2.4.2.3 - The First Issue He Delivered to Ibn al-Arabi

In the Holy Spirit, the Greatest Shaykh remembers the first issue he was given by Shaykh Yusuf al-Kumi, in the very first hour when he met him and he accepted him as a seeker. At that time he asked him: What is the great guilt of someone who passes between the hands of one who is standing for prayer, so that he would have better liked to stand forty years instead? [Kanz: 2302, 19249, 19250] Shaykh Muhyiddin answered according to what he knew at the time, and Shaykh Yusuf was pleased with that:

At our first meeting, the first question he put to me, with all his concentration fixed upon me, was, What is the sin of him who passes in front of one praying, the enormity of which is such he would wish he had stood where he was for forty years? I answered him correctly and he was pleased with me.

When I would sit before him or before others of my Shaykhs, I would tremble like a leaf in the wind, my voice would become weak and my limbs would shake. Whenever he noticed this he would treat me kindly and seek to put me at my ease which only increased my awe and reverence for him.