From the Eighteenth Discourse—page 359-360

in Irshad: Wisdom of a Sufi Master, by Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak Al-Jerrahi, trans. Muhtar Holland. An Ashki Book of Amity House, Warwick: 1988.

 

 

SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS

 

A person coming into this world is like a blind man.  He is in darkness.  Without faith, he spends his whole life like a blind man.  That is why the Glorified and exalted Lord says that the blind in this world will be blind in the Hereafter also.  Allāh did not reveal this Verse about those who are outwardly blind.  He meant to inform us that those who are blind for want of faith and religion will be blind in the Hereafter:

 

Whoever is blind in this world shall be blind in the Hereafter, and even further astray from the path. [17:72]

 

Those who live without obeying the commandments of the Holy Qur’ān, live like the blind.  For the Holy Qur’ān is like an eye given to us by Allāh.  That is why He says:

 

Clear proofs have come to you from your Lord. [6:104]

 

The actions of those without faith are similar to the dealings between a blind man and faithless, deceitful cheats.  The dishonest traders are Satan and the lower self.  The person without faith resembles a blind but greedy buyer.  He spends all his money, then, when he needs to buy good things, finds he has wasted his life and done himself irreparable harm.  Only in the grave will he learn the nature of his purchases.  Going home from market, emptying your sack and finding you have bought nothing but trouble, is a parable for being interrogated in the grave concerning your worldly life, and then facing torment.