Ramakrishna Ashrama Penang

This article was formerly published in Prabuddha Bharata during 1940.

The Sufi sage Ibrahim Adam was the king of Balkh in Persia, but he was spiritual-minded and always feared God and aspired for a saintly life. He liked the company of sages and honoured them at his court. During his rule he tried to be just and drew moral and spiritual lessons from ordinary incidents. One day he bought a slave and asked him his name. He replied, "I am your slave and whatever name you will give me that will be mine." His next question was, "What do you eat?" The man answered, "I am a slave and will eat what you give me." He then enquired what dress he would like to put on, to which also the slave gave the same answer. "Have you no wish of your own?" asked the King, and the slave replied once more, "I am your slave. The slave's wish is that of the master's." The king was so impressed by these replies that he began to cry and said, "After a lifelong period of religious life, I learn today the true attitude of a devotee towards God." One day the king was out hunting and at night he camped in the forest. A dervish too was passing along that way to Mecca, and hearing that the famous king Ibrahim Adam, who was so renowned for his piety and wisdom, was camping there, he wished to meet him. When he was taken to the tent he saw there ropes of silk and pegs of gold. The dervish said in surprise, "O king, I heard that you were a seeker of God; how is it that I find you in such luxury?" The king said, "What do you advise me to do?" The dervish answered, "If your faith is true, come with me on foot to Mecca." The king without hesitation left the tent and, dismissing his servants, accompanied the dervish alone for the pilgrimage. They had not gone far when the dervish said, "I have forgotten my begging bowl left in your tent; kindly wait a moment here, till I go and fetch it." The King replied, "Do you see the difference between you and me? I have left all my riches and comforts without a thought while you cannot even part with your begging bowl!" The dervish thereupon acknowledged him as a sage, and they both went up to Mecca on foot. The incident which changed the entire course of Ibrahim Adam's life was this: One night when he was asleep in his palace with his wife he heard the sound of some footsteps on the terrace. Wondering who could be there at that hour he got up from his bed and, climbing the stairs, found to his surprise that a very holy-looking fakir was walking up and down fearlessly. The king asked, "What are you seeking here at this time of the night?" The fakir replied, "I have lost my camel and have come in search of it." The king said, "How can a camel be here?" The fakir replied, "When the wise king hopes to find God in the luxury of this palace, mine is a more reasonable wish." The king's aspiration was kindled and he went down greatly impressed and deep in thought, pondering on what the fakir had so dramatically told him. Next day when he was holding his court a man in the garment of a sage advanced towards him in great haste. So awe-inspiring and holy he looked that nobody dared to stop or question him. He came right up to the king and stood silent. The king asked, "What do you want?" The fakir replied, "I want to stay in this traveller's bungalow for a short time." The king said, "It is my palace and not a traveller's bungalow." The fakir said, "Who was on the throne before you?" The king said, "My father." "Who was here before your father?" asked the fakir. "My grandfather," replied the king. "Who will be here after you?" enquired the fakir. The king answered, "My son." "When so many people come and go living for a short time in this house, what else is it but a traveller's halting place?" Saying this the fakir turned back and walked away. The king was so impressed by his dignified manner that he got up from his throne and went after him and asked him, "Tell me who you are?" The fakir replied, "I am Khizir." (Khizir was a prophet who was the Spiritual Guide of God-chosen devotees, and it was the order of God never to question him however wrong or doubtful the order seemed apparently. After his death it was believed by some that he was still alive and meets a devotee suddenly at some place and gives the necessary guidance.) When Ibrahim Adam heard that it was the great Prophet Khizir who had spoken to him in the garb of that fakir he felt a fire burning in his soul and a great pain in the heart. He came back to his house and lay down on his bed but found no comfort. He thought of going out riding and while he was riding, absorbed in thought, he heard a voice, "Wake up before thou art awakened by death." He heard the same voice once or twice again and thinking it to be a Divine command he decided to renounce the world and take wholly to spiritual life. When he turned back he saw that he had already drifted away from his servants, so he took the path of the forest. On the way he met a young farmer to whom he gave his horse. He exchanged with him his royal robes, and sending with him his last message to his wife and the minister, he walked away into the forest. Ibrahim Adam then lived in a cave and was all the time absorbed in prayers and austerities. He came out only once a week and chopped wood for fire and made a bundle of it which he carried to the neighbouring town and sold in the market on Friday mornings. After that he would say his Jumma prayers in the mosque and go again to the market and buy food for the week, half of which he used to distribute to the poor and with the other half return to his cave and busy himself with his meditations and prayers till the next weekend. As nobody knew him he got no visitors. The place too was solitary. One night it was unusually cold, yet he took his bath shivering all the while. When he went to the cave he saw some chopped sticks of wood and wished very much to light a fire and warm himself with it but he restrained himself thinking it an unlawful luxury and commenced his prayer. He then went to sleep on the bare ground. During his sleep he felt that somebody had come and covered him up with a warm blanket, but on waking in the morning he saw to his surprise that a big snake had coiled itself over him. He felt afraid and prayed to God, "O God, though Thou hast sent it in Thy mercy and love, I am seized with fear which transforms Thy aspect of Love into that of Terror." While he was praying thus the snake uncoiled itself and glided away into the bushes. When the people discovered his identity he left the cave and wandered away towards Mecca. People of the town then began to come to the cave to pay reverence to it. A Sufi sage of the time named Abu Syed also came to it as if on a pilgrimage and on entering it he said, "Even if this cave had been filled with musk and amber it would not have been as fragrant as the short stay of the aspiring soul has made it." Ibrahim Adam spent many years in wandering before he reached Mecca. Once again he met Khizir the immortal Prophet, from whom he acquired great wisdom and attained Realization. When he was approaching Mecca the people of the town came to know of it and they gathered in large numbers to welcome him. The sages of Mecca too came out of the gate when the caravan was arriving. When Ibrahim Adam saw them he fathomed their intention and separated himself from the caravan. He met some servants who asked him about the saint Ibrahim Adam. He replied, "What have the holy sages of Mecca got to do with that Zindiq (an irreligious man - a name often given to Sufis by the religious orthodox section). When the people heard the revered name so badly abused they beat him on the neck and said, "How dare you call such a holy sage a Zindiq? You yourself are a Zindiq." He laughed and said, "That is exactly what I mean to say," whereupon they left him and went in search of Ibrahim Adam elsewhere. Then he turned to his ego and said, "Do you see how you have been punished? I thank God that I did not fail, but kept you from enjoying the pride and comfort of the welcome." There he lived in the fields near Mecca earning his livelihood either by chopping firewood or by taking care of the crop or by working in the fields. When the news of the arrival of Ibrahim Adam reached his wife, she and her son started in a caravan of four thousand people for the pilgrimage that year. When his son, who was about sixteen or so, arrived in Mecca, he inquired from the sages where his father was, and they told him all about Ibrahim Adam and advised him not to disclose his identity to his father, who would not be able to recognise him as he was a baby when he had left home. The son thereupon went alone in search of him and was told that he had gone to the forest for gathering wood. Being too impatient to wait he too went there and found that an old man was carrying a bundle of sticks and coming slowly towards the town. The son, suppressing all his desire to help his father, went slowly behind him till he reached the market where his father, putting the load on the ground, cried, "Is there any one amongst you who would like to exchange some purely earned food with this pure and honest labour?" A man gave him some pieces of bread and took the bundle. He took the bread and came with it to some poor fakirs and giving it to them began saying his prayers. On the day of the pilgrimage Ibrahim Adam watched his son from a distance for a long time. Somebody asked him why he was staring at the boy to which he replied, "I think him to be my own son whom I left in childhood." Next day a dervish brought his wife and son to Ibrahim Adam. On seeing him, they wept till they fainted. When the son recovered consciousness he was asked, "What is your religion?" The boy replied, "Islam." Thereupon Ibrahim Adam felt pleased and said "Alhamdo lillah." Then he asked him again, "Did you read the Quoran?" The boy answered in the affirmative. Then again he said, "Alhamdo lillah", and after some time asked, "Have you acquired any learning?" The boy again replied in the affirmative and he once more praised God. After some time he wished to get up and go, but his wife and son clung to him and did not let him move. He thereupon prayed to God standing, and the son suddenly fell down and died. When his disciples asked him the cause of it, he replied, "I felt such a strong love for them that I did not wish to leave them any more. Then I heard a voice, `You teach renunciation to others; now see how you follow it yourself.' Thereupon I prayed to God, `O God, either take away my son or me.' The prayer has been answered and God has separated me from my son." The disciples said, "It was a great sacrifice." To this he replied, "Not as great as that of the Prophet Ibrahim who consented to slaughter his own son as an offering to God." Ibrahim Adam had a great desire to remain alone at the Kaba at night when nobody else would be there. He said, "On one rainy night I was the only person there; so I wept, and went round it and prayed to God for my salvation. Thereupon I heard a voice, `It befits you more to pray for others than for your own self.'" Some people asked him why he had left his kingdom, to which he answered, "On the day when I left it I gazed into the mirror which was just in front of my throne and I saw that my last abode on earth was the grave. I said to myself that the voyage beyond was long, and I had no means of spiritual sustenance for the long journey. The great God is Just and I had nothing to justify myself before Him. Thinking so my heart grew cold and freed itself from the bonds of pleasure". Once a man brought to him a thousand gold pieces and requested him to accept them. He replied, "I never take from the needy." The man said, "I am very rich." Thereupon the sage replied, "But don't you want more?" The man said, "Yes." Thereupon he said, "Take away your money, for you are the prince of the needy ones." On a certain day Ibrahim Adam was feeling very weak and tired because of prolonged fasting, and on getting no food he prayed to God to send him some food. Shortly after a man came and asked, "If you are hungry, come to my house and I will feed you." He consented and went with him. On reaching the house when the man saw him in the light he suddenly cried out, "I am your slave, O master! All that is in this house is your own; take it and consider me still your slave." Ibrahim Adam replied, "Today I free thee for ever from slavery," and turning to God he prayed, "O Lord, I will never again ask Thee for anything worldly. I asked for food and Thou hast once more given me the riches of the world and lordship over men." Once he wished to join the group of some fakirs, bur they did not let him enter their circle and said, "You have still the odour of kingliness about you." The biographer comments, "Just imagine, when they did not accept such a God-realised sage in their circle, how can ordinary men hope to enter it." "Once," he said, "I was crossing a river in a boat. My garments had all been torn to shreds and my hair was long. Everybody in the boat began making fun of me and teased me. A man would every now and then come to me and give me a blow, or pinch and abuse me. I was happy to see my ego hurt and chastised. Then a storm rose and the boat began to capsize. The men said that it was necessary to throw someone overboard to allay the fury of the water and they decided to throw me and took me by the ear. Just then the storm abated." On another occasion, when his boat was sinking, Ibrahim Adam placed a Quoran between the boat and the storm and prayed, and the storm subsided. Once a man came to him and said, "O sage, I have performed many austerities; now give me some advice." He replied, "I will tell you six conditions which you must follow. The first is that when you disobey God and commit some sin, don't eat the bread that God gives you." The man asked, "Whose bread am I to eat then?" Ibrahim Adam said that it was not proper to eat His bread and be disobedient to Him. The second condition is that when you are on the verge of committing any sin, get out of God's dominions." The man answered, "The whole creation is His, where can I go outside it?" The third condition was that he should commit a sin only where God could not see him. The man said that that too was impossible. "It is quite unfair," said the sage, "that a man should eat His bread and live in His kingdom and yet disobey Him before His very eyes." "Fourthly," said Ibrabim Adam, "when the angel of Death comes to put an end to your life, tell him to wait till you repent and ask forgiveness." The man said, "This too cannot be, for he won't listen to me." "In that case repent before you die. Fifthly, when the angels of God visit thee in the grave to question thy life, turn them out." The man said, "This too is impossible for me." "Then," said Ibrahim Adam, "be prepared with thy answers. Lastly, when thou art driven towards hell refuse to go there." "This too is impossible," said the man. "Then, in that case," answered he, "don't commit sin." This is one of the typical examples of his preachings of a moral nature. Ibrahim Adam was a religious man throughout his life. The remarkable thing about him was his complete forgetfulness of his past and his great change of life. He always feared God and obeyed Him and he never made any experiments with the mysteries of Truth nor tried to look beyond religion and shariat. He was a pious man to the core. In his last days he left the world utterly and repaired to some place where none could find him. It is not certain in which place he died. Some say he is buried in Shaam, and some opine that his grave is in Baghdad, while a third section asserts that he lies near the grave of Hazarat Loot.

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