True pleasure lies in the sharing of joy with another.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Humanity’s selfishness shows itself in wanting to get the better of their fellow beings. If we developed humanity we should do differently. We should be satisfied with a slice of bread if there were another in need, but as it is, it happens that even when we are fed ourselves, we do not wish anyone else to share the food. The human heart can only be really satisfied by knowing that the other person is happy. True pleasure lies in the sharing of joy with another. From the day that we realize this we begin to act as human beings.
A person who, alone, has seen something beautiful, who has heard something harmonious, who has tasted something delicious, who has smelt something fragrant, may have enjoyed it, but not completely. The complete joy is in sharing one’s joy with others. For the selfish who enjoy themselves and do not care for others, whether they enjoy things of the earth or things of heaven, their enjoyment is not complete.
Tawazu in Sufi terms means something more than hospitality. It is laying before one’s friend willingly what one has, in other words sharing with one’s friend all the good one has in life, and with it, enjoying life better. When this tendency to tawazu is developed, things that give one joy and pleasure become more enjoyable by sharing with another. This tendency comes from the aristocracy of the heart. It is generosity and even more than generosity. For the limit of generosity is to see others pleased in their pleasure, but to share one’s own pleasure with another is greater than generosity. It is a quality which is foreign to a selfish person, and the one who shows this quality is on the path of saintliness.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
As the loaves and fishes of Christ increased in division, so the joys of life grow more abundant when shared. In reality, sharing is the joy and not sharing the sorrow of life. If one shares and shares, one will find more and more joy, being freed from earthly attachment. This is the true wealth of life, which is not conditioned by any plane of existence.