The Spiritual Way to Perfection

THE SPIRITUAL WAY TO PERFECTION FOR MAN BASED ON KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE OF GOD

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Man has innate inclination to know where he comes from, what his end will be, and what is his purpose in life

Man has innate inclination to know where he comes from, what his end will be, and what is his purpose in life. While traditional man had no difficulty in answering these questions and knew with certainty where he came from, why he was living and where he was going, modern man, under the heavy burden of modern life and the influence of modern conceptions, knows almost nothing of these essential problems arising from his very nature. This ignorance does not, however, change his situation: he, like the traditional man, is born and dies, and this fact has never changed nor will it do so, in spite of the ‘gigantic’ advancements in science and technology. The only difference is that what was once certainty has been replaced by doubt and fear.

He is a finite being contained by an infinitude

Man’s situation between these two fixed points, that is, birth and death, has not changed at all. He is still a finite being contained by an infinitude, who cannot escape being stirred by his very nature to an understanding of the Infinite and the Absolute. With regard to the Absolute and all the states of being which comprise the universe, man is what he has always been and always will be, one of the fairest creatures with the highest point of creation, yet with the potentiality to fall down to ‘the lowest of the low’.

According to the Qur’an, the process of creation is circular (As He brought you forth in the beginning so unto Him shall you also return. 7:29) in the sense that it ends at the point from where it started. The atheist is also of the same view, but he conceives matter, space and time or something presentable in terms of four dimensions as the point wherefrom the process starts and at which it also ends. Although matter is furthest from the state of perfection, he holds it, in its most chaotic condition, as the beginning and the end of the creation, which he deems as accidental and purposeless. Whereas according to the Qur’an, the existence starts with the highest state of perfection, and then proceeds down to matter, which has the least degree of perfection, and then again it turns back upward to the point from where it started.

He regulates the affair from the heaven to the earth, then shall it go up to Him in one day the measure of which is thousand years of what you reckon. (32:5)

Creation in the “Breath” of the Compassionate

This process is designed and administered by the Creative Will, and the Divine Grace and Compassion (rahma) is an a Priori factor in the manifestation of this Will. Therefore Compassion is the principle of the manifestation of the Infinite, so that the universe is called by the Muslim sufis ‘the Breath of the Compassionate’. Each particle of existence is immersed in this Breath, which endows it with a ‘sympathy’, with an ‘attraction’ to other beings, and above all with the source of the Breath, the Divine Compassion. That is why each atom of the universe is regarded as the theophany of the Divine Names and Attributes. Mahmud Shabstari, in his Gulshan-i Raz (The Mystic Rose Garden), expresses the Divine Being as manifested in everything, whether big or small:

Know the world is a mirror from head to foot,
In every atom a hundred blazing suns.
If you cleave the heart of one drop of water,
A hundred pure oceans emerge from it.
If you examine closely each grain of sand,
A thousand Adams may be seen in it.
In its members a gnat is like an elephant;
In its qualities a drop of rain is like the Nile.
The heart of a barley-corn equals a hundred harvests,
A world dwells in the heart of a millet seed.
In the wing of a gnat is the ocean of the life,
In the pupil of the eye a heaven;
What though the grain of the heart be small,
It is a station for the Lord of both worlds to dwell therein.
(Translated by E. H. Whinfield)

The Light of Muhammad is actually the theatre of the theophany of all the Divine Names and Attributes
Because existence is the manifestation of God’s grace or compassion, the order and hierarchy of creation begins with the highest and most comprehensive created entity, who is the compassion unto all worlds or beings, and the foremost in having within the fold of his existence all the excellences which are to be revealed in the chain of beings next to him in grade and elevation. This entity, being the most comprehensive in perfection and the embodiment of God’s Compassion, is presented in various terms but the most appropriate one is ‘the Light of Muhammad’ or ‘Reality of Muhammad’. Like sunshine radiating through everything from a molecule of water to the whole surface of the sea, and to the heavenly bodies, so the Light of Muhammad is actually the theatre of the theophany of all the Divine Names and Attributes, and the archetype of the cosmos.

The hierarchy of creation

The hierarchy of creation then unfolds itself in innumerable spheres of intellectual and angelical beings. In the Qur’an, they are termed ‘the Malakut’ or realms of unseen active spiritual and psychic entities. Each sphere is held by the one above it and this holds the sphere below it, ending in the four dimensional sphere known as material being. This is the lowest sphere which is held but has no holding faculty of its own at all, so it is termed in the Qur’an ‘Alam-i Mulk’ or ‘Alam-i Shadat’, the held-world or seen-world. This world forms the base of the hierarchy, the summit of which is the first and the most perfect and comprehensive entity. This base has nothing of the actual or the creative in it, but it is endowed with unlimited potentiality and recipience which forms the background of its upward and spiritually evolutionary movement.

Thus matter in its upward course begins with the simplest form of particles of atom and then proceeds towards the formation of atoms into nebulae and solar system, populated with inanimate and animate things, of plants, animals, man and other conscious and intellectual beings of various species, the nature and number of whom the Creator alone knows. So far as the earth is concerned, inanimate elements are employed by the Creator to develop into plants, thus being elevated to the simplest degree of life. Life evolves through plants and animals until it reaches perfection with man, who is the most complicated and the highest intellectual entity, into which matter has developed, and with which the hierarchy of creation returns to the point from where it started.

Man is endowed with the power of discovery and invention, and has been taught ‘the names’, which are the keys to the knowledge of all things

Man is endowed with the power of discovery and invention, and has been taught ‘the names’, which are the keys to the knowledge of all things. He is also gifted with the power to receive through his external and internal senses all that is manifested by God’s Will in the various spheres -terrestrial, celestial and supercelestial, and to reflect and reproduce all that he has received. Although man is at the summit of the hierarchy of creation on account of his celestial origin, he has to live upon the earth because of the vegetable and animal aspects of his existence. It is precisely because of these contradictory features of his being, the angelic nature and the terrestrial crust hiding the spiritual core, that man lives in this world and yet is bound by his own nature to transcend it.

Man is the bearer of the Supreme Divine Trust

The Qur’anic verse “Surely We created man of the fairest creature; then We reduced him to the lowest of the low” (95:4-5) defines the situation of man in this world in a manner that is at once perennial and universal. Man was created in the fairest stature, then he fell into the condition of separation and withdrawal from his celestial prototype, to a condition which the Qur’an calls the lowest of the low. Upon this point, a Muslim Sufi commentator writes that God created man as the most complete and perfect theophany, the most universal and all-embracing theatre of Divine Names and Attributes, so that he might become the bearer of the Divine Trust (amana) and the source of an unlimited effusion of light. He identifies ‘the lowest of the low’ with the world of natural passions and heedlessness. The grandeur of the human state, its great possibilities and perils, and the permanent nature of man’s quest after the Divine thus lie at the very root of human existence. Avicenna, a famous Muslim philosopher of the eleventh century, expresses in the following poem this idea that the human soul feels constrained to leave this world and to return to the angelic world from where it came:

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Now why from its perch on high was it cast like this
To the lowest Nadir’s gloomy and dear abyss?
Was it God who cast it forth for some purpose wise,
Concealed from the keenest seeker’s inquiring eyes?
Then is its descent a discipline wise but stern,
That the things that it has not heard it thus may learn.
So ‘tis she whom Fate does plunder, while the star
Sets at length in a place from its rising far,
Like a gleam of lightning which over the meadows shone,
And, as though it never had been, in a moment is gone.
(E.G. Brown’s translation)

Finite forms in the cosmos reveal the traces of the Infinite

The cosmos continually reveals to man the eternal message of the Truth. Its finite forms reveal the traces of the Infinite. As Ali ibn Ali Talib said, “I wonder at the man who observes the universe created by God and doubts His existence.” The Qur’an says concerning this point:

To God belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and of the earth; and God is powerful over everything. Surely in the creation of the heavens and earth and in the alternation of night and day there are signs for men possessed of minds, who remember God, standing and sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect upon the creation of the heavens and the earth:

“Our Lord, You have not created this for vanity. Glory be to You! Guard us against the chastisement of the Fire. Our Lord, whomsoever You admit into the Fire, You will have abased; and the evildoers shall have no helpers. Our Lord, we have heard a caller calling us to belief, saying, “Believe you in your Lord!” And so we believe. Our Lord, forgive You us our sins and acquit us for our evil deeds, and take us to You with the pious. Our Lord, give us what You have promised us through Your Messengers, and abase us not on the Day of Resurrection; You will not fail the tryst.” And their Lord answers them: “I waste not the labor of any that labors among you, be you male or female -the one of you is as the other.” (3:189-195)

Man has need of revelation, which like the cosmos itself comes from the Infinite and the Absolute, and hence serves as the key for the unfolding of the mysteries of man’s own being as well as those of the universe. Revelation is in itself a gift that has descended from the Divine mercy to enable man to pass beyond the finite to the Infinite.

Revelation enables the human soul to make a journey from the outward to the inward, from the periphery to the center, from form to meaning, the journey which is none other than the mystical quest itself

Revelation enables the human soul to make a journey from the outward to the inward, from the periphery to the center, from form to meaning, the journey which is none other than the mystical quest itself. Because of the intimate relation the soul has with the cosmos, this journey is at once a penetration to the center of the soul and a migration to the abode beyond the cosmos. In both places the Divine Presence resides. Man, by following the ‘outer’ form of Islam, migrates into the inner and by the grace of God transcends the finite world to regain his primordial angelic state, and thus to complete the circle of creation. The spiritual path, as it exists in Islam, is one in which man dies to his carnal soul in order to be reborn in his angelic self.

Those who have found the Truth have found Him in their souls;
Those who have been detained half-way have been hindered by conjectures.
Who truly seeks will truly find Him, while the indolent can do neither;
For His slaves on their spiritual journey, He is the final destination.
The souls who do not recognize Him as friend, who do not die to themselves to be raised again in him,
The souls who do not die for His sake are utterly bereft and destitute.
Come, friends, let’s set out to reach the realm of the Beloved;
And let us see the rose of His beauty for a moment in light.
The world is pitiless and cruel, all around in fog and cloud;
It is but a loss and waste of time to stay here even for a short while.
We are travelers, and our home-coming is with Him alone; what an honor then to reach him; and
Faith is the only means of attaining this aim by His leave and grace.

As frequently pointed out in this book, Islam is the religion of unity and all the aspects of the Islamic doctrine and practice reflect this central and cardinal principle. The Shari‘a itself is a vast network of injunctions and regulations which relate the world of multiplicity inwardly to a single center, and which conversely is reflected in the multiplicity of the circumference. In the same way Islamic art always seeks to relate the multiplicity of forms, shapes and color to the One, to the center and Origin, thereby reflecting Tawhid in its own way in the world of forms with which it is concerned.

Sufism, being the inner dimension of the Islamic revelation, is the means par excellence whereby Tawhid is achieved

Sufism, being the inner dimension of the Islamic revelation, is the means par excellence whereby Tawhid is achieved. All Muslims believe in unity as expressed in the most universal sense possible by the Shadah, La ilahe ill’Allah, that is, there is not deity but God.

The whole program of Sufism, of the Islamic spiritual way, is to free man from the prison of multiplicity, and to purify him of any mental process or physical action which diverts his ego-center towards temporal and sensual desires. It is to cure him of hypocrisy and to make him whole, for it is only in being whole that man can become holy. Men confess the one God but actually live and act as if there were many gods. Thus they suffer from the cardinal sin of ‘polytheism’ or shirk, and from a hypocrisy whereby they profess one thing but act according to something different. Sufism seeks to bring shirk into the open, and thereby to cure the soul of this deadly malady. The aim and goal of Sufism is to integrate man at every level of his existence.

Such an integration is brought about by the harmonization of all the faculties, the body, the mind, and the spirit, and not through the negation of the intelligence which so often occurs with modern religious movements. The methods of Sufism base themselves upon the practices of the Shari‘a, and in particular, the daily prayers, which are a most powerful means of integrating man’s psychic faculties and harmonizing them with his corporeal being.

The main method of Sufism, in fact, is to extend the prayers so that they become continuous. This extension is not only quantitative, but also qualitative, that is, Sufism uses this quintessential form of prayer, the dhikr or invocation, in which all otherness and separation from the Divine is removed and man achieves Tawhid. With the help of dhikr, combined with appropriate forms of meditation or fikr, man first gains an integrated soul, pure and whole like gold, and then by means of dhikr, he offers his soul to God so as to return to him in ecstasy.

The man who has achieved this integration possesses certain characteristics discernible to everyone; it leaves its imprint even upon his outward appearance, which of necessity reflects his inner state. Such a person is first of all cured of all the maladies of the soul, not by having all tensions and complexes removed in the manner of modern psycho-analysis, but by having those tensions which arise from man’s urge and need for the transcendent realized and fulfilled. Moreover, such a man does not live a compartmentalized existence, his thoughts and actions all issue from a single center and are based on a series of immutable principles. In him, the Islamic ideal of unifying contemplation with the practical is realized. He does not act or think in the normal manner, rather his contemplation and meditation are combined in the purest and most intense activity. By virtue of his becoming integrated, he reflects the Divine Unity and becomes the total theophany of the Divine Names and Qualities. He acts and lives in such a manner that there is a spiritual fragrance and beauty about all he does and says. Somehow he is in touch with that baraka or Divine grace which runs through the arteries of the universe.

The man who has achieved integration has reached the goal of his life, and is cured forever of the fear of death, which is so destructive to modern man. He perceives that death is not total annihilation but merely a shifting from a state of lesser sensitivity to a higher one. Man belongs to God, and as stated in the Qur’an, the movement of every individual, as well as the societies of beings a whole, is toward God. Death is, therefore, nothing but a shift and change from one stage of existence to a higher one which ultimately terminates with God. Of man’s sensory faculties, whether external or internal, none is destroyed by death, on the contrary, all these become refined and sharpened. The only relationship which is severed by death is the direct relationship of the conscious ego with the outer material world, with which it is connected through external senses. The material life is a veil to human senses and consciousness; on the removal of this veil by death all the faculties are sharpened. This is confirmed by a tradition of the Holy Prophet, who said, “Men are at present in a state of sleep; they will awake when they die.” So death is actually an ascension, and therefore not something to be feared by the sincere Muslim but is a gate opening towards the higher realities and pleasures of existence. It is a transference from the dungeons of worldly life to the gardens of Paradise, and from the world of labor and troubles to the abode of rewards.

In a Prophetic tradition in which God speaks God says:

My servant draws near unto me by works of supererogation, so that I love him; and when I love him, I am his ear with which he hears through Me, and his eye with which he sees through Me, and his tongue with which he speaks through Me, and his hand with which he takes through Me.

Islam And Sufism > Blessing Of Islam

"Say to My servants that they should only say those things that are best. For Satan doth sow dissension among them. For Satan is to man an avowed enemy." (Quran XVII: 53)

According To The Muslim Faith, When the Almighty God created Adam (the father of the human progeny) out of a lump of clay, and commanded the angels to greet him with a 'Sijda' (prostration in humility), Ibless the Satan hesitated to obey and accept Adam as his superior because he claimed his own superiority over Adam by virtue of his age long devotion to God and creation out of fire. His reluctance to obey and bow before Adam, however, resulted in his condemnation and he was therefore, eternally banished from the pleasure of God. Under this great humiliating disappointment, the Satan, however, pleaded with God that he and his progeny (the Satan belongs to the progeny of the genii) may be granted an everlasting opportunity to mislead mankind into error and sin in order to test the devotion of Adam and his progeny to God. This request was granted by the Almighty God with the commandment that whosoever followed the Satan's path will forfeit His pleasure and that his abode will be in the fire of hell eternally. To accept either of the two options for the creation Adam and his progeny, would not have been in the best interests of mankind just like illness and health, blindness and clear vision, night and day, heat and cold, good and evil, and so on.

The first treacherous act of Satan under this arrangement started with the beguilement of Adam himself in the well known episode of Eve and the "forbidden fruit" which resulted in the banishment of both Adam and Eve from the heavenly paradise as a punishment against God's pleasure and thus the treachery of Satan, the avowed enemy of the progeny of Adam, has continued throughout the ages causing perpetual misery among the best majority of those people who succumb to his mischievous allurements in defiance of the commandments of God.

In this respect there are two kinds of people in the world, those who follow the commandants of God, and those who are susceptible to the beguilement of Satan. There has always been a mighty struggle between the followers of Satan and the believers of God ever since the creation of Adam in which the latter have always vanquished the former

Islam And Sufism > Blessing Of Islam > Injunction Of Islam

According to the Holy Quran, those who follow the Satan's enticement are rebels of God. They will have to render an account of their misdeeds and sins on the Day-of-Reckoning and suffer punishment in hell for they acted against the pleasure of God, but those who defy Satan and stick steadfastly to the path of Righteousness and Truth as ordained in the Holy Quran and preached by Prophet Mohammed, are promised salvation and eternal bliss in paradise. This is one of the principal articles of faith in Islam.

Islam And Sufism > Blessing Of Islam > Retribution


The pages of the history and all religious books of the world are full of the terrible stories of God's retribution upon those past rebellious generations of mankind who defied the teachings of His Prophets and apostles under the mischievous influence of Satan. There have also been numerous bloody wars between the forces of evil and good, Truth and falsehood, the followers of Satan and the devotees and believers of the Almighty God in which the latter few have always vanquished the over -whelming many. As stated above again and again God has sent His Prophets and apostles to all races and nations of the world in order to warn and keep them on the right path of Truth. As it happened, after their death people forgot their sacred lessons and became victims of Satan's treachery only to forfeit the pleasure of God and earn His retribution. This is a divine decree which no civilisation or modern progress can change in spite of all our scientific and material advancement.

Islam And Sufism > Blessing Of Islam > The Holy Prophet Mohammed


When the holy Prophet of Islam Hazrat Mohammed (May peace and blessing of God be upon his soul) appeared on the scene of Arabia in 750 AD, Satan had virtually established his devilish kingdom over the Arabs who were steeped into abysmal ignorance and sin.

What was the actual condition of Arabia before the birth of holy Prophet Mohammed? According to the holy Quran, "It was on the verge of fiery abyss." The barbarous Arabs were completely submerged under the evil influence of Satan. They were soaking in superstition, ignorance, cruelty and idolatry and were torn asunder by internecine feuds and wars. They had no settled government and lived a nomadic life. Wine, women and every kind of vice and crime summed up their general attitude towards life. Even the Jews and the Christians had forgotten the teachings of their Prophets Moses and Jesus, and had become idolaters. Writing about the condition of Christianity in the 7th century was itself decrepit and corrupt. It was disabled by contending schisms and had substituted the peculiarities of superstition of the pure and expansive faith of the early ages."

The teachings of the Prophet of Islam, however wrought a dynamic transformation in the sinful life of the Arabs within only a few years despite all the worst type of oppression, insults and persecution by the evil forces of Satan in order to stick to their devilish ways of life. But, in spite of all these obstacles, Prophet Mohammed succeeded and succeeded triumphantly in completely routing the forces of Satan and religion of Peace and Prosperity happiness of the whole world as well.

Islam And Sufism > Blessing Of Islam > Purpose Of Islam


The true purpose of religion is that human beings should follow the right path according to divine teachings. But before asking people to follow these teachings, it is first necessary to explain the teachings and whose teaching they are: secondly, about the one who is preaching them, and finally, the great benefit that will be derived by following them. These are the fundamentals on which religions are formed. To have a comparative study of Islam in the light of the teachings found in other sacred books, is to know what a comprehensive world religion Islam is pointing out also how the author of such a religion was decidedly the last great Prophet, there being consequently no further necessity at all for another Prophet to rise. Quran is the final revealed Book of God and Mohammed is the last Prophet.

Islam And Sufism > Blessing Of Islam> Islam - An Ancient Religion


As a matter of fact, Islam which means peace and which represents the Divine Code for a disciplined, contented and harmonious life of man on earth already existed in one or the other form long before the advent of the Holy Prophet Mohammed. It however needed a revival in an up to date form because due to individual and political intrigues, certain abuses had crept into it. The preceding generations had altered the true spirit and version of the former Holy Scriptures to suit their own selfish ends and conveniences. Thus mutilating the original commandments of God and bringing an ugly slur on the fair name of Religion. These unauthorised intrusions and mutilations therefore necessitated up to date 'divine code' in its pristine glory and that is why a final and perfect religion in the form of Islam was revealed through the Holy Quran and Prophet Mohammed with the explicit warning that no more Prophets were to come after him. Islam is therefore, a perfect religion for all humanity and for all time, and not for the Muslims alone, whether the world accepts this divine claim or not.

Unlike the past, Islam is now preserved in its up to date perfection in the Holy Quran and because the past generations proved themselves incapable of preserving the original commandments of God in theory and true perspective had, as stated above, tampered with them to suit their own intriguing conveniences, therefore the Almighty Allah promised in the Quran to be its preserver Himself this time. One of the living instances of this jealous guardianship is that millions of Muslims easily commit this 'Book of God' to memory- a feature unique in its own way which is nothing short of a miracle. There is no instance in the living memory of mankind to show that any of the ancient religious books or any other kind of book of such a voluminous nature as the Holy Quran is, was ever committed to memory. This fact alone proves that God's original words have been preserved as He willed, and that there have been no tampering whatever with them after the death of the Holy Prophet Mohammed through whom the Quran was delivered

Islam And Sufism > Blessing Of Islam > Unique Virtues Of Islam


There are many unique virtues of Islam and its holy Prophet as compared with his predecessors. While the preceding Prophets were endowed with only one 'divine' virtue to help them to make their mission successful, Prophet Mohammed had the exclusive distinction of possessing all those 'divine' virtues in him which were bestowed upon his predecessors individually. For instance, Prophet Mohammed was endowed with the exemplary patience granted to Prophet Ayub, the miraculous virtues possessed by the 'staff' given to Prophet Moses, the healing spell possessed by Prophet Jesus, the perfect human beauty bestowed upon Prophet Yusuf and the supreme faith owned by Prophet Abraham.

Further, no Prophet ever since the creation of Adam, had the unique distinction of being succeeded by illustration saints and divines among his followers as the Prophet of Islam had a venerable line of religious teachers and saints who shunned all pomp and show of the material world in order to serve the cause of Islam and humanity selflessly and faithfully.

Both morally and spiritually they were pictures of perfection and stood out alone in the multitude of intelligentsia, never deviating from the teachings of the Quran or the tradition of the Prophet.

Their one paramount aim of life was the selfless service of mankind, strictly in accordance with the teachings of the holy Quran both, in letter and spirit these holy teachers of Islam in the garb of Sufi dervishes continued to keep the banner of Islam flying for a period of nearly 900 years after the death of the holy Prophet Mohammed by their matchless zeal, abstemious character and amazing spiritual powers and it is due to this unique dedication to the service of mankind that there are today 90 crores of Muslims spreading all over the world whose 'faith' in their religion remains as staunch and unshakable as it has ever been in spite of all the political and social revolutions of the world ever since the death of Prophet Mohammed.

Islam And Sufism > Blessing Of Islam > Khawaja Shaib


On the illustrious list of these great Sufi Saints who preserved the spirit and promoted the cause of Islam by their strict religious devotion and amazing spiritual powers under all sorts of cruel persecution like the holy Prophet himself, the name of Hazrat Khawaja Muinuddin Chishti of Ajmer stands high in perpetual glory.

For the spiritual salvation and moral uplift of the people of Hindustan by peaceful means and universal love. In fact, this lonely saint actually changed both the map and the course of Indian history at a crucial period of her destiny not by sword or cannon but by the sweet and melodious spell of his spiritual sway plus unparalleled moral and religious character, a revolution which ushered in quite a new era of peace and prosperity for millions of Indians, and a revolution which the march of history and the present civilization cannot afford to forget in the interests of mutual love and peace for which the people of the world are so intensely thirsting today.

Because mutual goodwill and confidence between man and man and nation and nation are once more rapidly deteriorating, and because the world is searching for a lasting peace against the forces of Satan that have once again raised their monstrous head under the intoxication of new kind of scientific materialism, the teachings of Hazarat Khwaja Munniuddin and Islam must, therefore, be revived in the interests of world peace, as much as other recognised religions.

We are sure, these lessons will prove of immense value in easing the political and religious tensions and restoring the waning faith of man in God and Religion without which there can be no lasting peace in the world.

Essence of Sufism

Here are some of the sacred sayings of Hazrat Khawaja Moinuddin. The intervening period of seven long centuries has not, in any way, affected their ever-lasting efficacy and value.

Essence of Sufism

· The heart of a lover (the true devote of God) constantly burns with the fire of Love so much so that whatever passion intrudes upon its sanctity is burnt to ashes.

· He indeed is a true devotee blessed with the love of God, who is gifted with the following three attributes: river-like charity, i.e his sense of charity has no limits and is equally beneficial to all the creatures of God who approach him, Sun-like affection, i.e. his affection may be extended indiscriminately to all like sunlight and Earth-like hospitality, i.e. His loving embrace may be open to all like that of the earth.

· A sin committed does not harm an individual so much as the looking down with contempt upon one’s own fellow beings.

· The test of a true devotee’s mind is that it is always, and to all intents, strictly obedient to the will of God and is constantly afraid of behaving in a manner which is apt to displease Him resulting in the withdrawal of His grace.

· A seer of the ‘essence of things’ is characteristically mute and meditative.

· He is a hardened sinner who commits sin and yet simultaneously entertains the belief that he is one the God’s ‘chosen few’.

· A Dervish or hermit is one who would never disappoint a needy.

· Patience is tested through resignation to sorrow, sufferings and disaster without a murmur disclosing one’s pains to others.

· The more one learns about the ‘essence of things’ the more he wonders.

· The seer regards Death as a friend, luxury as a enemy and the constant narration or remembrance of God as a glory.

· The best time for the seer of dervish is indicated by the absence of all cares from his mind.

· Knowledge is comprised upto an unfathomable ocean and enlightenment is like a wave in it, then what is the relation of God and man ? While the ocean of knowledge is sustained by God alone, the enlightenment pertains to man.

· ‘Namaaz’ (Islamic prayer) is the ladder leading to the proximity of God Almighty.

· Prosperity departs from the home of one who tells a lie on oath and he is soon ruined.

· The graveyard is the place for picking up a lesson. In such a solemn surrounding, one should not indulge in laughing or burst into laughter or eat or drink or do any other worldly thing.

· Keep handy your equipment for the last journey and think of death as hovering over your head at all times.

· God rains misfortune and misery upon the heads of those whom He loves.

· The best way of evading the fire of hell lies in feeding the hungry, providing water to the thirsty, removing the wants of the needy and befriending the miserable.

· Just as the sunshine increases gradually in the morning so does the Divine Light expands in one who says Ishraaq prayers.

· When the Aarif meditates over a thing, he attains a state of absorption in which even if thousands of angels assuming wonderful forms try to attract him, he would remain entirely undisturbed for the time being.

· There is impurity below every human hair, hence water must touch and reach the root of every hair. If a single hair shall remain dirty, purification is not complete and is impaired.

· Human Perspiration is not impure (Hadith).

· Offer your repentance quickly before death arrives and hurry up to perform the Namaaz before its final hour passes.

· It is incumbent on the followers of the path of ‘Tariqat’ (the path leading to Divinity) that he must first divorce or renounce the physical world, and then the second world thereafter and ultimately his own ‘self’ (Nafs) when alone he can pursue his right path, failing which he should abandon the enterprise of Sufism.

· For a follower of the path of Truth, it is worse than a sin to disdain or look down upon any one.

· When the Aarif becomes silent it means that he is talking to God, and when he closes his eyes it means that he his knocking at God’s door

· The path of Love (of God) is such a path that whoever stepped into it, he lost himself.

· Those devoted to the path of the ‘knowledge of God’s realisation’ (Irfaan ) have nothing to speak of except God.

· Severance of connection with wealth and property is one of the inferior achievements of an Aarif.

· Those who are true lovers of God, give away both of the worlds for the sake of their ‘beloved’ and even then they feel that they have done nothing whatever.

· Verily he is an Aarif who is clothed with three qualities-firstly, piety; secondly, conduct eliciting respect, and thirdly, modesty.

· Love of God transcends and is above all passion for others.

· Perfection of Faith is evidenced by three things - Fear, Hope and Love.

· Death is a bridge which expands the passage for a lover to reach his beloved (God).

· True Friendship or love (of God) lies in maintaining His constant recollection in heart and not in expression by speech.

· The heart was essentially created for making rounds of the love of God.

Discourses Of Rumi

The difference between birds and their wings, and the wings of the aspirations of intelligent men, is that birds fly on their wings towards a certain direction, whereas intelligent men fly on the wings of their aspirations away from all directions.

Every horse has its stable, every beast its pen, every bird its nest. And God knows best.

Between a man and God there are just two veils, and all other veils manifest out of these: they are health, and wealth. The man who is well in body says, 'Where is God? I do not know, and I do not see.' As soon as pain afflicts him he begins to say, 'O God! O God!' communing and conversing with God. So you see that health was his veil, and Go was hidden under that pain. As much as a man has wealth and resources, he procures the means to gratifying his desires, and is preoccupied night and day with that. The moment indigence, appears, his spirit is weakened and he goes round about God.

Drunkenness and emptyhandedness brought Thee to me;

I am the slave of Thy drunkenness and indigency!

God most High granted to Pharaoh four hundred years of life and rule and kinship and enjoyment. All that was a veil which kept him far from the presence of God. He experienced to a single day of disagreeableness and pain, lest he should remember God. God said 'Go on being preoccupied with your own desire, and do not remember me. Goodnight!'

King Solomon grew weary of his reign,

But Job was never sated of his pain.

Notes: 'King Solomon grew weary': Rumi quotes himself.

The Master said: This that men say, that in the human soul there is an evil which does not exist in animals and wild beasts - it is not from the standpoint that man is worse that they; it is explained by the fact the evil character and wickedness of soul and vileness which are in man are according to a secret essential element which is in him. Those characteristics and vileness and evil are a veil over that element. The more precious and venerable and noble that element is, the greater are its veils. So vileness and evil and bad character are the cause of the veil over that element; and these veils cannot be removed save with grave strivings.

Those strivings are of various kinds. The greatest of them is to mingle with friends who have turned their faces to God and turned their backs on this world. For there is no more difficult striving than this, so sit with righteous friends; for the very sight of them dissolves and naughts that carnal soul. It is for this reason that they say that when a snake has not seen a man for forty years it becomes a dragon; that is, because it sees no one who would be the means of dissolving it s evil and vileness.

Wherever men put a big lock, that is a sign that there is to be found something precious and valuable. So you see, the greater the veil the better the element. Just as a snake is over the treasure, so do you not regard our ugliness, but regard the precious things of the treasur

The difference between birds and their wings, and the wings of the aspirations of intelligent men, is that birds fly on their wings towards a certain direction, whereas intelligent men fly on the wings of their aspirations away from all directions.

Every horse has its stable, every beast its pen, every bird its nest. And God knows best.

The human quest consist in seeking a thing which one has not yet found; night and day a man in engaged in searching for that. But the quest where the thing has been found and the object attained, and yet there is one who is seeking for that thing - that is a strange quest indeed, surpassing the human imagination, inconceivable to man. For man's quest is for something new which he has not yet found; this quest is for something on has found already and the one seeks. This is God's quest; for God most High has found all things, and all things are found in His omnipotent power. 'Be and it is - the Finder, the Bountiful'; for God has found all things, and so he is the Finder. Yet for all that God most High is the Seeker: 'He is the Seeker, the Prevailer. The meaning of the saying quoted above is therefore, 'O man, so long as you are engaged n the quest that is created in time, which is human attribute, you remain far from the goal. When your quest passes away in God's quest and God's quest overrides your quest, the you become a seeker by virtue of God's quest'.

Someone said: We have no categorical proof as to who is a friend of God and has attained union with God. Neither words nor deeds nor miracles nor anything else furnishes such a proof. For words may have been learned by rote: as for deeds and miracles, the monks have these also. They are able to deduce a man's inmost thoughts, and display many wonders by means of magic. The interlocutor enumerated a number of examples.

The Master answered: Do you believe in anyone or not?

The mans said: Yes, by Allah,. I both believe and love.

The Master said: Is this belief of yours in that person founded upon a proof and token? or did you simply shut your eyes and take up that person?

The man said: God forbid that my belief should be without proof and token?

The Master said: Why then do you say that there is no proof or token leading to belief? What you said is self-contradictory.

Someone said: Every saint and great mystic asserts, 'This nearness which I enjoy with God and this Divine favour which God vouchsafes to me is enjoyed by no one and is vouchsafed to no one else'.

The Master answered: Who made this statement? Was it a saint, or someone other that a saint? If it was a saint who stated this, inasmuch as he knows that every saint has this belief regarding himself, he cannot be the sole recipient of this Divine favour. If someone other than a saint made this statement, then in very truth he is the friend and elect of God; for God most High has concealed this secret from all the saints and has not hidden it from him.

That person propounded a parable. Once there was a king who had ten concubines. The concubines said, 'We wish to know which of is dearest to thee king.' The king declared, 'Tomorrow this ring shall be in the apartment of whomsoever I love best.' Next day the king commanded then rings to be made identical with that ring, and gave one ring to each maiden.

The Master said: The question still stands, This is no answer, and it is irrelevant to the issue. This statement was made either by one of the ten maidens, or by someone apart from the ten maidens. If it was one of the ten maidens who made the statement, then since she knew that the ring was not heirs exclusively and that each of the maidens had the like of it, it follows that she had no superiority over the rest and was not the most beloved. If however the statement was made by someone other than those ten maidens, then that person was the king's favourite and beloved concubine.

Someone said: The lover must be submissive and abject and long-suffering. And he enumerated the like qualities.

The Master said: In that case the lover must be like that, alike when the beloved wishes it or no. But if he is so without the desire of the beloved, then he is not truly a lover but is following his own desire. If he accords with the desire of the beloved, then when the beloved does not wish him to be submissive and abject, how should he be submissive and abject? Hence it is realised that the states affecting the lover are unknown, only how the beloved wishes him to be.

Jesus said, 'I wonder at a living creature, how it can eat a living creature.' The literalist say that man eats the flesh of animals, and both are animals. This is an error. Why? Because man it is true eats flesh; but that is not animal, it is inanimate, for when the animal was killed animality no longer remained in it. The true meaning of the saying is that the shaikh mysteriously devours the disciple. I wonder at a procedure so extraordinary!

Someone propounded the following question. Abraham, upon whom be peace, said to Nimrod, 'My God brings the dead to life and turns the living into the dead.' Nimrod said, 'I too, when I banish a man, as good as cause him to die, and when I appoint a man to a post it is as though I bring him to life.' Abraham abandoned the argument, being compelled to yield the point. He then embarked on another line of reasoning, saying, 'My God brings the sun up from the east and sends it down in the west. Do the opposite of at!' Is not this statement manifestly at variance with the other?

The Master answered: God forbid that Abraham should have been silenced by Nimrod's argument and left without any answer to it! The truth is that he used these words to represent another idea, namely that truth is that he used these words to represent another idea, namely that God most High brings the fetus out of the east of the womb and sends it down into the west of the tomb. Abraham's proof, peace be upon him, was thus presented with perfect consistency. God most High created a man anew every moment, sending something perfectly fresh into his inner heart. The first is in no way like the second, neither is the second like the third. Only man is unconscious of himself and odes not know himself.

Sultan Mahmúd, God have mercy on him, was brought a sea-horse, a fine beat with a most lovely shape. Next festival day he rode out on that horse and all the people sat on the rooftops to see him and to enjoy that spectacle. One drunken fellow however remained seated in his apartment. By main force they carried him up to the roof, saying, 'You come too and look at the sea-horse!' He said, 'I am busy with my own affairs. I don't want and don't care to see it.' In short, he could not escape. As he sat there on the edge of the roof, extremely drunk, the Sultan passed by. When the drunken fellow saw the Sultan on the horse he cried out, 'What store do I set by this horse? Why, if this very moment some minstrel were to sing a song and that horse were mine, immediately I would give it to him.' Hearing this, the Sultan became extremely angry and commanded that he should cast into prison. A week passed. The this man sent a message to the Sultan, saying, 'After all, what sin did I commit and what is my crime? Let the King of the World command that his servant be informed.' The Sultan ordered him to be brought into his presence. He said, 'You insolent rogue, how did you come to utter those words? How dared you speak so?' The man answered, 'King of the World, it was not I who spoke those words. That moment a drunken mannikin was standing on the edge of the roof and spoke those words, and departed. This hour I am not that fellow; I am an intelligent and sensible man.' The Sultan was delighted by his words; he conferred on him a robe of honour and ordered his release from the prison.

Whoever takes up connexion with us and becomes drunk with this wine, wherever he goes, with whomsoever he sits, with whatever people he converses, in reality he is sitting with us and mingling with this tribe. For the company of strangers is the mirror to the graciousness of the friend's company, and mingling with one who is not a congener stimulates love and commingling with the congener. 'Things are made clear by their opposites'.

Abú Bakr Siddíd, God be well pleased with him, gave the name of ummi to sugar, that is to say, congenital sweet. Now men prize other fruits above sugar, saying, 'We have tasted so much bitterness until we attained the rank of sweetness.' What do you know of the delight of sweetness, when you have not suffered the hardship of bitterness?

Notes: Man's quest is for a thing not yet found, whereas God's quest is for that which has already been found. What is the proof that a man has attained union with God? The proof is that he is in perfect accord with God's will. Rúmí answers a question about Abraham's argument with Nimrod.

'Until you seek you cannot find':