Hazrat Zunnun Misri, whom Osho refers to as “one of the greatest mystics ever on the earth”, was an Egyptian Sufi master, Islamic philosopher and a widely-travelled seeker who pursued his own course in search of the ultimate truth. Through his long and strenuous journeys in constant quest for the essence of life, he left behind lessons for people of all faiths and ages. Roaming around various places of worship, Hazrat Zunnun Misri endeavoured to examine different facets of the universe. And once he reached the intellectual destination he desired, he devoted his entire life to Uloom-e-Batin (the sciences of Islamic mysticism) and attained saintly position among the most revered Sufis of early Islamic era such as Junaid of Baghdad, Bayazid of Bastam and Mansoor Al-Hallaj. While Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi epitomised “sobriety” and Mansur Al-Hallaj represented “divine intoxication”, Hazrat Zunnun Misri marked his era by receiving the glad tiding of his divine acceptance (Qabool) at the end of his spiritual journeys. In his book on Zunnun Misri, The Spiritual Virtues of Zunnun the Egyptian, Ibn-e-Arabi mentions his divine acceptance as follows: “The most valuable and significant of his spiritual graces is the good news of his acceptance by God when he said ‘I clung to His door until He received me.’”
This divine acceptance was bestowed upon Hazrat Zunnun Misri after the miraculous event he encountered ever in his life. The story goes like this: Zunnun learnt that there was a young mystic in a certain place and he prepared to travel to him. On reaching, he found the mystic hanging upside down on a tree, saying repeatedly to himself: “I will not relieve you of this pain, until you help me obey my God. And I will keep you hanging like this until you die of hunger.”
This pathetic scene made Zunnun cry out of compassion for the young mystic. “Who is this,” the mystic asked, “who is showing compassion for one whose shame is little and whose crimes are many?” Zunnun went over to the mystic, greeted him and asked: “Why are you paining your body?” The mystic replied: “I am paining my Nafs (bodily desire) because it does not let me obey my God. It, rather, wants me to engage with people and things other than God.” He continued: “All sins stem from coming into contact with others and that is why I shun meeting people and consider it a grave sin.”
The young mystic, then, asked him to meet a person who, he believed, was a greater saint with more obedience to God. That second mystic guided him to a third mystic calling him greater saint and more God-conscious. Thus, all the three saints considered themselves lower in status and inferior in the sight of God.
The abundant God-consciousness of all the three saints led Zunnun Misri to think deeply about the existence of God and thus repent for his past sins. It created an inner spark within him to lead his remaining life with God-consciousness and full obedience to the sole creator of the world. As a result, Zunnun received the good news of his divine acceptance for his repentance (tauba).
