In a recent post in the Inner Call we looked at the first of the five wishes found at the conclusion of the prayer Khatum : ‘Give us Thy Great Goodness.’ As we saw, this is a request not for any material – and therefore transient – good, but for the good beyond limitation, the Divine Being itself, which we find to be all around us and within us when we are able to recognize it.  The next plea the prayer offers is ‘Teach us Thy loving forgiveness.’

Forgiveness is a fundamental principle in every religion, closely tied up with the question of justice.  In our human structures, which attempt to reflect in material form something of the higher reality, exchanges of every kind give rise to the concept of indebtedness. For example, in a commercial transaction, if I receive some goods and promise to pay a sum of money, that is a debt that persists until money changes hands, or until the other person ‘forgives’ the debt, cancelling what I owe. To fulfil all my promises is fair and just, and taking care not to judge others more severely than myself is the evolution of justice, an expression of what Hazrat Inayat Khan called the law of reciprocity.  

We seek the same logic in our social and personal relationships. Although they differ widely, every culture relies upon norms to keep us in harmony. If we fail to fulfil a social duty, that failure becomes like a debt, and we may try to make amends by apologizing.  Should our apology be accepted, the debt is cancelled, and we are forgiven.  When there is affection between the offended and the offender, between a mother and a child, for example, then forgiveness may be there even before the apology is offered, but feelings are complicated, and forgiveness does not always come easily.  Many people carry grievances and resentments for a very long time – perhaps for a whole lifetime, not recognizing that they themselves are the first victims of their own bitterness. We might suppose, therefore, that the prayer is asking that we learn to forgive each other more easily. That would certainly be a great step forward.  Forgiveness is indispensable for the realization of all humanity as one single family.  Nevertheless, we can find a still more profound meaning in the wish, and that is by considering whether we owe any debt toward God.

Religions all say that we have a spiritual obligation toward the Divine, although specific details differ from faith to faith.  There is, for example, a duty to remember that everything that comes in life is a gift – our food, our shelter and our breath itself – and to give thanks for what we have received.  There is also the duty to serve in whatever way is appropriate, knowing that we are all children of the same Creator, and that in serving each other we are serving the One.  And there is a still higher duty, which mystics might describe as the command for mankind to know Truth, which can come only insofar as we let go of our illusory claim of identity.

In other words, we owe something to God, and the further we go on the spiritual path, and the more deeply we observe ourselves, and the more our ideal becomes a reality, the more we discover that our debt to the Divine seems to be not shrinking but increasing. As our horizon expands, we see that what we owe stretches far beyond our small means; we can never manage to repay what infinite Grace bestows, no more than a grain of sand could repay the sea. Can we ever be thankful enough for the gift of our life, for example?  Can we say we have ministered enough to the needs of the world?  Or loved the Truth sufficiently?  When we confront our smallness and, in all humility, pray for compassionate forgiveness, it is then that we learn the lesson of this wish, for divine compassion and mercy are infinite and all-embracing; no debt is ever beyond forgiveness.  In Vadan Chalas, Hazrat Inayat Khan says, “The most beautiful form of the love of God is His compassion, His divine forgiveness.” And in Vadan Boulas, we find “Perfection forgives, and limitation judges.”

Being taught in this way, through the lesson of having felt that we are forgiven, we also become more capable of forgiving our fellow beings; those who have known poverty are much more willing to share the little that they have when they see another in need.