Love all and hate none.
Mere talk of peace will avail you naught.
Mere talk of God and Religion will not take you far.
Be a blazing fire of truth,
be a beauteous blossom of love
and be a soothing balm of peace.
With your spiritual light, dispel the darkness of ignorance;
dissolve the clouds of discord and war
and spread goodwill, peace, and harmony among the people.
Never seek any help, charity, or favors
from anybody except God.
Never go to the courts of kings,
but never refuse to bless and help the needy and the poor,
the widow, and the orphan, if they come to your door.
This is your mission, to serve the people...
Carry it out dutifully and courageously,
so that I , as your spiritual teacher,
may not be ashamed of any shortcomings on your part
before the Almighty God and our holy predecessors
in the Sufi Order
on the day of Judgment.

--- Hazrat Khuaja ---

Happy is the who is able to escape from the lower self and feel the gentle breeze of friendship. His heart is so full of the Beloved that there is no longer room for anyone else. he Beloved flows through his every vein and nerve. Every atom of his body is filled with the Friend.

The true lovers can no longer perceive either the scent or the color of their own selves. They have no interest in anything other than the Beloved. Their heart is attached neither to throne or crown. Greed and lust have packed their bags and left their street. If they speak, it is to the Friend. If they seek, it is from the Friend. They no longer take themselves into account, and live only for love. They leave the raw and turn to the ripe, abandoning completely the abode of the self.

---Jami---

Sufism

About Sufism (Gathered from Books on Sufism)



Sufism offers one a path to Self-realization, or God-realization. Sufism is about Love, Devotion and a way of knowledge. Sufism has been described as the mystical core of Islam and date its appearance to the beginnings of Islam, at about 9Th Century A.D. However, according to many Sufis, the essential Truths of Sufism exists in all religions.

A person who practices Sufism is called a Sufi, or dervish, or faquir. Sufi has several meanings in Arabic, "pure" and "wool". Sufis wore simple cloaks in addition to seeking inner purity. Dervish is a Persian word, relating to "door" , because, in the old times Dervishes used to go from door to door begging for food or a place to stay. It also means one who is at the threshold (between awareness of this world and awareness of the Divine ). Faqir is Arabic for a poor person. In Sufism this does not refer to those poor in worldly/material goods, but to those who are "spiritually poor" that is, those whose hearts are empty of attachment to anything other than God. They realize that they have nothing, that they can do nothing, that they are nothing without God. They rely on nothing in this world, only on God.

Although, Sufism is most prominent in Middle East. Today, Sufis are scattered among all nations of the world.

These are the Tenets of Sufism:

I believe in God,
And in God's angels,
And in the Holy Books,
And in God's Messengers,
And in the Day of Resurrection,
And in destiny,
That all good and bad come from God,
And that there is life after this life.


Sufism maintains that you don't have to look for God anywhere but in your heart. Sufis believe in four great Books: The Torah, brought by Moses, the Psalms of David, the Gospels inspired by Jesus, and the Koran revealed to Muhammad. Sufis also believe that in addition to these scriptures, there have been hundreds of shorter scrolls revealed to the prophets. Each prophet bringing the same truth from the same Divine source, and therefore we have to believe in all of them. Those prophets who have brought a book are known as Messengers.

***
Huston Smith calls Sufis the "impatient ones", those who are not willing to wait to be reunited with Divinity at death but hunger for union now. "Why the rush?" the rest of us might inquire. Who looks forward with equanimity to his or her own death?
If you accept the premise that life and death are both gifts, then the prospect of death can become more a source of wonder than a cause of fear. It is difficult for us to think this way in our American culture, because we are phobic about death, just as the ancient Egyptians were. We make our dead look as good or better than they did in life, and preserving their flesh in soft padded container, only to bury them like anyone else. For this reason it is difficult to see death as a gift in our American culture, unless if we change our thoughts and beliefs.

What do you take with you into the city of death? Not a suitcase, not a purse, not even the pictures in your wallet. Nothing goes with you except the sum of what your life has been.

A sufi teaching says, "Die before you die," one interpretation is that you should strive to learn what you woiuld be shown at death while you still have time to make use of this knowledge, that is, while still alive in a body. The wisdom we achieve on death reveals the true value of what is important and what is not. How much richer life becomes if we are able to gain this perspective beforehand.

***


If you could get rid
Of yourself just once,
The secret of secrets
Would open to you.
The face of the unknown,
Hidden beyond the universe
Would appear on the
Mirror of your perception.
--- Rumi ---


****

There are hundreds of books on Sufism, and reader of these blogs are encouraged to seek them if it is desired.

The Stone grows old.
Eternity is not for stones.
But I shall go down from this airy space, this swift
white peace, this stinging exultation;
And time will close about me, and my soul stir to the rhythm
of the daily round.
Yet, having known, life will no press so close.
And always I shall feel time ravel thin about me.
For once I stood
in the white windy presence of eternity.