The ideal of God is a bridge connecting the limited life with the Unlimited; whosoever travels over this bridge passes safely from the limited to the Unlimited Life.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
… there is a side in our being — call it spirit — which remains unsatisfied with all that we have attained in our lifetime. The satisfaction of the spirit, which is the deepest being of humanity, lies only in the pursuit of the ideal.
With all progress that humanity makes, idealism neglected will show at each step towards progress a great lack, and nothing can substitute that lack. If there is anything that fills the gap, if there is anything that makes a bridge between God and humanity, it is the ideal.
( from The Message Papers: The Message, September 1, 1925 [ unpublished ] )
An ideal is something to hope for and to hold on to, and in the absence of an ideal, hope has nothing to look forward to. It is the lack of idealism which accounts for the present degeneration of humanity in spite of all the progress it has made in other directions [ This comment on the reason for the ‘present degeneration of humanity’ was made at some point between 1910 and 1927. One can wonder how Pir-o-Murshid might assess the state of humanity in today’s world — Muiz]. There are many kinds of ideals: principles, virtues, objects of devotion; but the greatest and highest of all ideals is the God-Ideal. And when this God-Ideal upon which all other ideals are based is lost, then the very notion of ideal is ignored. Humanity needs many things in life, but its greatest need is an ideal.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IX – The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part II: The God-Ideal, Part X )
If we are standing on a staircase and remain on the first step, we may be a believer but we are not going up. Thus there are many believers who have a certain conception of God, but they are standing there without moving, while perhaps a person who has no conception of God at all may be moving. There are thousands of people who pronounce the name of God many times during the day, but who are perhaps most wretched. The reason is that they have not yet discovered the purpose of the God-ideal. It is not merely belief; belief is only the first step. God is the key to Truth, God is the stepping-stone to self-realization, God is the bridge which unites the outer life with the inner life, bringing about perfection. It is by understanding this that the secret of the God-Ideal is to be realized.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IX – The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part II: The God-Ideal, Part IV )
The God-Ideal is so tremendous that people can never comprehend it fully, therefore the best method adopted by the wise is to allow everyone to make their own God. In this way they form whatever conception they are capable of forming. They make God ruler of the heavens and of the earth; they make God judge, greater than all judges; they make God almighty, having all power; they make God the possessor of all grace and glory; they make God the beloved God, merciful and compassionate; they recognize in God providence, support, and protection; and in God they recognize all perfection. This ideal becomes a stepping-stone to the higher knowledge of God.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IX – The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part II: The God-Ideal, Part VII )
In reality the ideal of God is a bridge connecting the limited life with the unlimited. Whoever goes over this bridge passes safely from the limited to the Unlimited Life. The bridge may be taken away, it is true, and one may yet swim across the chasm; but one may be drowned too. The ideal of God is a safe bridge, which takes you safely to the goal.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: The Personality of God )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Most words indicate that which the mind has grasped of the finite portion of existence. But this finite portion is not Reality; it is shadow or color, and depends upon our own condition, not upon the thing or condition or principle apprehended. Now mind, realizing that all did not come within its ken and finding that the greater portion of life is not intellectually understood, made use of the word God or of some similar word to describe the Pleroma — the All-Embracing, Living Fullness, which is felt to be by the ignorant and known to be by the wise. This feeling of God, which is the greatest intuition, through faith helps one greatly toward its realization.