Gift a needle, not a knife

One day in the life of a Sufi 

Gift a needle, not a knife

Raziuddin Aquil 

Baba Farid (Shaikh Farid-ud-Din Ganj-i-Shakar), a leading Punjabi Chishti Sufi saint and spiritual master (pir) of Nizam-ud-Din Auliya, was once gifted a knife by an innocent disciple. Farid advised the disciple that one should not give a knife in gift to anyone; a needle may be a better gift, instead. For knife is used for cutting something, whereas needle is used for threading, for stitching. 

Stitching the heart and mind of people, uniting them in love for God is central to the Sufi mystical practices, peacefully; by contrast, knives and swords were meant to cut people, divide and conquer them through violence and bloodshed. 

Can anyone make the terrorists and the likes understand the virtue of the Sufi way of practicing Islam, loving and graceful devotion to the Supreme Being, whatever his name?