Love shows its quality by constancy. Where there is no constancy, there is no love. People have made,understood a wrong meaning of love. They do not know it very often. The real meaning of love is life itself: that feeling of life, that feeling that I live, that feeling itself is love. And therefore what is love? Love is God. And what is God? God is love. As long as one is involved into selfish thoughts and actions in life, one does not understand the meaning of love. Love is sacrifice, love is service, love is the regard for the pleasure and displeasure of the beloved. And that love can be seen in all different aspects of life once it is understood. For those who depend upon one, for those with whom one comes in contact in one’s everyday life, for those of one’s country, for those of one’s race, for humanity. It can expand even to such an extent that the love can be for every little creature in the world, the smallest insect. And it is with this expansion a drop of water, so to speak, expands to the ocean. The man so limited, limited as he is, the more he expands, the further he reaches heavenwards, and that he can become as great as the absolute.
Therefore, instead of teaching the lesson of indifference, as many mystics have taught, the Sufis have learned the lesson of love, of devotion, of sympathy. They have called it the cultivating of the heart. And it is known by the word suluk. Suluk means the loving manner. All that which we call refined manner is only a manner; behind it there is no life. But when a manner is directed by the heart quality, then it becomes the living manner, and that manner comes from love. And all such attributes as kindness, as gentleness, as tolerance, as forgiveness, they all spring from the loving manner, mercy and compassion—all. The great teachers and prophets, and the inspirers of humanity in all times, they have not become what they were by their miracles or wonder workings; that belongs to other people. The chief thing that could be seen in them was the loving manner. When you can read the life of prophets, first of all, see the way Jesus Christ had with all those who came to him. Those who were sinners, who were condemned, who were put out from the society and from people. When they were brought to the master, the master received them with compassion. He was not on the side of those who accused them. He was on the side [of the] one who was accused, that was loving manner. The fishermen who could never understand the master, even the most educated, would not have understood them. The fishermen apart, the master lived with them and moved with them, and won their hearts in the end; that is loving manner.
But one may ask how to cultivate it? There is only one way, and that way is to become selfless and at each step one takes forward in this path, because what prevents one to cultivate loving quality is the thought of self. The more we think of self, the less we think of another. And then the self grows to become worse and worse as one goes further. In the end the self meets one as a giant whichone has always fought and in the end the giant is the strongest. But if from the first step one takes in the path of perfection, one struggled and fought and conquered this giant, which is self, and [that]is, can only be done by the increasing power of love.
Inayat Khan
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