f I had been asked to give the name of a sufi who could be an example, I would have definitely suggested Mawlana, as he is an expert in the universe of  the meanings.
I have written lots of  essays on Mawlana.
Here, I would like to state once more my admiration for him.
As a matter of fact, there must be others  who have a higher level of scientific knowledge.  However,  he has opened lots of doors for us with concrete data and as a person who is far from exaggeration, who is honest, sincere from the heart, who loves the Rasul of Allah from the beginning to the end, who is aware of the fact that he owes to the society, who has grasped the responsibility of what he is doing with a heart  full of love.
Being a possessor of Allah, he is the pride of the sufi universe.
I do not know what you are thinking on this, but my humble evaluations are these…

I think that Mawlana, who has spent most of his life as detached from this world has made a  thorough research of the subjects that he has stated in his books.
I am saying it with pleasure that reading his books makes me happy.
After I finish reading one book, I  feel like starting another book of  his immediately.

The following expression that I have seen among his beautiful and impressing phrases had especially attracted my attention:
‘’I have seen such beautiful dresses in which there wasn’t a man, whereas I have seen such men who do not have a dress:’’

He has wanted to tell us lots of things by these words;
In the first place the message that he wants to give is:
The human being  should not be evaluated with respect to his clothing;  as it is impossible for those to make a true evaluation  who are not able to  see neither the dress nor the one inside it to make a true evaluation …

Life looks like a worn out dress on some of us.
It has become old, out of  fashion, some parts have faded away and the tisuue has become thinner.
Its light is all  gone and it has lost  all of its attractiveness.  It cannot be washed for fear that it will  get torn  and it can never be ironed.
We carry it over our skin because we do not have a spare one and due to  reasons such as being helpless,  because we have get used to it and have a sort of addiction for it.
The dress which is attached to the body looks strange…
However, in spite of these facts it has become part of the adventure.

The individual has a relation with it silently or  loudly, in the office, in the temple in short in every place and in every condition.
We can also say that the dress is the closest witness of the stories that are being told. It is also the witness of all the events which are silent, right or wrong, which  result from  coincidences, which  are acceptable or which cannot be accepted.

The individual who carries his dress on him habitually will have lots of pain in the stomach, the moment he realises that he has been deceived while he was thinking that he had find what he had been searching for.
From time to time he will abandon his work, his parents and will get carried away in a game of which he is not aware.   With ‘’the dream of  renewal’’ he will be waiting in the burning heat or the freezing cold and would like to find shelter in the one that he has dreamed of.

Sometimes the doors will be closed to his face and he will never see that the unity is just under his hand, in his bed or inside his home. The losses will follow one another, the dress will get sepearated from the body and the skin will be left without a clothing.
He will become naked, this nakedness will be corelated with nothingness and when he wants to return back he would find it necessary to have another dress.

I have understood this. No matter how submissive, how extravagant or how joyful a human being is, he caanot get saved once he has put on that dress.
He is even not aware of  what he would gain if he changes his dress or what he would loose if he does not change his dress.
The dresses of the people who approach life and the matters in a ‘’carefree’’ manner  and who insist on keeping themselves at a continuous level of addiction and taboo are never changed.
They are used to worn out, faded dresses without  tops and they see the others around them in this manner..
When we think within this framework, then  the following hadith of  Hz.Rasul of Allah becomes a warning which blows out the baloons of addiction and sleep.
This hadith is ‘’Whoever drags along  his dress down on the ground with pride, then on the doomsday Allah will not be looking at him with mercy’’….

Isn’t it necessary to change the dresses?
Please, you answer this question!…
Let me tell you the following anecdote as a hint:
Cabir (R.a.)narrates:
‘’The Rasul of Allah (A.s.) has seen one of our men who was pasturing our animals for riding.
The man was wearing an old two piece dress.
So, he said ‘’Doesn’t he have anything else to wear other than these old clothes?’’
I said ‘’Yes,  he has… ‘’He has two more dresses in his sack, I had given him those’’
He ordered ‘’Then call him and let him dress these’’,
I called him and told him the order and he put on  those dresses. When the man turned back to go,
Our Rasul (a.s. vesselam) said :
‘’What is wrong with him, why doesn’t he wear these? May Allah cut his neck off!’’
The man heard these words and answered ‘’Oh! Allah’s Rasul, is my neck going to be cut off for the path to Allah?’’
The answer was ‘’Yes!’’
And the man was killed for the road leading to Allah.’’

The human being, instead of  living and spending his time for putting on the clothes which do not suit him at all should try to carry on himself the most suitable clothing for him no matter how limited his income is.
However, I do not think that it would be possible for the one who has rejected the universal values throughout his whole life to undergo such a change, in other words to change his dress.

İstanbul - 27.7.2000
http://afyuksel.com