The Truth need not be veiled, for it veils itself from the eyes of the ignorant.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
The soul, absorbed in its child-like fancies in things that it values and to which it gives importance, and in the beings to which it attaches itself, blinds itself by the veils of its illusion. Thus it covers with a thousand veils its own Truth from its own eyes.
Truth is vaster than any frame we can make to put it in. Besides, no matter what frame we make for Truth to be presented in, an unawakened soul will never see it, but will only see the frame.
With still another step further there comes the realization which may be called Revelation. When the soul is tuned to that state, then the eyes and the ears of the heart are open to see and hear the word that comes from all sides. In point of fact every atom of this world, either in heaven or earth, speaks and speaks aloud. It is the deaf ears of the heart and the closed eyes of the soul which prevent us from seeing and hearing it. There is a verse of a Hindustani poet which says:
0 self, it is not the fault of the divine Beloved
that you do not see It, that you do not hear It.
The Beloved is continually before you and is continually speaking to you.
If you do not hear It and if you do not see It, it is your own fault.
It is for this purpose that every soul has been created and it is in the fulfillment of this that we fulfill the object of God. When the spark that is to be found in every heart, the spark that may be called the Divine Spark in us, is blown upon and the flame arises, the whole life becomes illuminated and we hear and see and know, and we understand. A Sufi poet says that every leaf of the tree becomes like a page of the sacred book when the heart is open to read it and when the soul has opened its eyes.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: The Meaning of Life )
We may ask ourselves, ‘Who is another?’ Then we realize that in the true sense of being there is but One. When the veil of ignorance is raised there is no longer any ‘I’ and ‘you’, but only the One exists. This is the teaching of the Bible and of all scriptures.
Humanity is the most egoistic being in creation. We keep ourselves veiled from God, the perfect Self within, by the veil of our imperfect self, which has formed our false ego. … and when the ego is absolutely crushed, then God remains within and without, in both planes, and none exists save God.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IX – The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part IV: Muhammad )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Their eyes are veiled because the ignorant are concentrated upon the dense earth and the gross vibrations of the Universe. Consequently they cannot see the finer atoms and vibrations, to which they are blind by custom, even as one who had been a cave dweller would not at first be able to distinguish objects in the light, and even as the infant takes some little while to peer distinctly upon the earth objects.