Having discussed the foundation of morality, which is in fact the search for true happiness, Hazrat Inayat Khan now considers the related theme of the difference between right and wrong.

All that is directed by love is as a rule right. And all that is directed by hate is most often wrong. In fact at the present time, when the effect of war is prevailing throughout the world, if this principle were thought out and followed, many difficulties might be surmounted. But the hatred that exists today between nations, especially in Europe, in the damaged heart of Europe, if it continued, in a hundred years it would enfeeble Europe to an unimaginable condition.  And how many people there are today – millions – who will perhaps believe this [i.e. what is directed by love is right and what is directed by hate is wrong] as a principle, but are not ready to follow it, not willing to follow it.

And what does it show? It shows that nature [i.e. that hateful nature] has become as the nature of so many souls, as drinking becomes the nature of a drunken man, so that in a few years’ time, knowing that it ruins his health, yet he cannot get along without drink. So it is with this feeling of hatred. Directed by this feeling of hatred when one does an act of patriotism, can it be worthy? Even an act of worship cannot be worthy if directed by hatred – praying for somebody’s destruction. That is the state of today.

The distinction of right and wrong can also be seen by understanding the secret of metaphysics, that every activity has its time and place, which awaits the expression of that activity to give it a place. Therefore all that one does which fits in with the time, the circumstances, the demand of the moment, it is right. And what does not fit in is wrong, and that must be avoided.  For instance, at one time laughter fits in with the moment, the moment gives a scope to the smile. There is another time that the same action, laughter or smile, has no place to fit in – it is not the demand of that occasion. It seems this outward life welcomes a word sometimes, and the same word at another time it does not welcome. The one who keenly watches life therefore understands the time and the situation, and accordingly he thinks, speaks and acts.  Life is a school for every activity, and when that activity is fitting with the scope, the scope becomes as a world or as a capacity, where every activity is rightly utilized.  And every activity done with this understanding is right; if not, it is wrong.

There was a time of war, when every activity was directed towards the war. Now the peace is made, and yet there are so many, such a large proportion of humanity, in utter misery. Very few in this world know the fact fully, and fewer still work to bring ease to suffering humanity. The only way better conditions could be brought about would be to forget that hatred that existed during the war. It must expire with the finishing of the war. A new feeling must now be produced among individuals and in the heart of humanity. That alone can bring about the ideal peace.

This can come by the realization of the moral that the Sufi Message brings, that the whole humanity is as one single body. It is the different sections under the names of races and religions who are its organs, and the pain caused to any organ of the body has its influence, sooner or later, on the whole body. Every individual in this world, every community and nation is united in this universe. Not one single being is pulled alone, without every soul there having had a share of that pull. No soul is pressed in this world without some other individual being pressed in some form or other. The whole universe is one, its source is one, its goal is one. This world of variety deludes, so as to make our eyes covered from the reality as in a state of dark night. It will not always remain. There will come a moment when every individual will realize it, when the multitude, the world will realise it, and the sooner it is realized, the better it will be.

It is the spreading of this idea throughout the world which is the main work of the Sufi Movement, to make man conscious of this oneness of the whole being, of his share with the joy and sorrow of each other. This is the central theme of the Sufi Message. 

The only principle that the Sufi Message gives and asks that each one should live, is that each must work and live for all.

To be continued…