Every blow in Life pierces the heart and awakens our feelings to sympathize with others; and every swing of comfort lulls us to sleep, and we become unaware of all.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
If the soul is awakened, how does it awake, and who awakens it? We see that the time for Nature to awake is the spring. It is asleep all winter and it awakes in the spring. There is a time for the sea, when the wind blows and brings good tidings, as if it awakes from sleep; then the waves rise. All this shows struggle, it shows that something has touched it and makes it uneasy, restless; it makes it want liberation, release. Every atom, every object, every condition and every living being has a time of awakening.
Sometimes there is a gradual awakening, and sometimes there is a sudden awakening. To some it comes in a moment’s time — by a blow, by a disappointment, or because their heart has broken, through something that happened suddenly. It seemed cruel, but at the same time the result was a sudden awakening and this awakening brought a blessing beyond praise. The outlook changed, the insight deepened; joy, quiet, independence and freedom were felt, and compassion showed in the attitude.
It is the thoughts that spring from the depths of the heart which become inspirations and revelations, and these come from the hearts of awakened souls, called by the Sufis, Sahib-i Dil [ Arabic & Urdu: literally ‘master of heart’; figuratively or metaphorically ‘illuminated, or enlightened’. Also, in Urdu, it carries the meanings of ‘free from reserve, disguise, equivocation, or dissimulation, open, and frank’; which would be the outer condition and aspect of one who has “mastered’ ie awakened the Heart — Muiz ]. The bringers of joy are the children of sorrow. Every blow we get in Life pierces the heart and awakens our feelings to sympathize with others, and every swing of comfort lulls us to sleep, and we become unaware of all. This proves the truth of these words, ‘Blessed are they that mourn.”
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Ishk, the Life Current flowing through the heart and permeating the blood, touches all souls. It is a marvelous law that many people, often harsh and unsympathetic, upon suffering great pain then begin to show sympathy and love toward others. This is because of the very nature of Ishk, Ishk which knows neither self nor not-self. So when heart is in Ishk it shows loving-kindness to all, not recognizing differences. This is the ideal condition of the traveler.