In Sufi terms the divine manner is called Akhlaq-i Allah. Man thinks, speaks, and acts according to the pitch to which his soul is tuned. The highest note he can be tuned to is the divine note, and once man has arrived at that pitch, he begins to express the manner of God in everything he does. And what is the manner of God? It is the kingly manner, but a manner which is not known even to kings, for only the King of heaven and of the earth knows it. This manner is expressed by the soul who is tuned to God; it is devoid of narrowness and free from pride and conceit, it is a manner which is not only beautiful but is beauty itself. The soul which is tuned to God also becomes as beautiful as God, and begins to express God through all that it does, expressing the divine manner in life.
Why is it a kingly manner? By the word kingly we only mean someone who possesses great power and wealth. But the soul tuned to God, before whom all else fades away and in whose eyes all the little things which are so important to everyone else are lessened, that soul begins to express the divine manner in the form of contentment. It might seem to an ordinary person that to this soul nothing matters. To him no gain is exciting, no loss alarming; if anyone praises him, it is of no consequence; if anyone blames him, it does not matter to him; honor and insult are all a game to him, and at the end of the game, neither is the gain a gain nor the loss a loss, for it was only a pastime.
One might think, what does such a person do for others? What good is he to those around him? That person is a healing for others and for those around him; he is an influence for uplifting those souls who are suffering from the narrowness and limitation of human nature. For human nature is not only narrow and limited, but also foolish and tyrannical. The reason is that the nature of life is intoxicating, its intoxication makes people drunk. And what does the drunken man want? He wants his drink, he does not think about anyone else.
In this life there are so many kinds of liquor that man drinks: love of wealth, passion, anger, possession; man is not even satisfied with possessing earthly things, but he also wishes to possess those whom he pretends to love, and in this way proves to be both tyrannical and foolish. For all the things of this world that man thinks he possesses, he does not really possess; in reality he is possessed by them, be it wealth or property or a friend or position or rank. The soul with the divine manner is therefore sober compared with the drunken man of the world, and it is this soberness that produces in him that purity which is called Sufism, and it is through that purity that God is reflected in his mirror-like soul.
To be continued…