Some people have an exceptional ability to heal, and Hazrat Inayat Khan was certainly gifted in this way, inspiring many students with his extensive teachings on the development of the healing power. The brief excerpt below is taken from a lecture on the healing those wounded in body and in spirit from the conflict of the First World War. Now, as it did then, his counsel applies not only to the restoration of those wounded on the battlefield, but also to a wide portion–perhaps the vast majority–of humanity. If we feel moved to heal, these words can serve as the foundation on which to build.

This healing is usually done by the eyes or by the fingertips. There is a better way than this of healing, that is, to heal by your kindness. But this cannot be learned. If a person is not kind, he cannot learn to be so. The only thing is to practice kindness, to do kind actions, and so to develop the quality.

Looking at the world, we shall see that, besides these wounded, there are many other wounded. We shall see that the world is full of wounded, and among thousands we shall find scarcely one healthy person. There are the wounded by life and the wounded of the self. We should know how to treat these wounded also. There is a verse by a Hindustani poet: “First help into port the small boat, and then your own ship will come safely to harbor.” This means: stop in order to help another in his difficulty, and there will be every promise of your own undertaking being successful. But we can heal another only if we forget our own wounds. If these are always before our view, we cannot help others, and we shall never be healed ourselves.

The wounded by life are those who have suffered hard knocks and blows in the struggle for life. Everyone has some purpose to accomplish in life, some object for which he strives. And in this pursuit he experiences the opposition of others, the hardness of the struggle of life. The wounded of the self are those who are wounded in the struggle with the self, those who have given way to the habit of some drug or of alcohol, or the habit of bitterness of the mind. They may not wish to have this habit, but their weakness keeps them bound to it.

There are also those who are wounded by the disappointments, the discouragements that they have experienced in life, those who have lost hope. To heal this third sort of wounded, what is needed is knowledge. And the knowledge that is needed is God-consciousness. The mind must be focused together. It is the mind that we wish to heal. If I have a wound on my hand, and I am always conscious that I have this wound, it will never heal.