The first way is to recognize the divine in every person and to be careful of every person with whom we come in contact, in our thought, speech, and action. Human personality is very delicate. The more living the heart, the more sensitive it is. But that which causes sensitiveness is the love-element in the heart, and love is God.

The person whose heart is not sensitive is without feeling; his heart is not living, it is dead. In that case the Divine Spirit is buried in his heart. A person who is always concerned with his own feelings is so absorbed in himself that he has no time to think of another. His whole attention is taken up with his own feelings. He pities himself: he worries about his own pain, and is never open to sympathize with others. He who takes notice of the feeling of another person with whom he comes in contact, practices the first essential moral of Sufism.
The next way of practicing this religion is to think of the feeling of the person who is not at the moment before us. One feels for a person who is present, but one often neglects to feel for someone who is out of sight. One speaks well of someone to his face, but if one speaks well of someone when he is absent, that is greater. One sympathizes with the trouble of someone who is before one at the moment, but it is greater to sympathize with one who is far away.
And the third way of realizing the Sufi principle is to recognize in one's own feeling the feeling of God; to realize every impulse of love that rises in one's heart as a direction from God; realizing that love is a divine spark in one's heart, to blow that spark until a flame may rise to illuminate the path of one's life.

The symbol of the Sufi Order, which is a heart with wings, is symbolic of its ideal.

The heart is both earthly and heavenly.
The heart is a receptacle on earth of the divine spirit, and when it holds the divine spirit it soars heavenward; the wings picture its rising.
The crescent in the heart symbolizes responsiveness; it is the heart that responds to the spirit of God that rises. The crescent is a symbol of responsiveness because it grows fuller by responding more and more to the sun as it progresses. The light one sees in the crescent is the light of the sun. It gets more light with increasing response, so it becomes fuller of the light of the sun.
The star in the heart of the crescent represents the divine spark reflected in the human heart as love, which helps the crescent toward its fullness.

The Sufi Message is the message of the day. It does not bring theories or doctrines to add to those existing already, which puzzle the human mind. What the world needs today is the message of love, harmony, and beauty, the absence of which is the only tragedy of life.

The Sufi Message does not give a new law; it wakens in humanity the spirit of brotherhood, with tolerance on the part of each for the religion of the other, with forgiveness from each for the fault of the other.

It teaches thoughtfulness and consideration, so as to create and maintain harmony in life; it teaches service and usefulness, which alone can make life in the world fruitful, in which lies the satisfaction of every soul.

When we think of the different religions which are known to humanity, we shall find that each of them brought to the world the message of love in some form or other. And now the question arises, who brought religion in the world? And the answer is that religion has always existed in the heart of man. Religion is the outcome of the heart, and among all races, however primitive, a certain religion has existed, perhaps incomprehensible to people more evolved in different directions. For religion is instinctive, and as it is instinctive, not only in the world of man but also in the lower creation one sees a glimpse of religious tendency. For instance, one finds among pet animals, such as the dog, the cat, or the horse, some such faithful creatures, and sometimes one has such experiences with them that one cannot today expect from mankind.

Besides this, the absorption that one sees among the birds, the little sparrows in the morning absorbed in the beauty of nature, so to speak, singing a song, a hymn to God: that all is religion, if we can understand it. For man has made his religion so narrow that he is not able to appreciate the broad religion of nature. By being narrow he has named his creed a religion, or the particular place of worship religion, or the book religion, or the form of service religion. If one would only think it is religion when one goes in the woods, in the forests, and stands alone in the forest near the silent trees standing in contemplation through the summer and winter, through all seasons! That silent contemplation, what does it give one, what thought arises? It lifts one up and makes one think that there is a religion.

One may call it a legend or a superstition or a story, but still there are experiences. We have the experience in India with the cobras: they never bite unless someone hurts them. The affection and the attachment that the doves show to their mates is something to learn and to understand. And there are many instances, many experiences of thoughtfulness, of consideration, and of the nature of attachment that one sees in the lower creation, and that make one think that there is an instinctive religion.

Then there are stories known in the East about the elephants. In the herd of elephants there is one who always leads them and he has a stem of a tree in his trunk, and he goes on feeling the earth to see if there is a pit, or if it is a good way for the elephants to pass. And if there was a pit, he gives a warning to his followers, that they may not fall victims to this.

When we consider the birds we see that there is among them a leader who knows and understands the coming and the continuing of rain and storm, and according to that he guides them, and they all follow him.

By what is it all accounted for, this taking care of those who depend upon one, and then yielding, responding, trusting someone who guides one; it is not only in the human beings, but even more in the animals.

And man, who is always supposed to have a religion and thinks that he has a religion, has always opposed in all ages the ones who have served him, those who have wished to awaken him from his errors. The saints and the sages and the great souls who have continually tried to work for him, they have always had to suffer and they were the ones who found opposition from all directions. And in this way man has shown a lesser tendency to religion than the animals.

But now, coming to understand what is the religion of the heart: It is said by the Sufis, Ishq Allah Ma'bud Allah, the same that one reads in the Bible, that "God is love." And if God is love, where is He to be found? Is He to be found in the seventh heaven or is He to be found in the heart of man? If He were so far away as to be in the seventh heaven then it would be most unfortunate for man to be kept far away from the very life and the very reason of his being. And it is toward this realization that God is in the heart of man that all religions have taught in different ways and different forms.

So many in this world only know the word "love"; to understand what love is or to speak about it or explain it is impossible. For whoever tries to express love makes an effort in vain; it is like trying to express God in words. Neither can God be expressed in words, nor love. There is a saying of a Persian poet who was an emperor, "I was destined to have so many slaves serving me, but from the moment love was born in my heart I became the slave of my every slave." The moment love is produced, that person does not need to go and find out where the Truth is, the Truth is born.

For it is the loving one, the loving heart which is capable of understanding, of comprehending Truth. The reason is that the Truth is not outside of self, it is within us. For instance, when a person's heart is melted by a terrible suffering in life, it is then that what he says, or what he thinks, or what he does, in all is a fragrance of love. What is called in the Bible, "tongues of flame" or "words of flame," what are they? It rises when love has risen, it revivifies the thought, word, and action.

What, generally, man knows about love is the give and take: "If you give me twelve pence, I will give you a shilling." For as long as one sees life in the form of business, in the form of give and take, he does not know love, and it is a great pity, when, after knowing something of love, the heart has turned cold and bitter. And what reason is there? The reason is this, that when one digs the ground one must dig until the water comes. But if one digs halfway, then there is no water, there is mud.

But what is love? Love is a continual sacrifice. And what does sacrifice mean? Sacrifice means forgetting of the self.

As Rumi says in his poem, the Masnavi: ""The Beloved is all in all, the lover merely veils him. The Beloved is all that lives, the lover a dead thing."

But what is this death? The death in life is life. Can anyone say, "I practice in life to be good," or "to be religious," without having the love element? But what use can his religion be if he is praying perhaps all day, or seems to be all goodness, if there is no love in his heart; what use is his religion to him?

The power of love is seen in all things, and in whatever form it acts, it shows a great virtue. One does not know always what power love has behind it, that there is nothing in the world which is more powerful than love. Think of the hen with its little chickens. At the time when they are so young that they seek her protection, if the horse came, if the elephant came, she would fight in defense.

And how man has abused the word love; how he uses in his false pretenses the word love? What happens is that man has made a false world and in this false world he is so absorbed that he cannot see the reality. It is for this that the saints and the sages and the upraisers of mankind have been sent from time to time, because he is in a dream and he cannot awake from it. And of what does he dream? He dreams of this false world that he has created.

And what is religion? Religion is what breaks away the barriers of falsehood and guides man toward the Truth. What we call kindness, helpfulness, gentleness, meekness, or humility, what do all these virtues come from? Are they all not made of love? They are different forms of love. That shows that there is only one stream of virtue and that is love, and all different virtues that man knows, they are all different drops falling in different directions.

And the idea of right and wrong, good and bad, we can find among all different people in different ways, but in love we all unite, whether from East or South, or West or North, for no one who is thoughtful will argue that cruelty is virtue and kindness a sin. Therefore, from the point of view of love we can all unite in one conception of good and bad, of right and wrong. All that is guided by the principle of love has its virtue and all that is done by coldness, it is that which is wrong.

When we think of the condition through which humanity has passed in all different times--in the name of religion there have been wars and battles--one wonders if it was taught by the religion. Not at all; religion was the pretense, that men by this pretense wanted to cause bloodshed, absorbed in selfishness. And if ever there has been a kind of accusation against any religion in the world, it is not against the religion, it is against the misunderstanding of that religion by the followers of that religion.

Think of the life of the great Master Jesus Christ who was the soul of religion. One sees that from beginning to end there was nothing but love and forgiveness. The best expression of love is that love which is expressed in forgiveness. Those who came with their wrongs, errors, imperfections, before the love that was all forgiven; there was always a stream of love which always purified.

If people had followed the idea of forgiveness and of tolerance, humanity would not have come to the condition to which it has come today. The hatred and prejudice and bitterness that exists today between nations is beyond words to explain. And if there were one religion or a thousand religions, if that were to go on, one would doubt if there be a religion. It seems that man has now the profession of it, but what is needed is to live it. Why is humanity not coming together more? It is the lack of tolerance, the lack of forgiveness, it is the lack of love. And there may be a thousand different schemes that people will make in order to make the conditions better, and every effort made in that direction is worthwhile; but at the same time there remains a question: what effort would be most worthwhile?

It is the waking of the divine Spirit which is called love, which has been buried in the heart of man. There are many political institutions, social institutions, and moral institutions, but what is most necessary today is the wakening of the religion of the heart. It does not matter what religion they profess if they know the depth of the religion, which is love. And then, all the different forms, the forms of religious service and the forms of prayer, behind them what secret is there? The secret is to prepare the heart for that bliss which only love can give.

The school of the Sufis, in whatever age, has been the school of the mystics. Its religion has been the religion of the heart, and it is therefore that there is a verse of Abul Allah, who says,

"Qur'an, the Bible, or a martyr's cry, all these my heart can tolerate, since my religion is love alone."

For the religion of love is the religion of tolerance, the religion of love is the religion of forgiveness.

The life in the world is such that it is as difficult for the rich as for the poor. A world such as this, made by falsehood, has its blows, continual blows, that a person of good heart has to stand. And there is only one safety from all these blows that might destroy the heart altogether: it is to learn how to tolerate, to learn how to forgive. For everyone says or does or thinks only according to his own particular evolution, and he cannot do better. Why not, therefore, tolerate? Why not, therefore, forgive? And if there is intolerance, then there must be a continual reciprocity; it is giving and taking intolerance. It means killing the element of love and giving life to the element which is death itself.

And if there is any inspiration, any revelation, that also is attained by a loving heart. The life's purpose is to make use of this shrine which is the human heart and which was made for God. And if there is a shrine and no God, the shrine is purposeless. And if there is a heart and the heart has not yet attained to that ideal, the only ideal which is worthy of love, that heart has not yet attained its purpose.

But no doubt it can be worthless if a person says, "I love God, but I do not love mankind." That profession is worthless. It is like saying, "Friend, I love you very much, but I cannot look at your face." The creation is the manifestation of God. It is in the art of the artist that we recognize Him. If we refuse to acknowledge the art, we do not know the Artist.

The man who does not express his love, who does not forget himself in love, expressing it as respect, tolerance, and forgiveness, does not know religion.

Of course this is the first step, that one loves those one meets on the surface of the earth. Someone asked a great teacher if he would initiate him in mysticism. The great teacher answered, "Young man, have you ever loved?" The young man said, "I have not." The great teacher said, "Then go and love first; then come to me, that is the second step."

No doubt the love of the human being which is not progressive and has not developed to the love of God is not yet perfect. For love is for the real Beloved, Who really deserves it and Who alone deserves it. As children learn the lesson of home life by playing with dolls, so the soul that learns, learns in human love and completes his study in the love of God. And the love of God is that which is the purpose of the whole creation; if that were not the purpose, the creation would not have taken place.

As the whole creation is from God, then it is of God. If it is of God, then it is the manifestation of love, and the manifestation of God is purposed to realize the perfection of love.