rahmatullah Alaihe) said, "Similarly, some ignorant ones
become claimants to being servants of Islam. Then in their
ignorance, make Islam subject to their absurd opinions and
thereby distort the true teachings of Islam. This is generally true
of those people who through their own study later become
authors of books and articles on Islam, without having studied
Deen at the hands of a scholarly teacher. When looking at the
writings of these authors, great precaution is required. There is
a Hadith in Tirmidhi that Rasulullah (Sallellaho Alaihe
Wasallam) said:
"See from whom you take your Deen and the correct
transmission chain is part of the Deen".
In other words, before acquiring Deen from anyone, first
enquire from a well-known scholar about his credibility. The
jug from which you drink water should first be inspected to see
that the water inside is clean and not contaminated.
(Extract from Ma'arif e Mathnavi)