The Hundred Tales of Wisdom by Idries Shah

Author:Idries Shah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ISF Publishing
Published: 2018-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Stone Into Ruby

IT IS ALSO narrated that the great litterateur Hisamul- Millah-wa-Din Amasi, who in addition to his other qualities was also one of the major disciples, related that one Badruddin Tabrizi, who was skilled in mathematics, astronomy, chemistry and history, had related amongst the friends that he was one of those who had taken part with Moulana at a mystical music-meeting until dawn one night in the garden of Chalabi Hisamuddin; and at dawn Moulana allowed the disciples to close their eyes in sleep for a short while; whilst he himself plunged himself into deep contemplation; and Badruddin said: ‘I, too, reclined to rest, but my mind was at work; for I was thinking that great persons, like Seth, and Jesus, and Idris, and Solomon, and Luqman and Khizr – all of great mystical attainments – had manifested miracles – and these men of high qualities had extraordinary mastery and dexterity; for instance in curing skins, high crafts of transmuting baser metals into gold and the like, which were beyond all human capabilities; and I wondered as to whether Moulana was blessed with any of such qualities.

‘I was in such thoughts, when suddenly, as if a tiger had jumped at me Moulana called hoarsely my name, and placed a piece of stone in my left hand, and said: “Go and give thanks to God”; and when I looked closely at the stone, it had turned into a giant ruby of such quality that I had not seen in the treasury of any king. This incident so affected me that I cried out and those of my compatriots who were sleeping woke up and asked me why I shouted and at such an hour, yelling like the voices of ten persons.’

Badruddin added that he wept a long time, seeking the forgiveness of Moulana, for thinking thuswise about what supernatural phenomena he could perform. Moulana forgave him, and then he took the ‘converted stone – ruby’ to Moulana’s daughter and gave it to her as a gift. She at once converted the ruby into money: one hundred and eight thousand dirhams – and spent the sum upon the various necessities of the disciples and needy men and women.

Moulana, commenting upon the incident later, enquired whether we had not heard the story of a Dervish who had changed the dry branch of a tree into a bow of solid gold, and that type of people were his friends; and further added that although it was a matter of great wonderment to convert lifeless objects (stones and vegetables) into precious metals, yet it was a greater quality to convert the soul and mind of the living into mystical ‘gold’; and he recited:

‘Of a truth wonderful it is,

To transmute copper into gold

By the Philosopher’s Stone!

But note the wonder still, that

A “copper” converts minute after minute

The Philosopher’s Stone!’

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