A very wise teacher had a class of ten students. His students were all very intelligent, but there was one student whom he loved the most. This student happened to be an orphan. All the other students felt upset because they knew that the teacher loved this one student more than any of them so they complained to their parents. The parents of the students then came back to the teacher and asked him, “Why don’t you love our children as much as you love him? It’s not fair that you give him more love and attention than our children.” The teacher replied, “Come back tomorrow and I will tell you why I love him the most.”
So the next day, all ten students were in the class; nine of them with their parents. The teacher had brought ten chickens in ten cages; one for each student. “I will give each of you a chicken,” he said. “Your goal is to hide the chicken where no one can possibly see it or find it. Whoever does the best job will be my best student.” So the students ran over the village to find a good place to hide their chicken. And they came back one by one. The teacher asked one student, “Where did you hide your chicken?” The student replied, “Oh you would be so proud of me, I wrapped the chicken is cloth and hid it underneath my bed!” Another student replied “I put the chicken in a basket and then in a box under a stack of books!”
Nine of the students hid their chickens, but the one student still had the chicken in his hand. All of the students laughed at him, “You lose! You lose! We win! We win!” And the teacher asked him, “Ibn Khaldoun, why are you still holding the chicken in your hand? All of the other students hid their chickens.” The orphan replied, “No matter where I thought to go, Allah would always know where the chicken was. I’m sorry teacher but I could not find a suitable place where I could hide the chicken and He could not see it.” He quietly returned the chicken to his teacher. The teacher smiled. “This is why I love this student the most.”
God is everywhere, from the throne of the heavenly bodies to the blood in our eyes,
I am the first to admit that I am so far from where I want to be spiritually, but imagine the glowing behavior and positive attitude of a person who lives with God at their side,
That person is a Muslim.
-appears in Tadhkirat al-Auliya’ (Memorial of the Saints)
April 7, 2007 at 11:12 am
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April 7, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Salaam Alaikum Brother:
Alhamdulillah! This is one of my favorite stories from Attar’s Tadhkirat al-Auliya, the Memorial of the Saints, and is told by Junayd of Baghdad about one of his favorite disciples. That is the original source.
Ya Haqq!
April 7, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Wa alaikum asalam Br. Irving,
Thank you for the clarification. Actually, I had heard that story from an imam who was conducting a children’s program! I went and checked the chapter “Abo ‘L-Qasem Al-Jonaid” in Tadhkirat al-Auliya and you are right, there is a story of the sheikh Jonaid. Interestingly enough, there are twenty birds, ordered to be killed, and no mention of Ibn Khaldoun! Alhamdulilah.
April 9, 2007 at 7:17 am
Salaam Brother Naveed:
That story has been retold many times, no doubt by many Imams and Sufi sheiks, each adding a little twist of their own to make the point
The moral is what counts. God sees all our actions.
Ya Haqq!
April 16, 2007 at 7:12 am
Salut