The Real Work

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

One day Hasan of Basra (who took great pride in, and flaunted certain occult powers he had) saw Rabia al-ʻAdawiyya on the bank of the river. He threw his prayer rug on to the water and shouted to her, “Come Rabia! Let’s pray together!”
Rabia replied, “Is it really.necessary for you to sell yourself like this? If so, it’s because you’re weak!”
Then Rabia ascended into the air on her prayer rug and called down to Hasan, “Come up here! Everyone will see us!”
Hasan, who was not as advanced as she, remained silent.
Rabia then said to him, “A fish can do what you did…and a fly can do what I did. The real work goes beyond either of our tricks. The only necessary thing to do is the Real Work.”

Ya Haqq!

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Darkling Beetles from Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel

Salaam and Greetings of Peace:

At the first light of dawn over the middle desert, the black scarab-beetles come out of the sand and scurry up the face of the dunes to pray. Standing in line after endless line along ridge and crest they face the rising sun and bow, as if in the prostration of obeisance, lifting their hindquarters to the warmth, gathering the morning dew into droplets of water that roll down the hard shell into the waiting mouth.” – Prologue, Master of the Jinn: A Sufi Novel

They were not a figment of my imagination. Here is the water harvesting Darkling Beetle (family Tenebrionidae) of the Namib desert.