Volume
Vol. 5, Pearls from the Ocean Unseen
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The Prayerful Attitude
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5. Truth
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Vol. 5, Pearls from the Ocean Unseen
The Prayerful Attitude
5. Truth
And in the fifth class are the mystics and thinkers. Their attitude to prayer is far higher than that of the four preceding classes; they understand the truth of the being of man: that God and man are not separate. Notable among these are the Sufis.
Many people who are free-thinkers, and have this understanding, do not bother about prayer, and some even say, "To whom should we pray?" The Sufi realizes the truth of his being, and his whole life becomes an attitude of prayer, in spite of his free thought and his rising above good and bad, right and wrong.
When a person loves, he may be in the crowd, and yet be unaware of those around him, being absorbed in the thought of the beloved; and so it is with the love of God. He who loves God may be in the crowd, yet, being in the thought of God he is in seclusion. To such a person the crowd makes no difference.
Sa'di says, "Prayer is the expansion of the limited being to the unlimited, the drawing closer of the soul to God."
Hazrat Ali, the most distinguished among Sufis of the past, says, "To know the self is to know God", yet he spent much of his day and most of his nights in prayer.
The Sufi's prayer is his journey to the eternal goal, his realization of God.
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