With this post we begin a brief series of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s teaching on a very profound subject.

When speaking of the world of the unseen and who can know this unseen world, I will say that it can be known by God and by the God-conscious at the time when he is God-conscious. One part of the Unseen Being is unconscious. That part does not know whether we are in sorrow, in trouble, in happiness. The other part, the conscious part, is so conscious that all our affairs, all our troubles, all our sadness and our happiness is much better known to Him than to ourselves. One part is so far away that there is no way of letting our cry reach Him, and one part is experiencing through us all the joy, all the affairs, all the sadness of the world. 

With regard to the God-conscious, it is God Who discloses and hides knowledge. If He discloses it, it is His merit, because it is by His favor. If it is hidden, it is our fault, that we do not see it. It is always there. In this, there is idealization also. 

When Jacob had lost his son Joseph, for many years he did not know where his son was, and wept for him, until his disciples asked him, saying, “You are a prophet. You see the unseen, and yet you are sad for your son and you do not know where he is.” To say, “I know the future,” is the work of a fortuneteller. It is not the work of a mystic. At one time you may know the future, and may tell another person. Another time that person may be depending upon your word and you do not know the future. To know and to say nothing is the work of the mystic. To know and to help. To say to another, “Take care. There is a pit.” But it is better to say, “Take care because there is a pit,” than to say, “Take care, I see you falling.” Even that knowledge it is better to hide. Therefore, if you see anything, it should be told to the Murshid, where there is a chance for its correction and interpretation. It should not be told to others.

Is God conscious at the same time of the resting state and the active state, or is He conscious of them alternatively, like a person waking and sleeping? And is someone who is God-conscious conscious of both states at once?  That active part of the Consciousness that has produced the whole manifestation cannot be compared to the Eternal Consciousness, the ahadiat. It is so small a part that there is no comparison at all. The active part is like the scenery placed before a curtain, which is the blank part. The curtain is always there. The scenery varies. Every person who attains to God-consciousness is conscious of the inactive part. But this consciousness is very slight. All the consciousness is in the manifestation. When he becomes fully conscious of the unconscious state, this is miraj, the highest state, Sidratu’l-Muntaha, which Muhammad experienced, as is told in the Quran. 

To be continued…