When Hasan, an Islamic philosopher was about to pass away, he was asked: “ Dear Hasan, who is your teacher?”
Hasan answered: “I have numerous teachers. However, if I have to count the names of these teachers, it will take months, years, and that is too late since I have very little time left. But I can tell you about three of my teachers as follows:
The first one was a thief. There is a time when I was lost in the desert. When I found a village, it was very late at night, and all the people in this village had gone to bed. However, at last, I found a man who was piercing a hole on the wall of a house in the village. I asked him where could I stay and he answered me: “ It is very difficult to find a resting place in this very late night, but you can come to my house if you do not hesitate to stay with a thief.”
He was a wonderful man. I remained at that place for a month! Every night, he said that: “I have to go to work right now. Stay at home and pray for me, ok?”. Every time when he came back, I always asked him: “Did you steal any thing?” and he always replied: “Not today, but I will try my best tomorrow, it could be”. I have never found him in a desperate situation, he was always happy.
There was period of time when I kept thinking and thinking for many years, however, I could not discover any truth . I felt into desperate situations, so desperate that I though I had to put an end to all of these rubbish and valueless thing. Right after that, I thought about the thief , the man that every night had said to me: “I can do it tomorrow, it could be!”
The second teacher was a dog. When I went out to the river to drink water, a dog appeared. He was thirsty, too. But when looking down to the river, he saw his shadow but thought that it was another dog. Being filled with terror, he screamed and run away. However, being too thirsty, he came back. At last, despite of his fear deep inside his heart, he jumped into the river and the shadow disappeared. We understand that this was a message for us: “Human being must triumph over the fear in their soul by action.”
The last teacher was a child. When I came to a city and saw a child bringing a lighted - candle to put into the church, I asked this child: “ You yourself lighted this candle, didn’t you?”. The child answered: “Yes, sir”. Then I asked: “At the beginning, the candle was not lighted, however, after a moment, it was burned. So, do you know where the light come from?”
The child laughed loudly, blown out the candle and said: “You see that the light has disappeared, so tell me where did the light go?”
My scornful selfness absolutely collapsed, and my set of present-and-the-past knowledge also collapsed, too. At that time, I discovered the crass ignorance of myself. And from that moment, I thrown all of my pride about my broad knowledge.
It can be said that I had no one as my teacher, but it does not mean that I am not a student. I accept all things as my teacher. My learning spirit is always broaden than all of yours. I learn from every thing, from a branch of tree to a wild grass, to the cloud in that sky. I have no teacher because I have millions of teachers whenever possible. The necessity in life is always being a student. What does this mean? It means that having the ability to learn, always ready to learn to know the meanings of every thing.
