Passion is the smoke and emotion is the glow of Love’s fire. Unselfishness is the flame that illuminates the path.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
People call love blind, but love in reality is the light of the sight. The eye can only see the surface; love can see much deeper. All ignorance is the lack of love. As fire when not kindled gives only smoke, but when kindled, the illuminating flame springs forth, so it is with love. It is blind when undeveloped, but, when its fire is kindled, the flame that lights the path of the traveler from mortality to everlasting life springs forth. The secrets of earth and heaven are revealed to the possessor of the loving heart, the lover has gained mastery over self and others, and not only communes with God but also unites with God.
A heart lightened by love is more precious than all the gems and jewels of the world. … Love is like the fire; its glow is devotion, its flame is wisdom, its smoke is attachment, and its ashes detachment. Flame rises from glow, so it is with wisdom, which rises from devotion. When love’s fire produces its flame it illuminates the devotee’s path in life like a torch, and all darkness vanishes.
When the life-force acts in the soul it is love, when it acts in the heart it is emotion, and when in the body it is passion. Therefore the most loving are the most emotional, and the most emotional are the most passionate, according to the plane of which they are most conscious. If they are most awake in the soul they are loving, if awakened in the heart they are emotional, if they are conscious of the body they are passionate. These three may be pictured as fire, flame, and smoke. Love is fire when in the soul, it is a flame when the heart is kindled by it, and it is as smoke when it manifests through the body.
Love must be absolutely free from selfishness, otherwise it does not produce proper illumination. If the fire has no flame it cannot give light, and smoke comes out of it, which is troublesome. Such is selfish love. Whether it be for humanity or for God it is fruitless, for though it appears to be love for another or love for God, it is in fact love for the self.
If one asked: Where is the soul? Where can we see the soul manifest to view? Where is paradise? Where is heaven? Where is joy and pleasure? If one asked: Where is love? Where is God? We can answer each of these questions by saying: it is in the heart.
Imagine how wonderful and at the same time how obscure to our view! If we call the heart the spark of fire then we can see its different aspects: as sympathy in the form of heat, as longing in the form of fire, as affection in the form of glow, as devotion in the form of flame, as passion in the form of smoke that blinds the eyes. … One may ask: How to cultivate the heart quality? There is only one way: to become selfless at each step one takes forward on this path, for what prevents one from cultivating the loving quality is the thought of self.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad) Samuel L. Lewis
Do not blame the ignorant for their vices. Each vice is the shadow of some virtue. The more you blame another for their vice, the more you keep that vice-seed in the world where it can feed upon others. By this attention evil is continued in the world. But knowing that vice is nothing but the effect of nufs to control energy, one can perceive the hand of God even in wickedness. Find God, discern the good in all tendencies, and you help to purify the universe.