The lover of nature is the true worshipper of God.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
True worshipers of God see God’s presence in all forms, and thus in respecting others they respect God. It may even develop to such an extent that the true worshipers of God, the Omnipresent, walk gently on the earth, bowing in their hearts even to every tree and plant, and it is then that the worshipers form a communion with the Divine Beloved at all times, when they are awake and when they are asleep.
Anyone who has some knowledge of mysticism and of the lives of the mystics knows that what always attracts the mystics most is nature. Nature is their bread and wine. Nature is their soul’s nourishment. Nature inspires them, uplifts them and gives them the solitude for which their souls continually long. Every soul born with a mystical tendency is constantly drawn towards nature; in nature that soul finds its life’s demand, as it is said in the Vadan, ‘Art is dear to my heart, but nature is near to my soul’. … Nature does not teach the glory of God; it need not teach this, as nature itself is the glory of God. People wish to study astrology and other subjects in order to understand better, but if we study astrology then we are sure to arrive at an interpretation which is given by a person, whereas what we should read from nature is what nature gives us and not what any book teaches us.
There comes a time with the maturity of the soul when every thing and every being begins to reveal its nature to us. We do not need to read their lives. We do not need to read their theories. We know then that this wide nature in its four aspects is ever-revealing and that one can always communicate with it, but that in spite of this it is not the privilege of every soul to read it. Many souls remain blind with open eyes. They are in heaven, but not allowed to look at heaven; they are in paradise, but not allowed to enjoy the beauties of paradise. It is just like a person sleeping on a pile of gems and jewels. From the moment our eyes open and we begin to read the Book of Nature we begin to live; and we continue to live forever.
‘There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of Nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader.’ Most people consider as sacred scriptures only certain books or scrolls written by the hands of humanity, and carefully preserved as holy, to be handed down to posterity as divine revelation. Humans have fought and disputed over the authenticity of these books, have refused to accept any other book of similar character, and, clinging thus to the book and losing the sense of it, have formed diverse sects. The Sufis have in all ages respected all such books, and have traced in the Vedanta, Zend-Avesta, Kabbala, Bible, Qur’an, and all other sacred scriptures, the same Truth which they read in the incorruptible manuscript of Nature, the only Holy Book, the perfect and living model that teaches the inner Law of Life: all scriptures before Nature’s manuscript are as little pools of water before the ocean.
To the eye of the seers every leaf of the tree is a page of the holy book that contains Divine Revelation, and they are inspired every moment of their lives by constantly reading and understanding the holy script of Nature.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad) Samuel L. Lewis
Nature is the aspect of God which includes names and forms. It is still the aspect of God, and the darkness in nature is only a veil to prevent the pure latent light from blinding the eyes of creatures incapable of gazing into it. Not only the seer or sage but many people feel this tremendous urge within nature; not only the mystic and pantheist but many of limited scope are stimulated by trees or mountains and rivers. This shows that there is in nature the same spiritual life which is in the soul of humanity, and in this love there is the call of soul to soul, God recognizing God.
[ This image of a veil covering the Inner Light to protect those not ready to behold it, calls to mind a quote recited by my teacher, Murshid Wali Ali Meyer, at some point during my initial 6 years of training with him, in San Francisco, in the late ’70s. My memory has it attributed to Hazrat Sheikh Muhyiuddin Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, the great Persian Sufi jurist, mystic, teacher, and founder of the Qadiriyya Tariqat (order, or lineage), based in Baghdad in the 11th & 12th centuries, CE. I’ve been unable to locate the quote via searching the net, but whomever it may have been attributed to, it was uttered while in a state of Divine Absorption, ie fanā’, and thus was spoken in the voice of Allah: “For those unable to abide the Brightness of My Intellect, I created the Worlds of Form, as a screen; and for those unable to abide the Solitude of My Unity, I created the Worlds of Light, as a screen.” — Muiz ]