God is the ideal that raises humanity to the utmost height of Perfection.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
An ideal is something to hope for and hold on to, and in the absence of an ideal hope has nothing to look forward to. It is the lack of idealism which accounts for the present degeneration of humanity in spite of all the progress it has made in other directions. There are many kinds of ideals: principles, virtues, objects of devotion; but the greatest and highest of all ideals is the God-ideal. And when this God-ideal upon which all other ideals are based is lost, then the very notion of ideal is ignored. Humanity needs many things in life, but our greatest need is an ideal.
God is the ideal that raises humanity to the utmost reach of Perfection. As we consider and judge our dealings with humanity in our conscience, so the real worshipers of God consider their dealings with God. If they have helped anybody, if they have been kind to anybody, if they have made sacrifices for anybody, they do not look for appreciation or return for their doing so, to the people to whom they have done good; for they consider that they have done it for God, and therefore, their account is with God, not with those with whom they have dealt. They do not care even if instead of being praised they are blamed; for in any case they have done it for God, who is the best Judge and the Knower of all things.
There is no ideal that can raise the moral standard higher than the God-ideal, although Love is the root of all and God is the fruit of this. Love’s expansion and Love’s culmination and Love’s progress all depend upon the God-ideal. However much we may fear our friend, our neighbor, when we do something that might offend those whom we love, whom we respect; yet how narrow is our goodness when it is only for one person or for certain people! Imagine if we had the same consideration for God, then we would be considerate everywhere and in dealing with all people; as in a verse of a Sufi which says, ‘Everywhere I go I find Thy sacred dwelling-place; and whichever side I look I see Thy beautiful face, my Beloved.’
[ An alternative English rendering of this same poetic aphorism, from Pir-o-Murshid’s “10 Sufi Thoughts“, “#8 There is One Object of Praise”, with his commentaries on them: ‘Everywhere I look, I see Thy winning face; everywhere I go, I arrive at Thy dwelling-place.’ If these aren’t Pir-o-Murshid’s own wordings, they may be paraphrasings from a Sufi poet, though I’ve been unable to find either wording attributed to anyone in searching the web. There’s also the possibility that it could be from a poem that hasn’t been translated into English yet. And another possibility is that it’s a poetic rendering from the Qur’an, Sura al-Baqara (2:115) “To Allah belongs the east and the west, so wherever you turn (face) there will be the face (presence) of Allah. Surely Allah is All-Embracing”. (The Arabic for ‘All-Embracing’ here is the Divine Name al-Wasi’a) — Muiz ]
A lot of poetic lines often get attributed online to Rumi, when in in fact they are not from one of his actual poems. They may be the words of another poet who was writing in Rumi’s style, so to speak, or from their creative space that was influenced by his poetry, or they may have been inspired by the general body of Sufi poetic imagery in the centuries following Rumi, which derives its inspiration from Rumi and others that portray God/Allah as the Beloved, and human beings on the Path of Love, as the Lovers.
Whoever the poet that Pir-o-Murshid is quoting might be, it seems clear that the quote is a poetic echoing of a verse from the Qur’an (Sura 2, verse 115, al-Baqarah (the Cow) “And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah. Indeed, Allah is all-Encompassing and all-Knowing.” — Muiz ]
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad) Samuel L. Lewis
If we regard the planes as located one above the other according to the fineness of their vibrations and substance, it can truly be said that attraction toward the God Ideal takes one into the sphere of the finest vibrations. From that point, the highest can be achieved by the casting away of all vestiges of self. This comes when one consciously and willingly unites with the Ideal. This is the highest condition, this is Nirvana.