THE STORY OF THE ROYAL FALCON

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Once a King's falcon flew away from his palace and landed in the house of an old woman of the neighbourhood. 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".

Moulana Rumi (RA.) says: "So is the love of an ignorant person. For a falcon, long nails and huge wings are necessary items, which are considered as 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:
"0 King, I am very much ashamed of myself
I repent and now make a new promise and commitment to you".

Moulana Rumi (RA.) 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 had met at the hands of the ignorant old woman".

Hazrat Hakeemul Ummat Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanwy (R.A.) said: "In similar manner some ignorant ones become claimants to being servants of Islam. Then in their ignorance, make Islam subject to their stupid opinions and thereby destort 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 feet of a scholarly teacher. When looking at the writings of these authors, great precaution is required. There is a Hadith in Sahi Tirmidhi that Rasulullah said:

"See from whom you take your deen and the correct transmission chain is part of the deen".

In, other words, as regards him from whom you learn your deen first enquire from well known scholars about his credibility. The jug from which you drink water should first be inspected to see that the water inside it is clean and not contaminated.

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