During the recent Sufi retreat at the Amberley Centre in Australia, Sabura Allen gave this sermon in the Universal Worship service. It describes the application of spiritual principles to a particularly difficult, confronting situation, with astonishing results. Sabura worked in Australia for many years, but is now living with her family in Eugene, Oregon, where these events took place. ‘Michael’ is not the real name of the person in the story she tells.

Amberley Retreat – Awakening to Beauty, March 24, 2019

The phrase from the Gayan upon which this talk is based is “Love develops in harmony, and of harmony is born Beauty.” This phrase indicates that there is a relationship among the core concepts of the Message – Love, Harmony, and Beauty.  These concepts are expressed in the Invocation of Inayat Khan as a recognition and description of the Divine –  O Thou, who art the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty. Our Teacher has placed these qualities – for lack of a better word – at the center of the expression of the Divine.

The concepts of “beauty” of the creation given to us by the Creator are relatively easy to appreciate when we are looking out the window at the forest, taking a hike, or walking along the beach. When I think of the Beauty of the Divine, a rousing hymn of great feeling rises up from my childhood.

For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies

For the beauty of the hour
Of the day and of the night
Hill and vale
And tree and flower
Sun and moon and stars of light

For the joy of human love
Brother, sister, parent, child
Friends on earth
And friends above
For all gentle thoughts and mild

Lord of all to thee we raise
This our joyful hymn of praise

Text: Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1835-1917 (not all verses included here)

I sang this hymn with much gusto as a child and adolescent. I really felt close to the Divine, singing about all these beauties of life. Yet we are called to find the beauty in all things. Relatedly, in the saying, “I see the Beloved’s beauty in all colors and in all forms.” (Vadan) Inayat Khan calls us to see the beauty in all. We can interpret “all” as including people, situations, and things – loveable or unloveable in our eyes. This can be a considerable challenge as we look around at the distinctions and differences that arise in the political and social fabric of our communities. 

I want to share a story that is very close to my heart, that I feel is an example of finding the Beauty of the Divine in someone not so beautiful through the creation of harmony. A few years ago, I was leading a team of mental health peers. When I began there, we often had conversations that began with “Sabura, I need to talk to you about Michael.” Michael was a homeless man that we were serving in our clinic in Eugene; and he was a client of the assertive outreach team. Michael spent a lot of time – 4-5 hours per day – in our open area for clients, which consisted of tables, a few computers, a small library, and classes. Michael smelled bad, his clothes were dirty, he didn’t change his adult nappies* often enough, he didn’t obey most of the rules, and in general was very annoying. My team of mental health peers found him extremely annoying and worried he would frighten away other clients. However, we were stuck with Michael.

So we, as a team, had to develop a strategy, and so we developed the “Michael strategy”. We decided we were going to love Michael and we were in it for the long haul. This strategy was openly based on love – that’s how we talked about it. Michael needed love, because he had been rejected by the community and his family, evicted from apartments, taken advantage of by meth addicts. He didn’t look anyone in the eye and he hardly spoke.

We accepted that he wouldn’t, possibly couldn’t, keep to any rules.  We accepted that he didn’t know when he smelled bad and needed some help with that. And we decided – no matter what – we were not going to join those who had rejected him so many times in the past. So we went to work… quietly.

• We said “Good Morning” to him and smiled.
• One of my staff helped him wash his clothes in the centre’s washing machine.
• We would ask his case manager, who he trusted, to tell him when he needed to change his nappy to reduce embarrassment.
• We would give him a bit of food when we had some to share.
• We didn’t notice when he didn’t keep to the rules.
• And we kept asking him to join in to classes – over and over again.

After a couple of months, we noticed that Michael started looking us in the eye and even saying hello. He would ask us if he could wash his clothes. He even waved to me one day when he saw me on the street. And then one day – a miraculous thing happened. I walked into the center and two of my staff excitedly motioned me over. They showed me the most lovely and delicate water color and said “Guess who painted this.” We had several artistic clients, so I guessed their names, but no – they said, “Michael, it was Michael.” 

I, like them, found it hard to believe that this tender painting could emerge from the rough and rugged homeless man. This was the beginning of a real turnaround in Michael’s life. After another year, with the help of his case manager, he was able to get permanent housing and continues to have connections with our staff and even with other clients.

Last year, I attended a fund raiser for the clinic. I bought one of Michael’s paintings – a delicate water color in a gold frame. I have hung it in my meditation room, next to my paintings of Inayat Khan and Mary Magdelene. Whenever I look at it, it reminds of how love and appreciation of Michael – just where he was – enabled a revelation of a hidden beauty.

Michael is one of those individuals – like all of us – in which God is present. He was easy not to appreciate, yet he is part of the manifestation – a creation of the Creator. Our team, without knowing it, enacted the essence of the phrase which inspired this homily. “Love develops in harmony, and of harmony is born Beauty.” Harmony was the solid ground of our strategy. We harmonized as a group to love Michael and from that stable ground, our love enabled him to join with us and give an outlet to the expression of his inner beauty, expressed in the watercolor, but also expressed in his mental health recovery – while at the same time benefitting each member of the team by allowing them to see how they could make a difference in Michael’s life.

This is a beautiful story, but we don’t all have teams of people to respond to the “Michaels” of our own lives. However, this simple and beautiful phrase of our Master can be our support. We can mindfully consider how we can create and use the solid base of harmony to love and thereby allow the beauty to emerge. Taking this approach to situations to appreciate beauty is not easy; however, it is likely to bring many rewards to others and to ourselves. Further, it is a practical application of very high ideals of the qualities of the Divine.  To respond to life’s challenges in this way puts into practice the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Over the next few days, we might sit and reflect upon our own lives. Think of a situation or individual that needs the beauty to be revealed. Maybe you might even make a vow to meet this call to find beauty.

Sabura Allen

*=diapers