It does not matter in what way we offer our respect and our reverence to the deity we worship; it matters only how sincere we are in our offering.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
The forms of worship of all the different religions are necessarily different. It depends upon what one is accustomed to, what is akin to one’s nature. One cannot make a common rule and say that this form is wrong and that form is right. One person will perhaps feel more exaltation in a form of worship which includes some art. It stimulates the emotional nature. Music, pictures, perfumes, colors, and light, all these have an effect upon such a person. Another can concentrate better if there is nothing in the place of worship to catch the attention. It is all a matter of temperament. It is not wrong to prefer the one or the other. The Sufis see the variety of forms as different ideals. They do not attach importance to the outer expression. If there is a sincere spirit behind it, if a person has a feeling for worship, it does not matter what form of worship it is.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: From Limitation to Perfection, Part 1 )
In what manner prayer be offered matters little if only the sentiment be right. The orthodox of the world have fought with each other, each claiming that, “Our manner of prayer is the best. Our church is the best. Our temple is the best. Our sermon is the best. The others are astray;” not knowing that in the house of God it is not asked, “To which church do you belong? To which temple do you belong?” but it is asked, “How sincere were you in your prayer?”
( from The Supplementary Papers – Religion II: The Ideal of God [ unpublished ] )
Nature teaches every soul to worship God in some way or other, and often provides that which is suitable for each. Those who want one law to govern all have lost sight of the spirit of their own religion. And it is in people who have not yet learned their own religion that such ideas are commonly found. Did they but know their own religion, how tolerant they would become, and how free from any grudge against the religion of others!
So it is too with the manner of worship. It does not matter in what way we offer our respect and our reverence to the deity we worship. It only matters how sincere we are in our offering. In one house of God we find that people do not wear hats; in Hindustan, Persia, and Arabia they put on turbans to go to the mosque. That is their custom. It makes no difference whether one person prays standing, another sitting, another kneeling, another prostrating, another in company with other people, and another alone. All that matters is that the heart of the worshipper is pure, that the mind is connected with God, that there is sincerity and earnestness.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: Nature’s Religion )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
This is true because respect and reverence are determined by the degree of sincerity and selflessness and not by an outer act. We see this in the story of the widow’s mite [ The Widow’s Mite is a story told by Jesus in the Bible, Mark 12:41–44, and Luke 21:1–4. The mite in this context is a very small offering. (The story describes a widow who gives two small copper coins to the temple treasury. Jesus witnesses this offering and describes how great her gift is, because it represents a greater proportion of her wealth than the larger gifts of other religious leaders.) — Muiz ]. Christ said that she had given the most to God, and it was because she had given herself and not because of any mathematical proportion of tithe. So we find many manners of prayer and ceremonials of worship and all names and forms, but these are mostly for human convenience. For God’s sake we need sincerity, that is to say, the prayer of the heart which is the real and full prayer.