Love brought us from the world of Unity to that of variety, and the same force can take us back again to the world of Unity from the world of variety.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Sufis take the course of love and devotion to accomplish their highest aim, because it is love which has brought us from the world of Unity to the world of variety, and the same force can take us back again to the world of Unity from that of variety.
Love is the reduction of the universe to the single being, and the expansion of a single being, even to God.
— (Balzac)
Love is that state of mind in which the consciousness of the lover is merged in that of the object of one’s love; it produces in the lover all the attributes of humanity, such as resignation, renunciation, humility, kindness, contentment, patience, virtue, calmness, gentleness, charity, faithfulness, bravery, by which the devotee becomes harmonized with the Absolute. As one of God’s beloveds, a path is opened for our heavenly journey: at the end we arrive at oneness with God, and our whole individuality is dissolved in the Ocean of Eternal Bliss where even the conception of God and self disappears.
Seeing the nature and character of life the Sufi says that it is not very important to distinguish between two opposites [ Unity and variety ]. What is most important is to recognize that One which is hiding behind it all. Naturally after realizing life the Sufi climbs the ladder which leads to Unity, to the idea of Unity which comes through the synthesis of life, by seeing One in all things, in all beings. … in whatever age the wise were born, they have always believed the same: that behind all is Oneness, and in the understanding of that Oneness is wisdom. The point of view of the person who awakens to the spirit of Unity, who sees the oneness behind all things, becomes different and the attitude therefore changes. One no longer says to one’s friend, ‘I love you because you are my friend’; one says, ‘I love you because you are my self’.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
First came God, and then the object of God’s Love which is called Creation. Then God in Love entered into union with this Creation and all the living forms appeared, the Highest being humanity, which is the one resembling the Spiritual Parent most. But God, not being human, loves and can enter into union with all creatures, as soon as that creature — atom, rock, earth, stone, plant, vegetable, bird, beast, fish, crawling creature, human being, jinn, spirit or angel — turns toward God. The difference between this second kind of Union and the first is that in the second instance one becomes entirely united with God, without producing any further fruits of Union necessarily.