Enviable are those who love and ask no return.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
There are two stages of workers. The first stage is that of the one who works for self; the higher stage of working is to work for others. The one who rises above the stage of working for self comes to the stage of working for others, bringing in their lives the blessing which is the need of their lives. To what does the love of God lead? It leads to that peace and stillness which can be seen in the life of the tree which flowers and bears fruit for others and expects no return. Peace will not come to the lovers’ hearts so long as they will not become Love itself.
People are apt to think, ‘Why should I perform actions that bring me no return? Why should I be kind, where no kindness is shown to me, where there is even no appreciation?’ In this way they commercialize their kindness: they give in order to receive. … When one loves one must love for the sake of love, not for a return. When one serves one must serve for the sake of service, not for acknowledgement. In everything people do, if they do not think of reciprocity or appreciation in any manner or form, they may perhaps seem a loser in the beginning, but in the end those people will be the gainers, for they have lived in the world and yet held themselves above the world; it cannot touch them.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
It is only heart which can heal heart. When heart depends upon other than heart, heart has still to learn. The Sufi system of spiritual dependence upon a teacher is founded upon this principle, that when one’s heart is not open, it can be awakened either by complete attunement with a being whose heart is already opened or who is attuning self to one whose heart is opened.
There is no asking or seeking in love — or giving or taking. The natural condition of heart is this: that when it loves others it feeds itself and when it feeds itself it shares with all others. This explains the mysteries of the loaves and fishes of the Bible. Loaves are the Divine Knowledge and the fishes symbolize the breath. No matter how much the Divine Knowledge is given away, it is not diminished; rather the more one shares with another, the more one benefits.