Volume
Vol. 1, The Way of Illumination
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Sufi Thoughts
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8. There is One Object of Praise,
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Vol. 1, The Way of Illumination
Sufi Thoughts
8. There is One Object of Praise,
the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshippers through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
It is said in the Hadith,
"God is beautiful, and He loves beauty."
This expresses the truth that man, who inherits the Spirit of God, has beauty in him and loves beauty, although that which is beautiful to one is not beautiful to another. Man cultivates the sense of beauty as he evolves, and prefers the higher aspect of beauty to the lower. But when he has observed the highest vision of beauty in the Unseen by a gradual evolution from praising the beauty in the seen world, then the entire existence becomes to him one single vision of beauty.
Man has worshipped God, beholding the beauty of sun, moon, stars, and planets; he has worshipped God in plants, in animals; he has recognized God in the beautiful merits of man, and he has with his perfect view of beauty found the source of all beauty in the Unseen, from whence all this springs, and in Whom all is merged.
The Sufi, realizing this, worships beauty in all its aspects, and sees the face of the Beloved in all that is seen, and the Beloved's spirit in the Unseen. So wherever he looks his ideal of worship is before him.
"Everywhere I look, I see Thy winning face;
Everywhere I go, I arrive at Thy dwelling-place."
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