All beings have a definite vocation and that vocation is the light that illuminates their lives. Those who disregard their vocation are as lamps unlit.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
All beings have a definite vocation, and that vocation is the light which illuminates their lives. Those who disregard their vocation are as lamps unlit. Those who sincerely seek their real purpose in Life are themselves sought by that purpose. As they concentrate on that search a light begins to clear their confusion.
We find with many people, that somehow they never happen to find their life’s vocation. And what happens then is that in the end they consider their life a failure. All through their life they go from one thing to another, yet as they do not know their life’s object they can accomplish so little. When people ask why they do not succeed, the answer is: because they have not yet found their object. As soon as they have found their life’s object they begin to feel at home in this world, where before they had felt themselves in a strange world. No sooner have they found their way than they will prove to be fortunate, because all the things they want to accomplish will come by themselves.
Even if the whole world were against them, they will get such a power that they can hold on to their object against anything. They will get such a patience that when they are on the way to their object no misfortune will discourage them. There is no doubt that as long as they have not found it they will go from one thing to another, and again to another; and they will think that life is against them. Then they will begin to find fault with individuals, conditions, plans, the climate, with everything. Thus what is called fortunate or successful is really having the right object. When a person is wearing clothes which were not made for them, they say they are too wide or too short, but when they are in their clothes they feel comfortable in them. Everyone should therefore be given freedom to choose their object in life. And if they find their object they know that they are on the right path.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness, Chapter 2: The Aim of Life )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
That is to say, the root cause of our misery is our wrong attitude, and this comes mostly from our selfish outlook. The interesting thing about this selfishness is that while it may cause some harm to others — we may rob, steal, injure, or deceive others — the greatest … [ possible missing word: harm? — Muiz ] and by far the greatest injury is done to the self. It is seldom if ever that one finds a happy rogue or thief. The very law under which they operate brings them poisoned fruit.
Repentance toward God which lifts one from the vestiges of selfhood is the one thing which will save humanity. If one has been a thief it may lead one to learn to be skillful, astute, wide-awake, faithful to one’s profession, to acquire ability in concentration, and so develop many arts and faculties which can do one good. Those acquisitions are never lost, and whether one repents here, now, or hereafter, they will sometime help one in one’s evolution. Only blinded by one’s selfishness, one spends long years in the abuse of the Divine Attributes and so finds no satisfaction.