Nobody appears inferior to us when our heart is kindled with kindness and our eyes are open to the vision of God.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
We are so situated in life that whatever position we may occupy we are never independent, we are never self-sufficient. Therefore, everyone depends upon others for help, and others depend upon us for help; only the position of the person who is one among those who receive help becomes lower in the eyes of those who count themselves among the few who can [ offer ] help.
This makes every person a master [ helper/server ] as well as a servant. Yet all in the intoxication of our mastership [ server-/helper-ship ], we forget our place as servants, and look upon the one who helps us as our servant. The wise, whose feelings are awakened, think on this question deeply, and do their best to avoid every possibility of giving even an idea to servants of their servant-ship, far less insulting them in any way or hurting their feelings. We are all equal, and if we have helpers to serve us in life we ought to feel humble and most thankful for the privilege, instead of making the position of the servant humble. … One cannot commit a greater sin than hurting the feelings of the one who serves us and depends upon our help. Once the Prophet heard his grandson call a servant by his name. On hearing this he at once said to his grandson, ‘No, child, that is not the right way of addressing elders. You ought to call him ‘uncle.’ It does not matter if he serves us, we are all servants of one another, and we are equal in the sight of God.’
There is a verse of Mahmud-i Ghaznavi: ‘The Emperor Mahmud, who had thousands of slaves to wait on his call, became the slave of his slaves when love gushed forth from his heart.’ Nobody appears inferior to us when our heart is kindled with kindness and our eyes are open to the vision of God.
As Christ teaches, ‘Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with that one twain.’ 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 those who really experience this joy of life, find that it becomes so great that it fills their hearts and their souls. 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 hearts, all fill the soul with light. There is nothing now that they lack in Life, for they have become the ruler of it.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume In an Eastern Rose Garden: Love, Harmony, and Beauty )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Inferior and superior are qualities connected with dualism [ ie below the mind-mesh — Muiz ]. Heart knows only Oneness [ because it is above or beyond the mind-mesh — Muiz ], and therefore Heart does not understand distinctions into grades. The sun looks upon the earth — not upon the [ individual ] hills and mountains and valleys and oceans. From a certain point of view these things exist; from another point of view they cannot be perceived. So it is with the outlook of the Heart; when it sees God, it perceives All in the Light and this of itself brings to fruition kindness, compassion, and all heart qualities.