The Human Cohesion Project — 10 May 2021

#TheHumanCohesionProject

Today’s medicine was a lot of gardening and listening to this beautiful musical tribute to the 14th century Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya by artists I deeply admire. The one leading this performance was the inimitable Ankit Chadha, whose death anniversary it was yesterday.

Nizamuddin Auliya was renowned for his generosity, with the kitchen run by his order (the Chishtis) feeding several people everyday with sumptuous food. It is said that one day, one of the visitors insisted on eating with the Shaikh (Nizamuddin Auliya) himself, assuming that if the food served to the visitors was so delicious, then whatever was served to the master must be even better. He was made to wait till everyone who needed food was served. Finally, when he and the Shaikh sat down for their meal, all that was left was a bowl of bitter vegetables. Nizamuddin Auliya made sure that he took the tough stems and roots so that the visitor had the tastier leaves for himself. The latter left the dargah (the shrine) humbled.

What did you give of yourself today?

Ramadan Kareem. May we summon the deepest reaches of our generosity to feed the world, everything it is starved of.

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(This article is part of a series called The Human Cohesion Project, 2021 - a peacebuilder's exploration of Islam, by Rukmini Iyer)