Majnûn fell in love with a woman called Laylâ who was not beautiful according to others.

And Majnûn was mad, so mad that the very name Majnûn has become synonymous with madness. He was continuously praying to God, continuously moving around the city asking people for help because he was a poor man, and the woman he had fallen in love with belonged to an aristocratic family. Even to see Laylâ from far away was not easy. It was a Mohammedan country, and in a Mohammedan country it is very difficult to see even the face of a woman.

Seeing his agony, even the king became a little concerned. He
felt great compassion for him. He told him, “I know that woman; that family is well known to me, and if Laylâ had been a beautiful woman she would have been part of my harem. I have not chosen her. I have all the beautiful women from all over the country, and I feel so much for you that I will give you a chance. You can choose any woman from my harem and she will be yours!””

Majnûn looked at each woman in minute detail and said, “This is not Laylâ!” Again and again…he passed over dozens of women and the remark was always the same; “This is not Laylâ!”

The king said, “You must have gone utterly crazy! Laylâ is nothing
compared to these beautiful women! You can choose anyone. I know your Laylâ. I have known the most beautiful women of the world, and my women are some of the greatest that have ever been on earth.”

“I still insist that there has never been a woman like Laylâ and
there will never be again. But to see the beauty of Laylâ you need the eyes of a Majnûn, and you don’t have those eyes so nothing can be done about it. You have to see her through my eyes; only then will you be able to see the grandeur, the splendor of her being.”

Remember these words: To see the beauty of Laylâ you need the eyes of a Majnûn. Majnûn’s love for Laylâ is seen as a metaphor for the Sufi’s devotion to the Divine, a love so intense it transcends ordinary reality.

In essence, this Sufi story of Majnûn is a powerful allegory that explores the human longing for connection, whether with a divine being, or one’s own inner self.