Video - The Generous Gift Rejected: A Lesson in Humility from the Saints

Sultan Ahmed wanted to present a gift to Sheikh Aziz Mahmud. He would be very pleased if his master accepted this gift from him. One day, Sultan Ahmed sent a gift he deemed appropriate to Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi. But His Highness Sheikh did not accept. Undoubtedly, this refusal did not mean an attitude against the sultan. Most of the elder saints did not accept gifts as a principle. This was a way of expressing how great people viewed worldly possessions, and that things deemed unattainable for others had no value in their eyes. Sultan Ahmed sent the gift, which Sheikh Hüdayi did not accept, to Abdülmecid Sivasi, one of the saints of this period, and he accepted it. He was also reminded that the sultan offered the same gift to Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi, but he did not accept it. His Holiness Sivasi showed an attitude befitting a real elder: "His Holiness Hüdayi is not a crow to accept carcass" he said. They said to Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi, "Sheikh Sivasi accepted the gift that you did not accept." He replied: "There is no harm in that. Because it is such a big ocean that it knows that a particle of mud will not cloud itself."