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Two Banyan leaves are set before me on the table. A quick glance
reveals that they are of the same colour, the same size, and the same pattern,
just as the hands of four billion people look the same, but when we read the
stories of the past and present etched upon those hands, each hand presents a
map of a different world. Thumbprints of the population reveal 'lair billion
individual minds; and each revelation is different than the other.
Just as the progeny of the same father is of different shapes
find colours, and consists of varied facial features, in the same way, hundreds
of thousands of leaves of the same tree are different. Each leaf has a
differently shaped pattern. Place two loaves of the same tree next to each
other’s and you will see.
[Like people] trees also talk to each other. They are also
influenced by people of good and bad character. Music with loud and low volumes
also has an effect on them. It is not a secret anymore that within man two
senses work at the wine time. One of these senses keeps us bound within the
constraints of time and space, whereas, with the other kind of sense, the
constraints of time and space are lifted and man is able to witness worlds
beyond space. These two kinds of Menses are actively working within everything
in the universe. !bat is, all creation possesses a sixth sense.
When the sixth sense, or the inner vision, of the leaf saw ma reflecting
upon it, it addressed me so:
"O son of Adam! I have heard from my ancestors (trees) that
Adam is ashraf-ul-makhlooqat ['best among all the creatures']. He has been
given a special gift by nature. A gift of which the rest of Allah's creation
remains deprived. And this deprivation is self-inflicted."
After the creation of the universe, when the Greatest Creator
wanted all the creatures in the heavens and the earth to become His trustee, He
addressed the creatures of the earth and the skies thus: "Is there anyone
who would accept the responsibility of carrying Our trust upon his weak
shoulders?"
All earthly and heavenly creatures replied in a single voice:
"O Lord! We are weak and frail; we are not worthy of this." But Adam,
without thinking, took this trust on his shoulders. Today the same Adam, who
has been declared the most honoured among all the creatures, is miserably
suffering from hardships and misfortune and has become his own enemy.
When trees talk amongst themselves of this honour, they laugh at
this ignorance of Adam and say that,
"Adam, who considered himself more aware than us, is the
most foolish of the creatures. Our ancestors were more intelligent and clever
than Adam's ancestors, as they had realized that after accepting Allah's trust,
not to safeguard it, and not to benefit from it, would mean the rejection of
blessings, and rejection of blessings is the same as being thankless. And
nations who are not thankful become a burden upon existence. Heavenly
misfortunes poison their lives. The self-respect of such nations is tarnished,
and these nations become the symbols of disgrace and defeat.”
Listening to this wise and intelligent account from the mouth of
the Banyan leaf pulled me so deeply into the river of wonder and contemplation
that words failed me and I sat unable to express myself The 200 billion cells
working within the computer of my mind froze into stillness. The light within
the eyes fazed, rendering me unable to observe wisdom and intelligence.
At last I ended up asking a foolish question: "Does
intelligence work in the same way in trees as it operates within humans?"
The Leaves snickered amongst themselves and, laughing a
sarcastic laugh, said:
"The acceptance or rejection of a thing is proof of
awareness and intelligence. If our ancestors did not possess intelligence, how
could they have said that they were not able to carry the weight of that trust?
Earth’s history of hundreds of thousands of years of violence,
bloodshed, prejudice, dishonesty, selfishness, and violation and usurpation of
others' rights, tells us that, compared to man, we are more aware and
intelligent. We also know that no other creature lacks in intelligence as much
as humans do. Is it not foolishness and ignorance that one has stockpiles of
food in one's own home, yet one is starving? Is it not ignorance that the
entire universe has been made subservient to man, yet he suffers from a life of
constraint and confinement? Instead of using the light within him to illuminate
the world, man is bent upon casting darkness over the entire
earth."Listening to this conversation of the leaves of the Banvan tree, my
eyes grew moist and my heart was rent asunder. An anguished sigh [escaped my
lips] and the following word resounded in my mind:
"I wish I was a leaf of a tree, upon which pearly drops of
dew would rest and on whose branches birds would sit and sing songs of Allah's
praise. These songs of the birds, early in the morning, would create such joy
within my soul that I would get lost in the vastness of the sky and bring back
the honour of ashraful-makhloqat!"
KHWAJA SHAMS-UD-DEEN AZEEMI
Science has made immense progress, yet many believe that, even with all of the modern tools at our disposal, human beings function at no more than 10% of their mental capacity. This leads to the question of what exactly it is that comprises the remaining 90%. Yet another question that arises is this: If it has taken man four and a half billion years to be able to apply only 10% of his ability, how long will it take for him to make use of the remaining 90%?
