In the terms of the Sufis divine manner is called Akhlak Allah. One thinks, speaks, and acts according to the pitch to which one's soul is tuned. The highest note one could be tuned to is the divine note; once one has arrived at that pitch, one begins to express the manner of God in everything one does. What is the manner of God? It is a kingly manner, yet a manner which is not known even to kings. Only the king of heaven and earth knows that manner; the soul who is tuned to God expresses it. This manner is void of narrowness, free from pride and conceit, and not only beautiful but beauty itself, for God is beautiful and God loves beauty.

The soul tuned to God also becomes as beautiful as God and begins to express God through all one does, expressing in life the divine manner. Why is it a kingly manner? The word "kingly" signifies someone who possesses power and wealth in abundance. The soul tuned to God, before whom all things fade away and in whose eyes the importance of the little things of which every person thinks so much is lessened, begins to express divine manner in the form of contentment. It might seem to an ordinary person that nothing matters to this soul. No gain is exciting, no loss is alarming. If anyone praises, it is of no consequence; if anyone blames, it does not matter to him or her. Honor and insult is all a game to them. At the end of the game, neither is the gain a gain nor is the loss a loss; it was only a pastime.

One might think, what does such a person do for others, what good is the person to those around him or her? That person is healing to those around them; that person is an influence, uplifting souls suffering from narrowness and from the limitation of human nature. Human nature is not only narrow and limited but it is also foolish and tyrannical, because the nature of life is intoxicating. Intoxication makes people drunken. What do the drunken people want? They want their drink, and they do not think about others.

In this life there are so many liquors that one drinks: wealth, passion, anger, and possession. One is not satisfied only with possessing earthly properties, but one also wishes to possess those whom one pretends to love. In this way one proves to be tyrannical and foolish. All the things of this world that one possesses are not in reality possessed; one is possessed by them, whether wealth or property or a friend or position or rank.

The soul with divine manner is sober compared with the drunken person of the world. This soberness produces in one that purity called Sufism; through that purity God reflects in his or her mirror-like soul.

Nothing frightens the soul who reflects God, for they are above all fright. They possess nothing, and all fright is connected with one's possessions. Does it mean that one leaves the world and passes one's life in caves in the mountains? Not in the least. One may have the wealth of the whole world in one's possession and one may have the kingdom of the whole universe under one, but nothing binds one, nothing ties one, and nothing frightens one. For only that which is one's own belongs to one.

When your soul is your own, all is your own, and what belongs to you cannot be taken away. Only yourself could take it away. You are your own friend and your own foe. So there is no longer pain or suffering, complaint or grudge. You are at peace, for you are at home, whether you are on earth or you are in heaven.

Social Gathekas

27. Divine Manner, I

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Social Gathekas

27. Divine Manner, I