Three Questions
Al-Ahmadiyya, July 1981 Issue (Vol. 3, No. 7, p. 2)
A man said to a Sufi:
“If you reply to my three questions, I shall become a Muslim.”
The Sufi said:
“What are your questions?”
“My first question is,”
the man said,
“when we cannot see God, why should we believe in Him? The second question is: When Satan is made of fire, how would the fire of hell affect him? And my third question is: When everything happens by God’s will, why should man be held responsible for it?”
The Sufi picked up a hard clod of dry earth and hit him with it and said:
“This is in reply to all your questions!”
The clod of earth hurt the man a lot and after cursing the Sufi for his action the man went and reported the matter to the qazi (judge). The qazi summoned the Sufi and said:
“Instead of replying to his questions, you just hit him. That is not the way you should treat people.”
The Sufi:
“This was in reply to his three questions.”
“What?”
the man and the qazi shouted.
The Sufi:
“Please listen to me before you condemn me. I hit him with a clod of earth and he feels the pain, but can he or anyone of us see it? I wonder why he or we should believe in something which cannot be seen. Similarly, we cannot see God but we can feel His presence. The answer to his second question, when man is made of clay himself, how could a lump of clay hurt him? If it has hurt him, similarly the fire of hell would affect Satan. The answer to his third question is that when everything happens by God’s will, why should I be held responsible for my action?”
When the man heard all that he said:
“You are right, Master. I declare my faith in Islam.”