Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

by William Dalrymple

‘There is a story about Lal Shahbaz Qalander, which Sain Sahib once taught me,’ said Lal Peri. ‘One day Lal Shahbaz was wandering in the desert with his friend Sheikh Baha ud-Din Zakariya. It was winter, and evening time, so they began to build a fire to keep warm. They found some wood, but then they realised they had no fire. So Baha ud-Din suggested that Lal Shahbaz turn himself into a falcon and get fire from hell. Off he flew, but an hour later he came back empty-handed. “There is no fire in hell,” he reported. “Everyone who goes there brings their own fire, and their own pain, from this world.”’