Love is the essence of all religion, mysticism and philosophy.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Love is the practice of the moral of Suluk, the way of beneficence. The lover’s pleasure is in the pleasure of the beloved. The lover is satisfied when the beloved is fed. The lover is vain when the beloved is adorned. ‘Who in life blesses the one who curses one? Who in life admires the one who hates one? Who in life proves faithful to the one who is faithless? None other than a lover.’ And in the end the lover’s self is lost from vision and only the beloved’s image, the desired vision, is before the lover forever.
Love is the essence of all religion, mysticism, and philosophy, and for the one who has learnt this, love fulfills the purpose of religion, ethics, and philosophy, and the lover is raised above all diversities of faiths and beliefs.
For the Sufi there is one principle which is most essential to be remembered, and that is consideration for human feeling. If one practices this one principle in life, one need not learn much more, need not trouble about philosophy, need not follow an old or a new religion, for this principle in itself is the essence of all religions. God is love, but where does God dwell? God abides in the heart of humanity.
( from Sangathas, Series I, Khawas [ unpublished ] )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
What is religion? It is our relation to God. What is mysticism? It is our realization of God. What is philosophy? It is our consideration of God. But what connects humanity with God and God with humanity? It is the Love-Light-Life described as Logos. So soon as any speech, thought or feeling connects one with God, some of this Universal Energy touches one or returns to God. This connecting nexus is the very Elixir of Love.