A famous incident is narrated about a headmaster from the time when he was posted as a teacher in a school. He took a test of his class.

At the end of the test, he checked everyone's copies and asked each child to hold their respective copy in their hand and stand in a queue. He announced that however many mistakes someone had, they would be struck with that many lashes of the cane on their hand.

Although, due to being soft-hearted, he would strike the children very gently with the cane so that it would serve as advice rather than causing pain, the fear of punishment was still there.

All the children stood up.

The headmaster kept asking all the children the number of their mistakes and accordingly delivered the strikes of the cane on their hands.

One child was extremely nervous. When the headmaster reached near him and inquired about his mistakes, out of fear, the copy dropped from his hand, and he stammered out:

"Sir, please forgive me, everything of mine is wrong."

The headmaster, who was raised in the lap of spiritual recognition (Ma'rifat), could not bear the weight of this sentence, and a heart-rending cry escaped his throat. Throwing the cane from his hand, he began to weep bitterly and repeatedly echoed this sentence:

"O my Allah! Forgive me. Everything of mine is wrong."

He sobbed so intensely that he gasped for breath. He kept saying only one thing to that child:

"What have you said, what have you said, my child!"

"O my Allah! Forgive me. Everything of mine is wrong."

"Oh, how I wish that we too would be blessed with even an atom of the recognition of the Divine (Ma'rifat-e-Ilahi), so that even after performing the best deeds solely for the sake of Allah, it would flow from our heart and tongue... O my Allah! Forgive me. Everything of mine is wrong..."