The control of self means the control of everything.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Self-control is the most necessary thing to be learned; a person may have great spirituality, illumination and piety, but in the absence of self-control this is nothing. Self-control also is the way of happiness and peace. … No thought or feeling should arise without our will. When we have gained mastery over the self, we have mastery over all things. … Self-control is an attribute which distinguishes us from the animals; both have their appetites and passions, but it is we alone who can control them.
The control of the self means the control of everything. What does it mean when we see a person fail time after time, or another person succeed time after time? It is just a matter of holding the reins of our affairs in our hands. When there is no rein there is failure. Failure means that there has been lack of self-control, whether it is a failure in affairs or in health. Illness always comes when a person has lost the control of the self. It is because this is the main theme of metaphysics that Hatha Yoga has been considered of the greatest value. All the miracles and all the wonders that have ever been known in this world have been done by those who have been able to control themselves by abstinence, and therefore to control life. However much was said upon this subject, it would still not express it. To begin with people are puzzled by it, and they wonder whether they should believe it or not. That is why in the East the adepts never speak of their experiences in the spiritual life. They only tell their disciples to lead it and practice for years. ‘That will make it clear to you’, they say.
[ Murshid SAM was fond of saying that ‘thinking’ was *not* the same as ‘doing’; and of quoting the Sufi Al-Ghazali: “Sufism is based on experiences and not on premises.” In other words, not on doctrines, nor dogmas, nor on philosophical or theological propositions and their logical ‘conclusions’, and definitely not on our beliefs in or about Scriptures, and the words, testimony, or teachings of others. Although they all may be helpful up to a point, for inspiration and guidance, ultimately we need to actually *do* the spiritual practices, and accomplish the control of self, which in combination will lead to the direct *experiences*. Those direct experiences support and confirm all of the ‘premises’ and teachings and move us from the various impermanent states (hal) of belief to the permanent stage (maqām) of Certainty (yaqīn). And of course from the practical point of view about what leads us towards Awakening, our own direct experience of who we truly Are is the only thing that matters. — Muiz ]
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: The Journey to the Goal )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
That is because this control leads to the Pleroma, the fullness of things, the essence of thing-ness, and so includes everything. Each thing, which can be called a separate thing, has a nufs that distinguishes it from other things, but this distinction is on both sides: both the thing and the desirer of that thing must have the nufs. The chemist can control atoms by destroying the nufs, and the seer controls mental atoms in much the same way. In that way you control all thought by destroying the nufs of thought.