The Pointing Finger

The Pointing Finger Teaching System

AHMED ABDULLAH

(A). THE LEGEND.

The Pointing Finger legend is generally attributed in the

Middle East to Dhun'Nun Misri, the 9th century mystic. In

summary, it is this:

For centuries an ancient Egyptian statue which was reputed

to indicate the position of a hidden treasure baffled all attempts

at finding it It was a figure of a man with hand and finger

outstretched.

All seekers except one tried to find the hoard in the direction

in which the finger pointed. The one dug at the spot where the

shadow of the finger rested at mid-day. He found the treasure.

(B). INTERPRETATION AND USE OF THE LEGEND IN TEACHING.

The Malamati (Seekers of Opprobrium) mystics state that

the statue stands for the teacher, the shadow and its position for

understanding, the successful seeker for the student. The

apparent message of the teacher (the 'pointing hand') is

not  what he is teaching. His training is by means of the pointing

finger initially, but it is through its development in the student

(the shadow) that the understanding of the message comes. The

teacher therefore coaches the student to acquire a capacity

('looking at the shadow, not the statue') which will give him an

answer, provoking in him the capacity. But before this can be

done, the outline of the enterprise must be indicated in some way.

Such an outline is the Legend of the Pointing Finger.

 

AHMED ABDULLAH

has specialised for many years

in the study of legends and mysterious tales as used in

esotericist training. His best-known published works

are Mysteries of Asia, Fifty Enthralling Stories of

the Mysterious East,

and Fighting Through. He has

also published a study of hypnosis among the Arabs.