Perhaps some of you may have heard the following story. If you have, I apologize for taking up space and time with it, but, then, again, there may be those who have not encountered this tale previously.

I am told the story is true. Allah knows best the truth of things. However, whether it is true, or not, I believe it is instructive, for, among other things, it raises interesting questions - among these being the very fact that I doubt there are any of us who know, with yaqueen or certainty, the actual nature of its authenticity.

In addition, the story, together with the brief commentary following it, continues to explore the theme introduced during "Whomsoever God Pleases - Part One" - namely, the issue of whether the friends of Allah know everything, or whether they can ever be surprised, misled, fooled, mystified, or kept in the dark about certain aspects of life. This theme is being explored because of its implications for the discussion concerning whether one should blame the victim for not realizing that he or she was being manipulated or exploited by a false shaykh.

A woman once came to Hazrat Uthman Harooni Chishti Makki (may Allah be pleased with him). She was married but without children, and she and her husband were desperate for offspring.

The woman had gone everywhere and tried everything in the search for a solution to her problem. She had heard many wondrous tales about the esteemed shaykh, and she believed he was her last hope.

The great saint listened to her story with great attentiveness and compassion. When she had finished, he lowered his head and was silent for a short period of time.

A little while later, he raised his head and addressed the woman. He expressed his condolences but explained that the Tablet of Fate indicated there were no children listed next to her name, and, therefore, there was nothing which he could do for her.

The woman left in tears. As she was walking away from the meeting, she heard a beggar in the street saying again and again: "For as many loaves of bread as are baked, as many children will be issued."

The beggar's head was lowered. He seemed to be talking to no one in particular.

Naturally, the woman was intrigued. She approached the man and asked him if what he was saying was the truth.

The man said `yes', closed his eyes, lowered his head and continued to say the same thing over and over. He took no further notice of the woman.

Thinking about what she was hearing, having run our of options, the woman asked herself: `what have I got to lose?' Quickly, she raced home and began making bread.

The next day she returned to the spot where the beggar had been sitting. He was still there, repeating the same words as the day before.

The woman presented the man with nine loaves of bread. The man acknowledged receipt of the bread, got up and left.

Nine months later the woman had the first of nine children. The words of the beggar had proven to be true.

After all the children had been born and were growing up, a day came when the woman took them all on a little outing. As she was walking along, with children following behind, she happened to pass by a place where Hazrat Uthman Harooni Chishti Makki (May Allah be pleased with him) was engaged in conversation.

The great saint saw the woman and children coming, and when they had reached his position, he requested the woman to stop for a moment. When she did as she had been asked, the friend of Allah said: "Are you not the woman who came to me so many years ago and sought my assistance with respect to having offspring?"

The woman nodded her head in agreement. As she did this, the great saint looked at the children near her and inquired: "Then, whose children are these?"

The woman proudly said they were hers. The great saint shook his head in puzzlement and asked: "How can this be?"

The woman recounted the sequence of events concerning the beggar, his claim, and the loaves of bread, The rest was, as is said, history.

It is reported that Hazrat Uthman Harooni Chishti Makki (may Allah be pleased with him) was quite distraught with this news. He is said to have taken off his khirka, or mantle of spiritual authority, discarded it, and promptly proceeded to a temple to serve as its caretaker.

Hazrat Khawajah Mu'in-ud-Din Chishti Ajmeri (may Allah be pleased with him) had been with his shaykh during this interchange and the subsequent happenings. He accompanied his shaykh to the temple, but he was told to stay outside by his murshid - which the mureed dutifully did.

Hazrat Uthman Harooni Chishti (may Allah be pleased with him) stayed as a caretaker for the temple over a number of years, sweeping it out on a daily basis and keeping the house of worship clean in other ways as well. During this time, one-by-one, all of his mureeds abandoned him except one - Hazrat Khawajah Mu'in-ud-Din Chishti Ajmeri (May Allah be pleased with him).

Each day, irrespective of the time, passers-by would find the mureed sitting in front of the temple whenever the murshid was inside going about his chores. What transpired during all those years, Allah knows best, but Hazrat Khawajah Mu'in- ud-Din Chishti Ajmeri (May Allah be pleased with him) never left his shaykh.

One day, it is reported, Hazrat Uthman Harooni Chishti Makki (May Allah be pleased with him) was in a quarrelsome mood and complaining to Allah, as friends sometimes do. The saint was upset because he thought he was a friend of Allah and, yet, Allah had kept a secret from him - namely, the issue concerning the woman and her offspring and how the whole scenario was possible.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) came to the saint in a waking vision and asked the saint what he was grumbling about. The saint explained the source of his agitation.

He said that when the woman had asked his help, he had turned within and consulted the Tablet of Fate. Next to the woman's name there were no names of children, and he had conveyed that fact to the woman.

And, yet, the woman did have children. Nine of them.

Apparently, he mumbled, a beggar in the street was on better terms with Allah than was Hazrat Uthman Harooni Chishti Makki (May Allah be pleased with him). For, the beggar knew things which had not been vouchsafed to someone who was supposed to be a friend of God.

Upon hearing the complaint, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) smiled and explained what the beggar had known. More specifically, although at the time that Hazrat Uthman Harooni Chishti Makki (May Allah be pleased with him) had consulted the Tablet of Fate there were, in fact, no names of children next to the name of the woman in question, nevertheless, this did not mean that names could not be written in by those who knew how to do this. The Tablet of Fate had not indicated there were no children possible, only that no names were currently present.

The saint was very happy with both the explanation and the fact that he had been honored with the presence of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) - that someone so beloved had been sent by the Friend to inform a friend about the nature of certain matters.

The saint requested that he be permitted to present his mureed to the Prophet, and his request was granted. As part of the introduction, the murhid indicated to his mureed that he should kiss the feet of the Prophet.

Upon hearing this, the mureed went down and kissed the feet of his shaykh. His murshid, believing that his mureed had not properly understood the nature of what he had said, again repeated to the mureed that out of respect and reverence he should kiss the feet of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Once more, the mureed lowered himself and kissed the feet of his murshid.

Hazrat Uthman Harooni Chishti Ajmeri became somewhat perturbed with this and was about to say the same thing a third time when he was stopped by the Prophet (peace be upon him). The shaykh was informed that what the mureed was doing was correct, and, in fact, he was kissing the feet of the Prophet (peace be upon him) but as manifested in the form of his shaykh, and, then, he added, had the mureed not done this, the Prophet (peace be upon him) would have wondered about whom the mureed had been waiting on and waiting for, all these years which he had spent outside the temple.

And, thus ends the story. Interestingly enough, a number of years later, after Hazrat Mu'in-ud-Din Chishti Ajmeri (May Allah be pleased with him) had been commanded to go to Hind by the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), the former individual wrote to his shaykh in discouragement that although the mureed had been in Hind for quite some time, no one was coming to the Sufi Path. The mureed wondered what he was doing wrong or what he should be doing.

In time, the reply came that he was doing nothing incorrectly but that the mureed should observe the surrounding society closely and be open to possibilities concerning different means of engaging the hearts of the people. The mureed did as he was instructed and soon became aware of the important role which singing, poetry, rhythm and music played in the community to which he had come, and from these observations and subsequent meditation, qawwali arose.

In both the main story of this posting, as well as the little foregoing addendum, there is an interesting juxtaposition of knowing and not knowing ... of things which are understood and things which are not understood ... of problems concerning such lack of knowledge and subsequent resolution of the problem through understandings which bubble to the surface when the time and circumstances are `right'. Even great shaykhs do not understand or know except as they are permitted to do so.

Imam Ghazzali (may Allah be pleased with him) had thousands of followers and knew a great deal about Shari'ah before he realized how ignorant he actually was about the nature of truth. Moreover, he had a younger brother who, from a mystical perspective, is said to have known far more than his older brother did, and, yet, historically speaking, almost nothing is known about this younger brother of the renown author of the Revival of the Religious Sciences - which reminds me of something my first shaykh - really, my only genuine shaykh to this point - said that his teacher of Persian once remarked that `there have been so many Rumis who have never uttered a word'.

Hazrat Jelal-ud-Din Rumi (may Allah be pleased with him) was a shaykh with many mureeds long before he met Hazrat Shams Tabriz (may Allah be pleased with him). And, the difference between his understanding before and after these meetings was somewhat comparable to the difference between a donkey who does not comprehend the books it is carrying, and a human being who is opened up to certain knowledge about some of the truths encompassed by the infinite mysteries of Being.

On several occasions, Hazrat Qadir Jilani (May Allah be pleased with him) tried to run away from the situation into which he had been Divinely thrust, only to be turned back at the gate each time by a mysterious intervention. One does not try to escape except in ignorance.

Just what was it that Hazrat Ibn al-`Arabi (May Allah be pleased with him) knew before the dream on which the Fusus was based or the experiences which led to the writing of the `Meccan Openings'? Surely, the differences in understanding of these period of time were as great as the difference between night and day even with respect to the differences between what the great sage knew after `Fusus' but before the `Meccan Openings'.

When Hazrat Junayd (may Allah be pleased with him) finally was forced into passing judgment on his former student, Hazrat al-Hallaj (May Allah be pleased with him) the shaykh remarked that although from the perspective of Shari'ah what was being said was unacceptable, nonetheless, from the perspective of the Divine mysteries, Allah knows best. Between what is spoken and what is left unsaid, there is much ignorance and knowledge.

When my shaykh was given the khirka by his shaykh, he told me, and others, that he was quaking in his boots because he didn't have the slightest idea of how he would be able to help anyone for he didn't even know what the spiritual condition of someone was, and, therefore, how could he possible counsel such an individual. And, then, one day, Allah bestowed kashf upon him and all he had to do was look at someone and their whole history - past, present and future - would be shown to him - and he laughed at himself for ever thinking that it was what he knew that mattered.

Every single Prophet of God, every single awliya of Allah has gone on a journey. Some things are made known on this journey; some things are not.

They were - as we are - all children of the moment. For, each of us is totally dependent on the barakah which comes to us and sustains us - physically, emotionally, psychologically, socially, and spiritually - from one moment to the next as the Breath of the All-Merciful expands and contracts and Allah turns the hearts of creation whichever way He pleases.

Ignorance is not necessarily a sin, but, rather it is a potential inherent in human nature. It is a potential which we all experience, to one extent or another, from time to time, and it part of the motivation which leads, God willing, to learning and understanding.

Speaking only for myself, I find myself feeling closest to God when I realize the extent of my ignorance, and I feel the farthest from God when I attribute understanding to myself that I really don't have.