Bowl of Saki for January 17

Thought draws the line of fate.

Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan


Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net

As mind is naturally impressionable, that means that we are naturally impressionable too. Most often our illness, health, prosperity, failure, all depend upon the impressions on our mind. They say ‘Lines of fate and death are on the head and palm,’ but I would say that it is the impressions we have on our mind which decide our destiny.

A person thinks, ‘Some day I should like to build a factory.’ At this time they have no money, no knowledge, no capability; but a thought came, ‘Some day I should like to build a factory.’ Then they think of something else. Perhaps years pass, but that thought has been working constantly through a thousand minds, and a thousand sources prepare for yhem that which they once desired. If we could look back to all we have thought of at different times, we would find that the line of fate or destiny, Kismet as it is called in the East, is formed by our thought. Thoughts have prepared for us that happiness or unhappiness which we experience. The whole of mysticism is founded on this.

One must always say every word with consideration, and should not say what one does not wish to happen. Those who do not understand the value of suggestion walk after their own fate with a whip in their hand, and those who understand its value and control their word and use it rightly, they are a bliss to themselves and a source of happiness to others.


Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis

This is true not only in prayer but in all things. Every exhalation sends something out, and every inhalation draws something in. That which is expelled carries a message, as a flying dove going upward. As soon as another thought is received into the mind, it impedes the upward journey of that breath-message. When any act, thought, speech or desire strikes the mind-mesh, it is propelled downward toward the earth plane and brings with it the results of a movement which is at the same time personal and individual, and also cosmic, in the sense that the whole sphere endeavors to keep its balance and sends back the compensatory vibrations to those sent out by everyone.

To overcome this action, Fikar is practiced in some form. In daily Fikar or Darood,

[ Darood (or durood) is a Farsi (and probably also Urdu) word meaning ‘praising’ or ‘honoring’ and is most often, in Islamic religious context, one of the several variations of well known short prayers in praise and honor of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh), asking God to send blessings upon him and his family. The “pbuh”, or PBUH/P.B.U.H. following the Prophet’s name, is the written shorthand for “Peace and Blessings be Upon Him”, the shortest of the daroods. Devout Muslims will use one of the daroods every time his name is mentioned. It may also written as “saw” or SAW/S.A.W. which is shorthand for the first 3 Arabic words of the same phrase (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Salam).

A more complete variation is the Darood Sharif: O Allah, send Thy blessings upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad as Thou sent Thy blessings on Abraham and upon the family of Abraham. Verily Thou are the Praised, the Glorious. O Allah, bestow favors on Muhammad and on the family of Muhammad as Thou bestowed favors on Abraham and upon the family of Abraham. Verily Thou art the Praised, the Glorious.).

In the context of Sufi Practice, Murshid SAM’s use of Darood refers specifically to the practice of repeating the phrase “Toward the One” (or even the full Invocation) on the breath, as an ongoing tool to refocus awareness away from the limitations of human experience and onto the Only Being

— Muiz ]

when a thought is accompanied by a Divine Breath it can automatically arise through the meshes of the mental net and pass through Djabrut to the Arsh, the throne of God. That is to say, the automatic wish of the average person can rise no higher than the thought or will behind it, but for the spiritual person, the initiate, whose thought and desire are accompanied by Darood, these automatically rise above the mental world into the empyrean unless another thought deliberately interferes. Practice of Concentration with Fikar perfects this process.