Among a million believers in God there is scarcely one who makes God a reality.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
If only we could recognize the inner voice, we would see that the different scriptures all contain words spoken by one and the same voice. Some hear the voice, others only hear the words, just as in nature some see only the branches and others the roots of the tree; but all these different scriptures and ways of worship and of contemplating God are given for one purpose: the realization of Unity. In Unity resides the happiness and illumination of humanity, and our guidance in Life. We all know Unity by name, but most of us think of it as uniformity. The Vedanta for thousands of years in all its prayers and mantrams voiced this central theme: Unity, the Oneness of all. The Qur’an with all its warnings expresses in one essential sura the Being of God: that not only in the unseen, but in all that is seen there is One underlying current; and the Bible says that we live and move and have our being in God.
Of all the millions of believers in God perhaps only one makes God a reality, and that is because the picture most make of God is as limited as themselves. The knowledge of God is beyond humanity’s reason. We only perceive things we are capable of perceiving. We cannot raise our imagination above what we are used to, and we cannot reach beyond our imagination to where the being of God is. The secret of God is hidden in the knowledge of Unity. We think, ‘What can unity give me? Can it bring me happiness? What is there in it?’ We can get the answer by observing and studying Life more closely. See what an atmosphere the harmony of ten people can create; the power of love and the influence created by ten people is much greater than that created by one. Think then what would be the blessing for humanity if nations, races, and communities were united!
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IX – The Unity of Religious Ideals: Part I – Unity and Uniformity )
Among millions of believers in God, there is hardly one who makes God a reality. To so many God is an imagination, to many God is in a mosque, a church, or a temple. Many wonder if God is really. Many others think God is goodness, God is a personality separate from us, God is most high, most pure, most beautiful, but is separate and difficult to reach. Many think that as it takes so long to reach this planet or that, God must be further away still. The purpose of one’s whole life is to make God a reality. … if you will seek for good in everything, you will always find it, for God is in all things, and still more God is in all beings. Seek God in all souls, good and bad, wise and foolish, attractive or unattractive, for in the depth of each there is God. … God is all around and about us at every moment, we are living God’s life, we are breathing God’s breath, and yet we are ignorant of the perfection of beauty which unites and inspires every soul.
( from
Unpublished Papers from the Nekbakht Foundation Archives – Cupid and Psyche [ May 5th 1921 ] )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Yes, God is the Reality in our thought, the Reality in our reality. So far as there is any reality in thought and our view of reality, it is God. But this is only one thought among the myriads of thoughts our mind holds. Now if God is infinite, God cannot possibly be only one among many; for under such circumstances, no matter how we characterized God, God would not be infinite. To be infinite, God would not be affected in any way by our thoughts. Therefore the Reality of God is beyond any thought, and this Reality is possible to us when we cease to think about God and begin to love God.