Praise cannot exist without blame; it has no existence without its opposite.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
There is a pair of opposites in all things, and in each there exists the spirit of the opposite: in man the quality of woman, in woman the spirit of man, in the sun the form of the moon, in the moon the light of the sun. The closer one approaches Reality, the nearer one arrives at Unity.
Life is differentiated by the pairs of opposites.
( from Sayings of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: Gayan (Celestial Voices) – Boulas (Kindled words) )
Praise cannot exist without blame, for nothing has existence without its opposite, just as pleasure cannot exist without pain. No one can be great and not small; no one can be loved and not hated. There is no one who is hated by all and not loved by someone; there is always someone to love one. If one would realize that the world of God, God’s Splendor and Magnificence, are to be seen in the wise and the foolish, in the good and the bad, then one would think tolerantly and reverently of all humankind.
How do the Sufis struggle? They struggle with power, with understanding, with open eyes, and with patience. They do not look at the loss; what is lost is lost. They do not think of the pain of yesterday; yesterday is gone for them. Only if a memory is pleasant do they keep it before them, for it is helpful on their way. They take both the admiration and the hatred coming from around them with smiles; they believe that both these things form a rhythm within the rhythm of a certain music; there is one and two, the strong accent and the weak accent. Praise cannot be without blame, nor can blame be without praise. They keep the torch of wisdom before them, because they believe that the present is the echo of the past, and that the future will be the reflection of the present. It is not sufficient to think only of the present moment; one should also think where it comes from and where it goes. Every thought that comes to their mind, every impulse, every word they speak, is to them like a seed, a seed which falls in this soil of Life, and takes root. And in this way they find that nothing is lost; every good deed, every little act of kindness, of love, done to anybody, will some day rise as a plant and bear fruit.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: The Struggle of Life (1) )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Praise from another may or may not affect us. If it affects us, if it buoys us up, it raises us. In Saum, saying “Praise be to God,” the hands are raised, the thoughts are raised, the heart is raised, the voice is raised. This means a change of condition, and if there is a possible change of condition — a change upward — there can also be a change downward. Those who allow the words of others to raise them up, to intoxicate them, will also permit the words and thoughts of others to deject them, to intoxicate them in another manner. Either of these conditions is an intoxication; the person in a state of sobriety is one affected neither by praise nor by blame.