When the Waters Were Changed

from ‘Tales of the Dervishes’ by Idries Shah:

When the Waters Were Changed
(dhun-nun)

Once upon a time Khidr, the Teacher of Moses, called upon mankind with a
warning. At a certain date, he said, all the water in the world which had not
been specially hoarded, would disappear. It would then be renewed, with
different water, which would drive men mad.

Only one man listened to the meaning of this advice. He collected water and
then went to a secure place where he stored it, and waited for the water to
change its character.

On the appointed date the streams stopped running, the wells went dry, and
the man who had listened, seeing this happening, went to his retreat and drank
his preserved water.

When he saw, from his security, the waterfalls again beginning to flow, this
man descended among the other sons of men. He found that they were thinking and
talking in an entirely different way from before; yet they had no memory of what
had happened, nor of having been warned. When he tried to talk to them, he
realized that they thought he was mad, and they showed hostility or compassion,
not understanding.

At first he drank none of the new water, but went back to concealment, to
draw on his supplies, every day. Finally, however, he took the decision to drink
the new water because he could not bear the loneliness of living, behaving, and
thinking in a different way from everyone else. He drank the new water, and
became like the rest. Then he forgot all about his own store of special water,
and his fellows began to look upon him as a madman who had miraculously been
restored to sanity.

Tags: changed, idries shah, khidr, loneliness, moses, waters