Sufi's conception of God | Recitation in Hindi | Inayat Khan Teachings | Ajit Sareen |
Channel: Potpourri of Music and Health
Date: 11/10/2021

The Sufi's conception of God is the means for the Sufi to rise from imperfection to perfection, as is suggested in the Bible, 'Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.' There is a vast gulf between the state of imperfection and the state of perfection; and God is the boat, in which one sails from the port of imperfection to perfection.

To a Sufi, God and man are not two; the Sufi does not consider God as separate from himself. The Sufi's God is not in heaven alone; He is everywhere. He sees God in the unseen and in the seen. He recognizes God both within and without. Therefore, in the eyes of the Sufi there is no name which is not the name of God and there is no form which is not the form of God. As  Jalaluddin Rumi says,

The Beloved is all in all. The lover only veils Him.
The Beloved is all that lives. The lover is a dead thing.'
                                    (Mathnawi I, 30)

In other words, this dual aspect of love, which is expressed as lover and beloved, is in fact one. And one will die and One alone will live. The one that will die is the imperfect self which covers perfection; the One that will live is the perfect Self.

The Sufi recognizes both these aspects in himself, the imperfect and mortal aspect of his being and the perfect, the immortal aspect of his being. The former is represented by his outer self, the latter by his innermost self. Since the imperfect self covers his soul and confines it in a limited being, he recognizes at the same time the greatness of the perfect Being, and calls himself 'I,' a servant of God, and he calls God the Lord of the whole of existence.

In the Sufi schools of the East, this idea is expressed in an allegory, which moves those who enjoy its poetic subtlety. In the Quran is related that when the first man was made, he was asked, 'Say who is thy Master,' and he answered, 'Thou art my Lord.' Philosophically, this idea is the picture of human life. Man begins his life on earth by accepting somebody's command, fearing lest he cause him any displeasure, looking upon someone as his support, protector, or guide, be it in the form of father or mother, relation, friend, master, or king. This shows that man begins his life in the world with his imperfection, at the same time recognizing, surrendering, and bowing to perfection in whatever form.

When man understands this better, then he knows that all the sources that demanded his surrender or recognition were limited and powerless in comparison with that perfect ideal, which we call God. The same attitude that the ordinary man has towards another, who is greater than he in strength, power, or position, the Sufi learns to show towards his God, the ideal of perfection; because in God he includes all forms in which he recognizes beauty, power, greatness, and perfection. Therefore the worship of the Sufi, is not only worship of the Deity. By worship he means drawing closer to perfection. By worship, he tries to forget his imperfect self in the contemplation of the perfect One.

It is not necessary for the Sufi to offer his prayers to God for help in worldly things, or to thank Him for what he receives, although this attitude develops in man a virtue that is very necessary in life. The whole idea of the Sufi is to cover his imperfect self even from his own eyes by the thought of God. That moment when God and not his own self is before him, is the moment of perfect bliss. My murshid, Abu Hashim Madani, once said that there is only one virtue and only one sin for a soul on this path: virtue when he is conscious of God and sin when he is not. No explanation can describe the truth of this except the experience of the contemplative, to whom, when he is conscious of God, it is as if a window is open, which is facing heaven, and when he is conscious of the self, the experience is the opposite. For all the tragedy of life is caused by consciousness of the self. All pain and depression are caused by this, and anything that can take away the thought of the self helps to a certain extent to relieve man from pain; but God-consciousness gives perfect relief.


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