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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 leaves
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 same 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 senses are
actively working within everything in the universe. ! That is, all creation
possesses a sixth sense.
When the sixth
sense, or the inner vision, of the leaf saw me 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 cleverer 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 Banyan 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%?
