7. Sufism, Part 1
Beloved Brothers and Sisters,
Hazrat Inayat Khan teaches that Sufism "is the process of making life natural" and that one begins this process by realizing one's own nature.
May we observe our own self as we have been encouraged in previous monthly teachings to recognize the disharmonies that are within us. May we offer ourselves to the practice of purifying these disharmonies in the process of realizing the truth of our natural being.
With loving regards and prayers for an enlightened world,
Nuria and KarimaGita
Social Gatheka, No. 7, Sufism - Part 1
by Hazrat Inayat Khan
The word Sufi comes from an Arabic word Saf which means a purifying process. All the tragedy of life comes from the absence of purity, and what does purity mean? To be pure means to be natural. To lack purity means to be far from being natural. Pure water with no substance such as sweet, sour or milk or anything else mixed. Sterilized water means water made purer, in other words, natural. Sufism, therefore, is the process of making life natural. You may call this process a religion, a philosophy, a science or a mysticism, whatever you may. It is true that all the religious teachers who have come to this world from time to time, have brought this process of purification in the form of religion.
It is therefore that Christ has said, I have not brought you a new law, I have come to fulfil the law. It is not a new process; it is the same old process that the wise of all ages have given. If there is anything new given in it, it is the form in which it is put to suit a certain period of the world. Now in the present period of the world it is given in its present form. A person may think by spirituality it is meant that one must learn something which one did not know before, or one must become extraordinarily good, or must attain some unusual powers or must have experience of a supernatural kind; but none of these things does Sufism promise, although in the path of a Sufi nothing is too wonderful for him.
All that is said above and even more is within his reach. Yet that is not the Sufi's aim. By this process of Sufism one realizes one's own nature.
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