To make God a reality is the real object of worship.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
The first and principle thing in the Inner Life is to establish a relationship with God, making God the object with which we relate ourselves, such as the Creator, Sustainer, Forgiver, Judge, Friend, Father, Mother, and Beloved. In every relationship we must place God before us, and become conscious of that relationship so that it will no more remain an imagination. …
The work of the Inner Life is to make God a reality, so that God is no more an imagination; that this relationship that we have with God may seem more real than any other relationship in the world; and when this happens, then all relationships, however near and dear, become less binding. But at the same time, we do not thus become cold; we become more loving. It is the godless who are cold, impressed by the selfishness and lovelessness of the world, because they partake of those conditions in which they live. But the ones who are in love with God, the ones who have established their relationship with God, their love becomes living. …
To them all things appeal, everything unfolds itself, and it is beauty to their eyes, because God is All-Pervading, in all names and all forms; therefore their Beloved is never absent. How happy therefore are those whose Beloved is never absent, because the whole tragedy of Life is the absence of the Beloved; and to those whose Beloved is always there, when they have closed their eyes the Beloved is within, and when they have opened their eyes the Beloved is without. Their every sense perceives the Beloved; their eyes see their Beloved, their ears hear their Beloved’s voice. When people arrive at this realization they, so to speak, live in the Presence of God; then to them the different forms and beliefs, faiths and communities do not count. To them God is All-in-All; to them God is everywhere. If they go to the Christian church, or to the synagogue, to the Buddhist temple, to the Hindu shrine, or to the mosque of the Muslim, there is God. In the wilderness, in the forest, in the crowd, everywhere they see God.
Of all the millions of believers in God perhaps only one makes God a reality, and that is because the picture we make of God is as limited as ourselves. The knowledge of God is beyond humanity’s reason. We only perceive things we are capable of perceiving. We cannot raise our imaginations above what we are used to, and we cannot reach beyond our imagination to where the Being of God is. The secret of God is hidden in the knowledge of unity. … True life cannot be ours until Unity is achieved. It is the work of religion to promote the Spirit of Unity, in the knowledge and love of God to whom all devotion belongs. People often seek for psychic, occult, and magnetic powers. This is not the purpose of religion; these developments come of themselves. Where there is life and love, there is magnetism; love itself is the healing power and the remedy for all pain. All occult powers belong to the Divine Life, but people should live a natural life and realize the nature of God. The only studies which are worth accomplishing are those which lead to the realization of God, and of Unity first with God and then with the self, and so with all. It is not necessary for us to be told that we have progressed; we ourselves will know when our hearts go forward; and by loving, forgiving, and serving, our whole life becomes one single vision of the Sublime Beauty of God.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IX – The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part I: Unity and Uniformity )
One might say, ‘How can one love God, God whom one does not know, does not see?’ But the those who say this want to take the second step instead of the first. We must first make God a reality, and then God will make us the Truth. This stage is so beautiful. It makes the personalities so tender and gentle. It gives such patience to the worshippers of God; and together with this gentleness and patience they become so powerful and strong that there is nothing that they will not face courageously: illness, difficulties, loss of money, opposition — there is nothing that they are afraid of. With all their gentleness and tenderness, inwardly they become strong. …
If a friend comes to meet them, to the Sufis it is God who is coming to meet them. If beggars are asking for a penny, it is God whom the Sufis recognize in that form. If the wretched are suffering misery, they see also in this the existence of God. Only, the difference is that in some they see God unconscious, in others they sees God conscious. All those who love them, who hate them, who like or dislike them, who look upon them with admiration or contempt, they look at with the eyes of the worshippers of God, who see their Beloved in all aspects.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
And how is this done? By ceasing to act, think, speak or even feel as a disjunctive personality. Acting Unity, thinking Unity, speaking Unity, feeling Unity, and recognizing Unity as nothing but Love is one part of making God a reality. And the other part consists in coming to the realization of the falseness of everything that emanates from the limited personality. These together bring one to the marvelous discovery. And what is the marvelous discovery? That there is nothing to be discovered, that the thing searching itself was the thing to be found.