Working Together:

Someone asked Ajmal ibn Arif:

'Can you give me an example of "things apparently opposed which are really working together"?

Ajmal said:

'The person who denounces real Sufis is apparently opposed to them. But he may, unwittingly, be working with them: for he is attracting undesirables to himself and cannot really prevent valuable people from listening to the real Sufis.'

'But,' continued the questioner, 'is he not sowing doubts in the hearts of good people, and prejudicing them against the real Sufis?'

'Doubt,' said Ajmal, 'is sown on doubt already existing. The hearts of good people are not places where the seed of opposition to real Sufis can possibly be sown.'