To be really sorry for one’s errors is like opening the door of heaven.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
There are many different feelings which have an influence upon us, and which give a feeling of joy, of exaltation, but there is no sentiment greater or more effective than the feeling of bringing one’s faults and weaknesses before God to ask for pardon. To become conscious of one’s shortcomings, to be sorry for them, to repent of them, and to ask God’s forgiveness in all humility; no ethics, no philosophy can give a greater joy than this. It is the sincere devotee of God who knows best what feeling it is to humble oneself before God. The proud one, ignorant of the greatness of God, of God’s All-Sufficient power, does not know what is this exaltation that raises the soul from earth to heaven. To be really sorry for one’s errors is like opening the gates of heaven. They say that John the Baptist spoke that word on the coming of Christ: “Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” But this word is as living and fresh as ever, at all times it answers the question of your soul.
( from Unpublished Papers from the Nekbakht Foundation Archives, Prayer, 8 May 1921 and 15 May 1921 )
People do not like to admit their wrong attitude to themselves. They are afraid of their own faults. But those who look their own error in the eye, the one who criticizes self has no time to criticize others. It is those who will prove to be wise. But human nature is generally such that one does something quite different. Everyone seems to be most interested in criticizing another. If one would criticize oneself there are endless faults, however saintly or wise one may be. There are no end of faults in a human being. And the consciousness of correcting one’s faults, of making oneself better, of taking hold of the right attitude, is the only secret of success, and by it one attains to that goal which is the object of every soul.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: The Secret of Life )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
So long as one is unrepentant, thought-marks and thought-shadows mar the mind and prevent beauty from making its appearance. Repentance not only removes these marks and shadows but does the greatest thing possible: it lays the false self low. Thus the poor in spirit are blessed, those devoid of ego attain the gates of Heaven, and only when the mind renounces its possessions can the heart-faculties express themselves in full.