Translate

Teach each Other...

One Friday Hodja stood up in the pulpit in the mosque to preach a sermon.
"Oh ye believers, do you know what I am going to talk about today?"
"We have no idea," they answered him.
"Well, if you have no idea at all, then what's the use of my talking to
you?"
With that remark he descended from the pulpit and went home.
The next Friday he returned to the mosque and once again stood up in the
pulpit and asked the congregation, "O ye true believers, do you know what I am
going to talk about today?"
"Yes," they answered.
"Well, if you already know, then what's the use of my telling you?" And he
again descended from the pulpit and went home.
Again the following Friday, he entered the mosque, mounted the pulpit, and
asked the same question: "Oh ye true believers, do you know what I am going to
talk to you about today?"
The congregation had prepared their answer in advance: "Some of us do, and
some of us don't."
"In that case," Hodja said, "let those who know tell those who don't." And
he went home again.

as collected by James Fadiman and Robert Frager

No comments: