Bowl of Saki for November 18

The soul of all is one soul, and the truth is one truth, under whatever religion it is hidden.

Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net

With all the opposition to the Master [ Jesus — Muiz ] at the time when the [chief priests] demanded his crucifixion, did those who were present sincerely think the Master was guilty? No, each one of them was more or less impressed by the truth of the Message, yet torn by convention and custom, bound by laws, held fast by the religious authority that was in power. They could not express their sincere feelings, and so law governed instead of love. And this state of things has existed in all ages. Blinded by conventions and by the laws of the time and the customs of the people, humanity has ignored and opposed the truth. Yet at the same time the truth has never failed to make its impression upon the soul, because the soul of all is one soul, and truth is one truth under whatever religion it is hidden.

In reality there cannot be many religions; there is only one. There cannot be two truths; there cannot be two masters. As there is only one God and one religion, there is one master and there is one truth. And the weakness of humanity has been that only what we are accustomed to consider as truth we take to be truth, and anything we have not been accustomed to hear or think frightens us. Just like a person in a strange land, away from home, the soul is a stranger to the nature of things it is not accustomed to. But the journey to perfection means rising above limitations, rising so high that not only the horizon of one country, of one continent, is seen, but that of the whole world. The higher we rise, the wider becomes the horizon of our view.

If we come face to face with truth, it is one and the same. One may look at it from the Christian, from the Buddhist, or from the Hindu point of view, but in reality it is one point of view. One can either be small or large, either be false or true, either not know or know. As long as people say, ‘When I look at the horizon from the top of the mountain I become dizzy. This immensity of space frightens me,’ they should not look at it. But if it does not make one dizzy it is a great joy to look at life from above. And from that position a Christian, Jew, Muslim and Buddhist will all see the same immensity. It is not limited to those of any one faith or creed. Gradually, as they unfold themselves and give proof of their response to the immensity of the knowledge, they are asked to go forward, face to face with their Lord.

Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis

Ishk (or love) unites one to another. One does not regard the fingers as having any reality apart from the body. So the life in us is that which unites us to another. Life is impossible without holding some relation to plant, animal, or human. We are all interdependent, showing that the reality in us is greater than any conception we may hold. Without Ishk we would not be.

Yet Ishk is force, not personality, and it is not dependent upon personality. That person which is the source of Ishk is none other than God or Allah or Brahman or Dharmakaya.

This knowledge is vouchsafed to no person so long as that one is considered apart from all others.