The great Egyptian Sufi Zolnoun had apparently gone insane. His unbounded excitability had become disturbing to everyone close to him. Yet his devotees were tolerant and put up with his increasingly unbearable behavior, until it reached a point that he truly became insufferable. When his fiery madness became contagious and affected the behavior of the citizens he regularly came across, it became evident to his friends and devotees that Zolnoun had to be admitted to a sanatorium.
Although, truthfully, the great Sufi could have easily controlled and repressed his impulsive behavior and avoided being taken forcefully to a prison-like hospital, he refused to submit to the will of those around him, who simply did not possess his depth of insight. Zolnoun, who had literally been driven to insanity by the sheer number of people who surrounded him at all times, was in fact thrilled to find peace and quiet at last in the hospital. He spent his days silently reading and studying his favorite texts, happy to be left to his own devices. However, his peaceful state did not last long, and soon those of his followers who considered themselves his close friends and companions could not bear his absence any longer and decided to pay him a visit.
Zolnoun was sitting peacefully in the garden of the sanatorium reading when he saw these men he knew approaching. In the blink of an eye, the calm and composed Zolnoun of the past weeks was transformed into a screaming and cursing madman. His friends were not at first too concerned, as they believed they’d already seen him in this insane state and thought nothing of it.
The old Sufi, however, noticed that his usual ranting was no longer working and decided to test his so- called friends even further. He began to run around the garden spitting and cursing, gathering up rocks and sticks and hurling them at the men. At first, they thought that this frantic behavior could not continue for long, but they soon discovered that Zolnoun, although feeble looking, was indeed stronger and more energetic than even they, who were still young men.
It didn’t take long for Zolnoun to achieve his purpose, which was ultimately to scare the men and drive them off the grounds of the sanatorium. He laughed out loud as he watched the men hurry to save themselves from the projectiles, he’d thrown at them. Waving his arms frantically about him, he screamed after them: “I spit on you and your so-called friendship! A true friend tolerates any kind of behavior; he doesn’t give up on you after only a few foul words and some stone throwing! How could anyone consider the likes of you to be friends? Be gone and good riddance to you all!”
Once alone again, the Zolnoun sat quietly on his favorite bench in the garden of the sanatorium, reading his favorite treatises on friendship.
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