Stain Your Prayer Rug with Wine 203est of all Sufi poets, Jalal ad-Din Rumi (d. 1273) and recounted by
Idris Shah, the Grand Shaykh of Sardana:
A Persian, a Turk, an Arab, and a Greek were traveling to a distant
land when they began arguing over how to spend the single coin they
possessed among themselves. All four craved food, but the Persian
wanted to spend the coin on angur; the Turk, on uzum; the Arab, on
inab; and the Greek, on stafil. The argument became heated as each
man insisted on having what he desired.
A linguist passing by overheard their quarrel. “Give the coin to
me,” he said. “I undertake to satisfy the desires of all of you.”
Taking the coin, the linguist went to a nearby shop and bought
four small bunches of grapes. He then returned to the men and gave
them each a bunch.
“This is my angur!” cried the Persian.
“But this is what I call uzum,” replied the Turk.
“You have brought me my inab,” the Arab said.
“No! This in my language is stafil.”
All of a sudden, the men realized that what each of them had
desired was in fact the same thing, only they did not know how to
express themselves to each other.
The four travelers represent humanity in its search for an inner
spiritual need it cannot define and which it expresses in different ways.
The linguist is the Sufi, who enlightens humanity to the fact that what
it seeks (its religions), though called by different names, are in reality
one identical thing. However—and this is the most important aspect
of the parable—the linguist can offer the travelers only the grapes and
nothing more. He cannot offer them wine, which is “the essence of
the fruit.” In other words, human beings cannot be given the secret of
ultimate reality, for such knowledge cannot be shared, but must be ex-
perienced through an arduous inner journey toward self-annihilation.
As the transcendent Iranian poet, Saadi of Shiraz, wrote,
I am a dreamer who is mute,
And the people are deaf.
I am unable to say,
And they are unable to hear.