Sufis' Brevity

Sufis' Brevity

Dr. Jassim Taqui

The Sufis think a lot and  speak only when it is necessary. When they speak , they opt for brevity. Their stories are short but full of meaning. They make you think  and  conclude what they meant. The central  premise of brevity is the real knowledge  of how to realize the difference between the container and the content.

Giving fiery and lengthy speeches or writing hundreds of books would not influence people or add  to their knowledge. For Sufis, redundancy is the negation of knowledge. What really matters is the ideas, the creative methodology of discourse and how would such methodology bring about inner and social change.

Brevity   is a tool of self –control whereby you may say anything you want  under any circumstances. Brevity teaches you how to speak and write effectively and powerfully. The discourse should touch the soul.

Sufis attempt to ask you what you remember from reading  a huge book. And what you remember constitutes the real knowledge you attained from the book or from hearing a discourse. It resonates in your inner-self,  dominates your thinking and activates your brain. 

Human are superior living things because they can think and express their thinking  either by speaking or writing. Hence, they need to  develop their communication skills through orderly thinking. If you think rationally, you can write convincingly and express yourself in a brief way.  Conversely, if your thinking is confused  or irrational, you tend to speak for a long time or write  irrationally.

This reminds me of the majestic brevity of a Sufi that brought about tremendous transformation in Rabiáh ( The Fourth in Arabic). Rabiáh lived in Basra, Iraq. She was a dancer , singer and entertainer with high degree of "physical" beauty. One day, a Sufi approached her camp asking for  water. He was ridiculed and denied water. 

Hearing the episode, Rabiáh rushed to him and gave him water. He looked at her. She was physically fascinating. He told her that she had a much better beauty: inner beauty and prayed for Almighty God to make her inner beauty prevail on her physical beauty. Subsequently, a transformation in Rabiá's life took place. 

She refused to sing, dance and sell her body. She was arrested, tortured and put in jail for a long time by the Emir of Basra. However, she endured untold hardship by the power of her inner beauty. Before she died, the Emir visited her. He asked her forgiveness. She gave him   the mother of all answers  that you would never ever forget." O Emir ! My heart is so  full of God that there is no place in it for hatred toward anyone."