The soul of the Prophet represents both the human and the divine. His feet on the earth and his head in heaven, he has to journey on the path of life, to respect and regard reason, and yet to cling to that rope which hangs down from heaven, which he calls faith -- one thing contrary to the other. The world of variety, with its numberless changes, compels him to reason out things, and the world of unity promises to his unwavering faith the answer to every demand of life.

In the Sufi terms there is a word called Akhlak-iAllah, which means "the Manner of God." This Manner is seen in the prophetic soul. For no one knows the Manner of God, as God is not seen by all; and if there is any sign of God seen, it is in the God-conscious one; and it is the fullness of God-consciousness which makes a prophetic soul.

The life of the Prophet is like that of someone walking upon a wire -- matter on one side and spirit on the other, heaven on one side and earth on the other -- with the imperfect self journeying towards perfection and at the same time holding upon itself the burden of numberless souls, many among whom have not yet learnt to walk even upon the earth.

In the history of the Prophets, in whatever time they have come on earth, one reads of their struggle being fourfold:

struggle with self,
struggle with the world,
struggle with friends, and
struggle with foes.

And yet many wonder, why should a Prophet be a warrior? Many know of the Prophet Muhammed being a warrior, but are ignorant of the fact that Moses had the same experience. And very few know the lives of the Prophets of India, Rama and Krishna, whose whole lives were nothing but warfare from the beginning to the end. Their scriptures are full of the wars and battles through all their lives, and if some apparently did not have a war, they had some other form of warfare to go through. The blood of the martyrs was the foundation of the church.

The Seers and Saints, who live a life of seclusion, are happy when compared to the life of the Prophet, whose life's work is in the midst of the crowd. When he is known to be a Prophet, jealousy and prejudice arise; if he is not known, he can do but little. When he goes into the world, the world absorbs him; when he thinks of God, God attracts him -- one spirit pulled from both sides; and it is this that the picture of the cross signifies. The Prophet, representing God and His Message, is tested and tried and examined by every soul; a thousand searchlights are thrown upon him; and he is not judged under one judge, but numberless judges; every soul is a judge, and has his own law to judge him with. The mystic is free to speak and act; what does he care what people think of him? The Prophet must care what they think of him--not for himself, but for those who follow him.

Besides all difficulties, in the end he finds no comprehension of his ideal or service in the world, except in God, Who alone is his consolation. Many follow the Prophet, but very few comprehend his ideal. It is this that made Muhammed say, "I am knowledge; Ali is the door." In the first place, to express a high thought in words or action is the most difficult thing, because what is expressed in words and actions is the thought on the surface;" to express deep feeling in words and action is, in the same way, difficult. And so is the Message of the Prophet; it is often difficult to be put into words.

The best way of following a prophetic Message -- which has been known to very few -- is to adopt the outlook of the Prophet; for the point of view of every person one can fully understand by seeing from that person's point of view.

We find in the traditions of the ancients that there were many among the Prophets of the past who, in a worldly sense, were not educated, among them the Prophet Muhammed, who was given the name Umrni, by which many called him, which means "unlettered"; although, according to the idea of that time, the Prophet was very well-versed in the Arabic language. This shows that worldly education does not make the Prophet. No doubt it helps to express the spiritual Message which his heart receives in a more intelligible form.

We see in the world's scriptures four different forms in which the prophetic Message was given:

the ancient Hindu form, which can be traced in the scriptures of India and which was continued by Buddha;
then the form of Beni Israel, which is to be found in the Old Testament, from the time of Abraham to the time of Muhammed;
the third form is the form of Zarathustra, which shows two aspects--the one aspect is the Gayatri of the Hindus and the other aspect is the prayer of Beni Israel;
and the fourth form is the form of the New Testament, which gives the legend and interpretation of the teaching of Jesus Christ, and which was made, at every new version, more intelligible to the mind of the people in the West.

But the moment a soul dives deeper into these scriptures it begins to realize the One Voice within all these outer forms, and that it is the same Voice that has adopted these different forms, to answer the need of every age.

What the Prophet says is much less than what he really hears, and the sense of what he says is much deeper than what his outer words mean. For the work of the Prophet is a most difficult one; it is trying to present to the world the whole ocean in a bottle. No one has ever been able to do it; yet They have all tried, for that has been their destiny. People have taken these bottles given to them, and have said, "See, here is the ocean; I have the ocean in my pocket!" But, by what the Prophets have taught in the scriptures, they have only tried to point out the way; but they have not pictured the Goal, for no one can put the Goal into a picture. The Goal is above all form and beyond the power of words to explain.

Those who have benefited by the life and the Message of the Divine Message Bearers are not necessarily the followers of their Message, but the imitators of their life; for they have not followed the teaching only, but followed the Teacher, who is the living example of his teaching. All the ancient traditions of the religious evolution tell us how those around the Prophets have benefited by the imitation, rather than by following the strict laws and by arguing upon the differences between the laws. There is no scripture in which contradiction does not exist. It is the contradiction which makes the music of the Message. The Message would be rigid, like pebbles, if there were no contradiction. Even all pebbles are not alike; how can all words mean the same? The Message is nothing but an answer to every question, every need, every demand of the individual and collective life.

Rumi has tried to explain in the Masnavi, from the beginning to the end, the nature and character of the heart of the Prophet, and by this he has given the key to the door which opens to the prophetic path. Therefore in reading any scripture we must remember first that it is not the words we read which are so important as what is hidden behind. To the ordinary mind, that only sees on the Surface, the words of the scriptures are nothing but simple phrases, and sometimes the ideas appear simple, even childish. But the one who tries to know what is behind them will find out in time that there is a vast field of thought hidden behind every word that has come from the lips of the Prophets.

Verily the words of the Prophets are as seals upon the Secret of God.