TEACHINGS of HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN:
The Ideal of Love, Harmony and Beauty
The first line of defense is the moral teaching of kindliness, tolerance and compassion. These belong to all religions and to atheism and to philosophy and to science. They can be advocated at all times and before all peoples. If they do not stand as ideals, conflict will necessarily follow.
Christ came to teach not theology but love. Mohammed came only with the Message of Unity, and Buddha taught that it was an attitude, not a form, which raised one into the peace of Nirvana.
The religious will accept the ideas of love, harmony and beauty and the irreligious will accept the ideals of love, harmony and beauty. So you can find a common standard whereby all may join.
In this way the Sufi Message in time will help greatly to spread the spirit of human brother and sisterhood and so establish peace upon earth.
“Living From the Heart: Universal Sufism in America.”
Ten Sufi Thoughts
1. There is one God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none exists save God.
2. There is one Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, who constantly leads humanity toward the light.
3. There is one Holy Book, the Sacred Manuscript of Nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader.
4. There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction toward the ideal, which fulfills the life’s purpose of each soul.
5. There is one Law, the Law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
6. There is one Brother-Sisterhood, the human family, which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the parenthood of God.
7. There is one Moral Principle, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
8. There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all aspects from the seen to the Unseen.
9. There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom.
10. There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the Real, which raises the mortal to immortality and in which resides all perfection.
The Three Sufi Purposes
- To realize and spread the knowledge of unity, the religion of love and wisdom, so that the bias of faiths and beliefs may of itself fall away, the human heart may overflow with love, and all hatred caused by distinctions and differences may be rooted out.
- To discover the light and power latent in humankind, the secret of all religion, the power of mysticism, and the essence of philosophy, without interfering with customs or beliefs.
- To help bring the world’s two opposite poles, East and West, closer together by interchange of thought and ideals, that the universal brother-sisterhood may form of itself, and people may meet with people beyond the narrow national and racial boundaries.
“Practice love well, and the veil of the lover disappears, only the Beloved remains.”
