Every moment has its special message.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Every step in evolution makes Life more valuable. The more evolved you are, the more priceless is every moment; it becomes an opportunity for you to do good to others, to serve others, to give love to others, to be gentle to others, to give your sympathy to souls who are longing and hungering for it. Life is miserable when a person is absorbed in self; as soon as one forgets oneself one is happy. The more one thinks of oneself, one’s own affairs, work and interests, the less one knows the meaning of Life.
If we only understood that every moment in Life, every day, every month, and every year, has its particular blessing; if we only knew Life’s opportunity! But the greatest opportunity that we can realize in Life is to accomplish that purpose for which we were sent on Earth. And if we have lost that opportunity, then whatever we may have accomplished in the world, whether we have gathered wealth, possesses much property, or have made a great name for ourselves, we will not be satisfied. Once our eyes are opened and we begin to look at the world, we will find there is a greater opportunity than we had ever thought before.
Humanity is as poor as we are, as limited as we are, as troubled as we are; yet there is nothing in this world which could not be accomplished by humanity if we only knew what thought can do. It is ignorance which keeps us from what we ought to accomplish. We should know how to operate our thought, how to accomplish certain things, how to focus our minds on the objects that should be accomplished. If we do not know, then we have not made use of our mind but have lived like a machine. If we knew the power of feeling, and realized that the power of feeling can reach anywhere and penetrate anything, we could achieve whatever we might wish. … Every person is a captive in some form or other; their lives are limited in some form or other; but they could get above this limitation by realizing the latent power and inspiration of the soul.
Kabir, the great poet of India says, ‘Life is a field and you are born to cultivate it. And if you know how to cultivate this field you can produce anything you like. All the need of your life can be produced in this field. All that your soul yearns after and all you need is to be got from the field, if you know how to cultivate it and how to reap the fruit.’ But if this opportunity is only studied in order to make the best of life by taking all that one can take and by being more comfortable, that is not satisfying. We must enrich ourselves with thought, with that happiness which is spiritual happiness, with that peace which belongs to our soul, with that liberty, that freedom, for which our soul longs; and attain to that higher knowledge which breaks all the fetters of life and raises our consciousness to look at life from a different point of view. Once we have realized this opportunity we have fulfilled the purpose of Life.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: Life, An Opportunity )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Because there are thoughts we can grasp or let go by, because the breath brings with it something from Heaven which we can take or leave, because the Spirit of Guidance is ever present in the heart. So the Sufi prays, “Draw us closer to Thee every moment of our life until in us be reflected Thy Grace, Thy Glory, Thy Wisdom, Thy Joy, and Thy Peace.”