The giver is greater than the gift.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Besides having one’s wish granted, the joy of giving another happiness, that itself is greater than a wish granted, if one has risen to that plane of human evolution when one can enjoy pleasure with the pleasure of another, when one can feel satisfaction in the satisfaction of another, when one can be happy in bringing happiness to another. No one will give another happiness and will not have the same come to them a thousandfold. There comes a stage of evolution in life when we feel more satisfied by seeing another person satisfied with food than by our having eaten it ourselves, when we feel comfortable in seeing another person comfortable, when we feel richly adorned by seeing another person clothed nicely; for this stage is a stepping-stone to the realization of God.
Human beings living in their shells are mostly unaware of the privilege of life and so are unthankful to the Giver of it. In order to see the grace of God we must open our eyes and raise our head from our little worlds. Then we will see — above and below, to the right and the left, before and behind — the grace of God reaching us from everywhere in abundance.
Those who are loved by everybody in the world, and yet if they have not loved anybody, they have done nothing. Those who have possessed the wealth of the whole world, but if they have given nothing, they have not earned. Those honored by everyone in the world, but if they have not respected, they have not lived.
What does it mean? It only means that what we gain is nothing, it is what we give that counts. It is nothing — what has been done to us — if only we did all we wished to do, that is what counts. Either learning or wisdom, position or power or wealth, all these things gained are very small compared with what one can give to the others.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad) Samuel L. Lewis
For giving itself increases the greatness of heart and mind. Whatever one attaches value to, the value is in the attachment not in the thing, and this is a false value. There is nothing in the universe so valuable as that which can be given away yet retained in the giving such as the heart-qualities, which spring from love. All else is valuable only because humanity considers it so.