Village Journals
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Bowl of Saki for November 8, 2006
Bowl of Saki for November 8
SELF-DENIAL IS NOT RENOUNCING THINGS, IT IS DENYING THE SELF; AND THE FIRST LESSON OF SELF-DENIAL IS HUMILITY.--Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Hazrat Samuel L. Lewis (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti):
When the rich young man came to Jesus Christ for advice and was told to sell all that he had and give to the poor, he did not understand the words of the Master. At that time, it was quite common for the rich to come to spiritual teachers and surrender all their worldly
goods. This has been a custom through the ages and there is nothing strange in the story -- only the European mind, accustomed to different traditions, has not always understood it.
Now anybody is rich in a worldly sense who is intoxicated with life and places values in things -- be they riches, possessions, worldly honor, fame, knowledge or anything which does not lead one to the
realization of God. It is almost self-evident that a person cannot serve two masters, be they God and Mammon or any two masters. The real truth about wealth is that one is never the possessor of such wealth, one is the servant of such wealth. If one possessed it, one could take it with him or her both on earthly travels and beyond this plane when one departed. Obviously this is impossible and it teaches that one does not own things but serves them when he or she claims such ownership.
Now to renounce what one does not own is not a surrender; to renounce what is one's possession is a surrender. The nufs is nothing but the thought of self and this stands in the way of all spiritual realization and perfection. Giving that away, throwing one's spirit down makes it possible to gain the Kingdom of Heaven. The miser on earth, though he or she possesses a farthing, cannot reach the gates; the kindly person, though he or she have millions, may be blessed by Allah.
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SELF-DENIAL IS NOT RENOUNCING THINGS, IT IS DENYING THE SELF; AND THE FIRST LESSON OF SELF-DENIAL IS HUMILITY.--Hazrat Inayat Khan
Commentary by Hazrat Samuel L. Lewis (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti):
When the rich young man came to Jesus Christ for advice and was told to sell all that he had and give to the poor, he did not understand the words of the Master. At that time, it was quite common for the rich to come to spiritual teachers and surrender all their worldly
goods. This has been a custom through the ages and there is nothing strange in the story -- only the European mind, accustomed to different traditions, has not always understood it.
Now anybody is rich in a worldly sense who is intoxicated with life and places values in things -- be they riches, possessions, worldly honor, fame, knowledge or anything which does not lead one to the
realization of God. It is almost self-evident that a person cannot serve two masters, be they God and Mammon or any two masters. The real truth about wealth is that one is never the possessor of such wealth, one is the servant of such wealth. If one possessed it, one could take it with him or her both on earthly travels and beyond this plane when one departed. Obviously this is impossible and it teaches that one does not own things but serves them when he or she claims such ownership.
Now to renounce what one does not own is not a surrender; to renounce what is one's possession is a surrender. The nufs is nothing but the thought of self and this stands in the way of all spiritual realization and perfection. Giving that away, throwing one's spirit down makes it possible to gain the Kingdom of Heaven. The miser on earth, though he or she possesses a farthing, cannot reach the gates; the kindly person, though he or she have millions, may be blessed by Allah.
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