CHANGE THE WORLD

A Sufi allegory illustrating the realization of the importance of self-transformation.

Bayazid, a Sufi mystic, has written in his autobiography, "When I was young I thought and I said to God, and in all my prayers this was the base: 'Give me energy so that I can change the whole world.' Everybody looked wrong to me. I was a revolutionary and I wanted to change the face of the earth."

"When I became a little more mature I started praying: 'This seems to be too much. Life is going out of my hands. Almost half of my life is gone and I have not changed a single person, and the whole world is too much.' So I said to God, 'My family will be enough. Let me change my family.'"

"And when I became old," says Bayazid, "I realized that even the family is too much, and who am I to change them? Then I realized that if I can change myself that will be enough, more than enough. I prayed to God, 'Now I have come to the right point. At least allow me to do this: I would like to change myself.'"

God replied, "Now there is no time left. This you should have asked in the beginning. Then there was a possibility."

• Source: Sofo Archon. “Change the World”. 10 Sufi Stories. https://sofoarchon.com/10-sufi-stories/