Soul Stories #37: One spiritual shortcut please!

Mullah Nasruddin wanted to learn how to play the flute so he found a master musician to teach him. He asked the master, “How much for lessons with you master?” The master replied, “The first month it will cost 3 silver coins and from the second month on it will cost 1 silver coin.” Nasruddin replied, “Wonderful, I will start from the second month then!”

Share Divine Love in Everyday Life | A. Helwa

If we see this story symbolically, we can see it as a reflection of the spiritual path. When we first begin, the ego is untrained and more resistant in the earlier stages of learning anything new. The price of the first month is indicative of the effort it will take for the teaching to take root in the heart of the student. Nasruddin is mirroring the very comical inclination of the ego to find a shortcut on the path of transformation by attempting to skip the cost of beginning. Just as we cannot skip the friction if we seek to be polished, we cannot skip the confrontation of the ego if we seek to be refined. As the Qur’an says, “Do people think they will be left alone because they say, ‘We believe,’ and they will not be tested?” (Qur’an 29:2)

Just as there is a structure to learning, there is a structure to walking the spiritual path. We cannot learn patience without being tested with impatience. We cannot learn humility without facing our vulnerability. The first step is often the most difficult because it shatters the illusion of our knowing in order to eventually expand our awareness. While Nasruddin thinks the first month is expensive and wants to cleverly skip it, it’s actually the best bargain because of what he will get in return in the long run. Rumi poetically addresses the exchange with the following famous lines:

“Listen, O drop, give yourself up without regret, and in exchange gain the Ocean.”
—Rumi

The first month may be the hardest in both effort and price, but it’s also where you learn the principles and foundations. Similarly, when you begin to wake up for fajr, read the Qur’an daily, control your tongue, etc. it’s much more difficult at first, but when it becomes a habit it becomes much easier than the beginning. Those first “3 coins” seem so expensive, but they lay the foundation for much faster progress later. Perhaps this is why the Prophet ﷺ said the following:

“Take up good deeds only as much as you are able, for the best deeds are those done regularly even if they are few.”
—Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Musnad Aḥmad 8600)

It’s with consistency that our actions become habits and begin to build our character. Not to mention with repetition we create stronger pathways in our brain, which in turn makes certain habits and actions far easier over time. But it’s not just consistency, but the continual willingness to change that is crucial on the spiritual path.

“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.”
— Qur’an 13:11

Allah is reminding us that transformation needs our participation. We must strive and fight against the inclination of the ego for comfort. We pray and then strive against distraction, we repent and then strive against our reoccurring desires, we remember and then strive against our forgetfulness. Nasruddin is showing us how comical it is when the ego attempts to outsmart the spiritual path, by removing the difficulty of striving, when the very difficulty itself is the means of polishing. Nasruddin isn’t being clever, rather he is procrastinating his own progress. You can’t outsource the price of transformation, because then the ego does not become refined, but becomes further inflated. May we learn from this story to embrace the difficulty of beginning, trusting that what we take time to foster will grow inward at first, but eventually blossom beautifully outward into the world.

Oh Allah, we ask that You give us the strength and wisdom to strive against our lower egos and to step into the difficult work of transformation. My Beloved Lord, inspire us to walk the path intentionally and to pay whatever the price may be for the glory of Your presence. Oh Allah, guide us gently, with Your Grace upon the path of Your love. In Your most beautiful names we pray, Ameen.

In prayers of light upon light,