Sultan Weled told us this : One day i felt bored and downhearted. My father came into the college and saw that I was sad and said : "Are you angry at someone? You seem so downcast."
"I don't really know what the matter is," I replied.
He disappeared into another room and, after a few minutes, returned with his face and head covered with an old wolfskin.
"Bou! Bou!" he cried, just as if I were a child again. I burst out laughing and laughed until I could laugh no more and then kissed my father's blessed feet.
"Oh, Bahaeddin," he said. "Are you afraid when some one who loves you dresses up in a wolfskin?"
"No," I said.
"That same person who can cause you such joy can also cause you sorrow.
Why feel sad for no reason
and why allow yourself to be a prisoner of negativity?
Find a way out of your despondency,
and know that all difficulties have a common cause.
Threat your joy like a delicate plant and water it:
when it has borne fruit share that with your friends."
"As my father spoke," Sultan Weled continued," I experienced a profound feeling of ecstacy and my heart expanded like a flower. For the rest of my life, I never again felt sad and learned to detach from trouble of the world."
passage from the Menaqib al-Arifn
