The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship
Children's Stories
The Unity of the Banana Tree
My love you, my grandchildren, my sons and daughters. Come and look closely
at this banana tree. It looks like a hand, doesn't it? See how the leaves are
just like fingers. Do you know how a banana tree grows? When a young tree
sprouts from the mother tree, first one leaf emerges, then it bends down and
another appears. One after another, eight, nine, ten, or even more leaves emerge
in this way. And as they continue to sprout from this one central point, they
grow closer and closer, over lapping like pieces of paper all glued together.
How much unity and symmetry these leaves have!
The bananas also grow
clustered together, emerging from a single stem and forming into bunches. They
live in such unity, sharing the same nourishment, the same taste, and the same
color. But then we pick them and break them apart, one by one. That is something
to think about.
My grandchildren, all of God's creation is like this
banana tree. God created Adam and Eve (A.S) from just one point, and from this
point emerged twenty-one sets of twins, or forty-two children. They had one
mother, one father, one family, and one God. They all started from one point in
such unity, but then they separated into many reli gions, races, and societies,
and so many differences developed.
God and God's family, the community
of mankind, all came from one point. The whole society of mankind is one family.
They all emerged from one God, one truth. God has told us that we are all
different parts of the same thing. No matter what our external differ ences may
be, we are all one. We are all one.
When wisdom comes and we understand
this, then differences, murder, and sin will not exist among us. We will live in
unity. Think about this. My children, through the example of the banana tree,
God has shown us what unity can be like. My love you. Anbu.
- M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
Come to the
Secret Garden: Sufi Tales of Wisdom