Nasreddin
PhilosopherWikipedia
19
MENTIONS
9
EPISODES
8
PODCASTS
Search complete. 19 mentions across 9 episodes found for "Nasreddin".
Oct 29, 2026
Musa MuhaiyaddeenHOST
And in the middle of his speech, he says, and the way you can tell a good Muslim is by the length of his beard and how groomed his beard is.
Musa MuhaiyaddeenHOST
And then Nasruddin stands up and he says, well, my goat must be a very, very good Muslim because his beard is longer than anybody's here and much more luxurious.
Musa MuhaiyaddeenHOST
It's like that.
Musa MuhaiyaddeenHOST
When the truth is evident, rules aren't necessary.
Jay LeemingHOST
And eventually you become something different than you were before.
Jay LeemingHOST
There's that little story about Nasruddin, who is told by the king to research the spiritual teachers of the East.
Jay LeemingHOST
And he comes back and his report just says, carrots.
Jay LeemingHOST
And the caliph summons him to the throne room and says, what's the meaning of this? And he says, well, carrots.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
And it goes and goes.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
And the people say, I'm so grateful to you, Nasruddin.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
Thank you so much.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
Oh, you brought the rain.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
But, Nasruddin, why did you do that thing with your clothes? Why did you wash your clothes? And Nasruddin says, well, listen, I'm going to tell you the truth.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
Allah and I are not getting along together right now.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
So I know if I did that, you know.
Swami AparajitanandaHOST
There will be total time mismanagement.
Swami AparajitanandaHOST
Mulla Nasruddin was giving a talk.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
And he was going on and on, on and
Swami AparajitanandaHOST
on.
Michael MeadeGUEST
The key,
Adam DorsayHOST
Nasruddin,
Michael MeadeGUEST
the wise fool drops his key.
Michael MeadeGUEST
He's wandering home after being in the tavern, you know, four o'clock in the morning.
Michael MeadeGUEST
Now they're both down there under the light of the street lamp looking.
Michael MeadeGUEST
And the neighbor finally says, we're not finding anything.
Michael MeadeGUEST
Are you sure you dropped it here? And Nasruddin says, no, I dropped it over there and where it's really dark.
Michael MeadeGUEST
And the neighbor said, well, why are we looking here? And he said, because here's where the light is.
Nefise KahramanGUEST
And even, uh, like for some readers, they will find features of slapstick comedy in this, almost in the style of French director Jacques Tati in his stories.
Nefise KahramanGUEST
I guess the defining figure for Esen Dal, the biggest influence, I would say, is the Anatolian folk tradition, especially the character of Nasreddin Hodja.
Nefise KahramanGUEST
Like, it's a part of popular imagination, not only in Turkey, but also in the, in the Middle East, this, uh, wise, fool figure that tells funny stories, but with always, uh, comes with a message at the end.
Nefise KahramanGUEST
So the readers will also encounter Nasreddin Hodja in Esen Dal's stories for sure.
William ArmstrongHOST
Yeah, I was interested in the introduction to the book, Etkin, the translator, sh- she talks about how this might be a, almost a lost path of Turkish literature in the 20th century because some of the most canonical, well-known books, successful books of 20th century Turkish writing, they're very heavy.
William ArmstrongHOST
They're very ...
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
That's why the Sufi stories are really helpful here, because they're not confrontational.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
So nobody can take umbrage at the story about Nasruddin laying an egg, or pretending to, or any of the other things that he does, or any of the other Sufi stories.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
So my suggestion, talked with Alamina about this and some of the others, get to have some good Notre Dame stories or Sufi stories under your belt that you have fun telling.
Ibrahim AnsariHOST
And what that does is it gets people listening for the first thing.
7 MINS LATER
RobertPANELIST
Nazarene is having this dream where he's being paid out ten coins.
RobertPANELIST
And this hand, this disembodied hand is, you know, putting the money in his hand and it gets denied.
RobertPANELIST
And Nasruddin says, no, I want one more.
RobertPANELIST
Ten.
CeciHOST
And he referred to me to the extraordinary story about Rabbi Isaac.
CeciHOST
And if you allow me, I'd love to play an excerpt of a shortened version of this extraordinary story, followed by a reflection by Rabbi Rami Shapiro on the same story and a subsequent story he will tell us about the Saint Nasruddin pertaining to the Sufi tradition of Islam.
CeciHOST
Let's listen.
speaker_1NARRATOR
Rabbi Isaac dreamed someone bade him look for a treasure in Prague, under the bridge which leads to the king's palace.
Rami ShapiroSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
There's another, I think, another element to that story that we should highlight, and that is that, you know, the treasure that the rabbi had was under his own bed.
Rami ShapiroSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
You know, he went searching for it elsewhere, but ultimately it's in his own home.
Rami ShapiroSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
There's a story from the Sufi tradition of Islam about the Sufi saint Nasruddin, And Nasruddin is this great mullah, this great saint, and there's a story about him when he lost the keys to his house.
Rami ShapiroSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
And he's outside looking under a lamppost, and he's digging in the ground, and people come by and they say...
Gabriel KennedyGUEST
And from what I'm seeing in terms of like, um, like magic or the Western esoteric tradition, but sort of the kind of magic, chaos magic world, that's there too, and it's expressed in the sense of, you know, finding opportunity where there doesn't really appear to be any.
Gabriel KennedyGUEST
Um, and Wilson expressed that as well in his sort of, uh, al- aller- allegories of, um, Nasruddin, the, uh, Sufi saint who, um, you know, was, was a, was a goofball and was teaching all these lessons, uh, you know, through, through his actions or whatever.
Gabriel KennedyGUEST
But the, uh, you know, again, the core lessons of the Nasruddin stories, which Wilson got from Idris Shah, the, uh, the writer.
Gabriel KennedyGUEST
That's a pseudonym for, yeah, the, uh, the writer who wrote a book called "The Sufis." Um, but the core element of, uh, Nasruddin is, is really never to give up hope that there, you can always find an answer, you know? So Nasruddin was in prison and, um, you know, he was set to die, you know, in, in 12 hours and, um, hi- hi- his mind was a panic, you know, and, and, and a, you know, blaze and on fire with anxiety.
Gabriel KennedyGUEST
"What am I gonna do? They're gonna kill me." And then, you know, he was able to, you know, access that other part of his mind, the calm, concentrated part, and to know that there, there are 12 more hours, there are this many more minutes, there are this many more seconds, meaning there's this much more opportunity for something to happen.
Gabriel KennedyGUEST
And, uh, that sort of mindset, you know, coincides with the legend of Timothy Leary, uh, you know, Bob's friend who, as the story goes, he escaped from prison, right? So, um, he was, he was-