“I Have Disarmed Myself” | The Wisdom of Hazrat Inayat Khan


Someone once asked Inayat Khan – founder of the Sufi Order International (now The Inayati Order) and beloved Murshid (or Teacher) to many – “Are you a pessimist?”

“No,”  Pir-o-Murshid replied. “An optimist, but with open eyes.”

* * * * * * *

Someone said to Murshid, “I heard them talk against you.”

“Did they?” said he. “Have you also heard anyone speak kindly of me?”

“Yes,” the person exclaimed.

“Then,” said Murshid, “this is the light and shade to life’s portrait, making the picture complete.”

* * * * * * *

A pupil said to Murshid, “But you also make mistakes.”

“Yes,” replied Murshid, “if I had not made mistakes I would not be able to teach you.”

* * * * * * *

Somebody asked, “Have you any faults, Murshid?”

“Yes, many more than you may think.”

* * * * * * *

A friend said to Murshid, “Somebody told me bad things about you.”

“What?” asked Murshid.

“He told me so and so and so.”

“Is that all?” said Murshid. “I can be much worse than that.”

* * * * * * *

A person seeing a ring on Murshid’s finger asked, “What mystical signification does your ring convey?”

“It says that those whose hearts are not yet open to the ever-revealing life around them, they look for mystery in me.”

* * * * * * *

A woman said to Murshid, on hearing his lecture on faith, “Murshid, I have lost everything I had by having faith in an unworthy person.”

“But you have not lost your faith, I suppose,” asked Murshid.

The woman said, “Yes, I have lost faith.”

“If you had lost all save faith, it would be worth as much as the price you had to pay for it, and even more than that,” Murshid replied.

* * * * * * *

“Murshid, when I come to you I come with a thousand complaints to make. Why is it that the power of your presence disarms me?”

Murshid: “Because I have disarmed myself.”

* * * * * * *

A lady asked Inayat Khan in a ballroom: “Do you ever take interest in such a frivolous thing as dancing?”

Inayat Khan said: “Yes, I too feel inclined to dance when I am with little children.”

* * * * * * *

In all stages of his evolution, progress and work, one thing never left Inayat Khan through all joys and sorrows and it was a sense of mirth. He mostly used this sense of mirth in his everyday life, in speaking and writing, but frequently by an inner power, he played and amused himself.

(Source)

4 Responses to “I Have Disarmed Myself” | The Wisdom of Hazrat Inayat Khan

  1. Sam Mayer June 17, 2017 at 3:01 pm #

    I am a great admirer of the Murshid. His collaboration with Samuel Lewis and Ruth St. Denis in creating the Dances of Universal Peace is a great gift to humanity.

    My book club is currently reading The Divine Dance and we are thoroughly enjoying it. The Trinity is mind-blowing.

    Thank You!

    • Mike Morrell June 17, 2017 at 3:45 pm #

      You’re welcome, Sam! I’m glad you all are enjoying The Divine Dance – collaborating on it has been a labor of love.

      Given your love of the Murshid and the Trinity, you might appreciate these reflections from my interview with Ordinary Mystic:

      “With our close cousins in Judaism and Islam there seems to be an immediate and visceral ‘no’ to the idea of Trinity, as at face value it conflicts with their ideas of what revealed monotheism. I’m half-Turkish, and in recent years have been drawn to expressions of what could be named as Islam’s contemplative path, Sufism. I won’t pretend our thoughts about the Beloved are 1:1 similar on the level of cognition, but I am intrigued by a common language of the heart. Consider these words from 10th century Persian Sufi and poet, Abu Sa’id Abi ‘l-Khayr:

      I asked, “Who are you like
      in your overwhelming beauty?

      He replied, “Only myself,
      as I am quite unique.

      “I am love, lover,
      and the Beloved.

      “I am Beauty, I’m the mirror,
      and the longing eye.”

      (From Love’s Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition)

      This was recently shared with me by our brilliant friend Matthew Wright, who is both a member of a Sufi order and an ordained Episcopal priest. He said:

      ‘The Qur’an never explicitly rejects the Trinity. Rather, it rejects any theological construct that impinges on tawhid – Divine Unity. What is explicitly rejected is the notion of “those who say that God is the third of three” – which would be a heresy for Christians as well, and very different from “God is three-in-one.”

      The Sufi poem here (which is fairly representative of the way Islamic mysticism plays at times with “threeness”) uses “three” to affirm tawhid/ultimate Oneness. What the Qur’an rejects is any notion that makes God a part rather than the Whole.’

      I’m not claiming our respective traditions’ ideas about God are identical, but it seems that, at core, there is an intriguing possibility for mutual exchange.”

  2. Rev John Michael Christopher June 18, 2017 at 2:47 pm #

    _/I\_ Thoroughly enjoyed this.

    • Mike Morrell June 18, 2017 at 8:03 pm #

      I’m so glad, John!

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