Vanity
A Sufi sage once asked his disciples to tell him what their vanities had been before they began to study with him.
The first said: ‘I imagined that I was the most handsome man in the world.’
The second said: ‘I believed that, since I was religious, I was one of the elect.’
The third said: ‘I believed I could teach.’
And the fourth said: ‘My vanity was greater than all these; for I believed that I could learn.’
The sage remarked: ‘And the fourth disciple’s vanity remain the greatest, for his vanity is to show that he once had the greatest vanity.’
p47
Advertisement
