Bowl of Saki for January 20

To treat every human being as a shrine of God is to fulfill all religion.

Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan


Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net

Where is the shrine of God? It is in the heart of humanity. As soon as one begins to consider the feelings of another, one begins to worship God. … There is a story of a murshid who was going with his mureeds to visit some village, and he was keeping a fast. The mureeds also had taken a vow of fasting. They arrived at the peasants’ home where there was great enthusiasm and happiness and where a dinner was arranged for them. When they were invited to the table, the murshid went and sat down; but the mureeds did not dare because they had taken a vow of fasting. Yet they would never mention it to the murshid. They thought, ‘Murshid is forgetful; Murshid has forgotten the vow.’ After dinner was over and they went out the pupils asked, ‘Did you not forget the vow of fasting?’ ‘No,’ was the murshid’s answer, ‘I had not forgotten. But I preferred breaking the fast rather than the heart of that those who with all their enthusiasm had prepared the food.’

The thirst for life makes us overlook little opportunities of doing good. Every moment of life brings an opportunity for being conscious of human feeling, in prosperity, in adversity, in all conditions. It costs very little; only a little thought is necessary. … There is no greater religion than love. God is love; and the best form of love is to be conscientious regarding the feelings of those with whom we come in contact in everyday life.

How beautiful are the words of the Prophet: ‘The shrine of God is the heart of humans.’ How true that is! … Those who understand this can worship God even in other people. For when they abide by this philosophy they will always be aware that in every aspect and at every moment they may be injuring or hurting the feelings of God, that they are in danger of breaking the shrine of God in breaking the heart of their fellow being. … What does all this teach us? It is all a lesson in sympathy for our fellow beings, to teach us to share in their troubles, in their despair. For whoever really experiences this joy of life, finds that it becomes so great that it fills their heart and their soul. It does not matter if they have fewer comforts or an inferior position than many in this world, because the light of their kindness, of their sympathy, of the love that is growing, the virtue that is springing up in their heart, all fill the soul with light. There is nothing now that they lacks in life, for they have become the sovereign of it.


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

Religion being the tie between the devotee and God, if such a one does not see — actually see — God everywhere, one has not come to the fulfillment of love. This is not a philosophy, it is a reality. It is seen and known.

God may be respected by treating our fellow beings as siblings in the Divine Parenthood. This is one step and is called Morals. But there is a higher step which is to see God as the very life under all names and forms. This may be called Knowledge and it may be called Love. If one has not this feeling it will grow automatically by practice of Fikar and Darood.