The Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan1

BUILT-IN BOOKMARKS    
(Read the passage in context)

Topic

Archetypes

Astrology

Attainment

Chakras

Character

Christ

Compassion

Dervish

Desire and renunciation

Destiny and Free Will

Dimensions

Discipleship

Dreams

Duties and debts

Ego

Elements

God

Guidance

Healers

Healing

Health

Heart

Immortality

Initiation

Light and Love

Lovers

Magnetism

Mastery

Material life

Meditation

Message

Mind

Physical Body

Planes

Poets

Power

Prayers

Purpose

Reconstruction of World

Relationships

Religions

Saints

School

Scientists

Sexuality

Sleep

Speaking

Stages

Stories

Sufism

Teaching Style

Voice

Women

World

Wounds of the Heart

Sub-Topic

Answer to the cry

Awakening of Humanity

Central Theme

Conscious of Spirit

Five Aspects

Four Questions

God and Man

God in the Heart

How are we to work?

Infinite & Finite

It is the sphere speaking

Love, harmony and beauty

Message of the Day

Nucleus & Method

One single body

Reawaken the world

Sacred task

The fire I have lighted

The Note of the Day

The Sufi Message

The Two Lines

Witness the divine hand

World Messenger

Social Gathekas

5. Different Schools of Sufism

The Sufi Message

In all periods of the history of the world and in all ancient traditions one finds traces of a call from above being given to communities, nations, races and the world at large.

In the Koran it is said, "We have sent our messengers to every part of the earth, that they may not say they were not warned in time."

All traditions declare that a messenger is given to the world at the time of the world's need.

No doubt people have given an unnecessary and excessive importance to the personality of the messenger rather than to the message, and this is the very great error that humanity has made in every age. In taking the messenger instead of recognizing the message, they regarded the pen that wrote the letter instead of the contents of the letter. The letter and the writer are important; the pen is only the instrument. Thus differences came about in religion. The message has always been given at all periods; when it was more needed it was given with a loud voice, when it was less needed, gently.

Christ has said, "I am Alpha and Omega." This means that he is first and last and thus is ever there, not that he is absent between time. The prophesy of Mohammed was: "Now that all the world has received the message through a man who is subject to all limitations and conditions of human life, the message will in the future be given without the claim."

The Sufi message is destined to reawaken the world and to be a warning. The power of the inner force is constantly at work and this promises much for what is now formed as a nucleus composed of a few mureeds under the name of the Sufi Order to be the servant of the new era in the path of God and truth.

I wish that my mureeds who feel in their hearts this trust shall not only receive the sacred message for their own unfoldment but shall feel the privilege of being a nucleus for the coming spiritual reconstruction of the world.

The more conscious they will be of this, the more they will feel the responsibility they have in their life and the duty they must perform. Mureeds can show their devotion to Murshid and to the Cause by doing their very best and by devoting their thoughts and efforts in action to the rebuilding of the spiritual world.

A Sufi is one who guards one's knowledge and wisdom and power in humble guise. A Sufi does not dispute on spiritual subjects with everyone, for this reason: the spiritual evolution of each one differs from that of the other, the knowledge of one cannot be the knowledge of the other, nor is the understanding of one the understanding of the other. A Sufi does not discuss beliefs, for the Sufi knows that at every step in spiritual evolution a person's belief changes until one arrives at a final belief which words cannot explain.

The Sufi learns not only by the study of books but by the study of life. The whole of life is like an open book to a Sufi and every experience is a step forward in one's spiritual journey. A Sufi would rather learn than teach. A Sufi begins one's life by discipline and resignation, realizing that the path that leads to the goal of freedom is the path of self-control, patience, resignation, and renunciation.

Freedom is the object of all esoteric schools, but one must not make the mistake of thinking that one can begin with that which is the end. To expect liberty in the beginning is to be like the seed thinking, "I must be a tree at once and bear fruit." The fruit is the outcome and object, the culmination if its existence; so is freedom the result of the journey. The path of freedom is an ideal, to understand the real meaning of which is not everyone's work.

The method of the Sufi consists in this:

  • That the Sufi unites with one's innermost being.
  • One's heart is the shrine of one's God and one's body is God's temple.
  • The Sufi considers every person not only as one's brother and sister but as oneself.
  • At the same time, the Sufi never claims spirituality or goodness.
  • Neither does the Sufi judge anyone, except oneself in one's own doings.
  • The Sufi's constant attitude towards others is that of love and forgiveness.
  • The Sufi's attitude towards God is that one's innermost being is the object of one's worship and the Beloved Whom one loves and admires.
  • The Sufi's interest in life is art and beauty, and
  • One's task [is] the service of humanity in whatever form possible.