Narrowness is primitiveness; it is the breadth of heart that proves evolution.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
One person will do something and consider that there is great wisdom in their sacrifice, while another who is not evolved enough to understand it will say, ‘How very foolish!’ Remember therefore that not only to the wise person does one of little sense seem foolish, but even to the foolish person the wise one seems foolish. The points of view of both are different: one looks from the top of the tower, the other standing on the ground. So there is a vast difference in the range of their sight.
It is our outlook on life which makes us broad or narrow, and it is the grade of our evolution which gives us the illumination of sacrifice. What we were not inclined to do last year, we may be inclined to do this year; the sacrifice one could not make yesterday, one can make today, for the rate of speed of our evolution cannot be limited to a particular standard. A broad outlook enriches us and a high point of view ennobles the soul.
Once you have linked yourself with love, a flood of inspiration is revealed to you, whatever the subject, whatever the problem in life may be. Whatever it be that your eye casts its glance upon, it will disclose itself. Then you are on the real road, and what a joy this is!
Breadth of heart is what is needed for all this. … It is the breadth of heart that makes us great, whereas it is narrowness of heart that makes us small. The great hearts do not think about how troublesome a person is, and why we should be bothered like this. It is only the narrow of heart that thinks, ‘I will cause that person some trouble.’ It may be justified, but still it is a narrow thought. The one with a broad heart thinks,’ This is a small thing, I can put up with it; not much harm will come from it.’
The Nizam [ ie the Nizam of Hyderabad, title of the monarch of the state of Hyderabad, India. The last, Osman Ali Khan, ruled the state from 1911 to 1948, so this may be the Nizam Pir-o-Murshid is referring to — Muiz ] wrote this verse, ‘The width of the land and the water cannot be compared with the width of humanity’s heart. If the heart is wide enough there is nothing greater than that.’ The heart becomes wide by forgetting the self, and narrow by thinking of the self and by pitying one’s self. To gain a wide and broad heart you must have something before you to look upon and to rest your intelligence upon, and that something is the God Ideal. This is the prescription for killing the self, and to kill the self is the basis of every religion. [ To reword this sentence using terminology more in sync with our sensibilities today: “This is the prescription for completely effacing the self, and to completely efface the self is the basis of every religion” — Muiz ]
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Mind that excludes, mind that divides, mind that evaluates distinctions and differences is unilluminated mind. The illuminated mind, filled with Ishk and possessed of Ilm, will see these differences, will recognize these divisions, will notice these exclusions, but will also perceive their beginning and their ending, their unimportance in the totality of things and the relation of processes to reality. All knowledge through analysis is relative; only the heart-born intelligence brings one to the Supreme.