Hazrat Inayat Khan concludes his series of talks on the prophetic soul by considering how the various scriptures have endeavoured to convey the divine message. The previous post is here.

In the traditions of the ancients we find that there were many prophets of the past who, in a worldly sense, were not educated, among them the Prophet Muhammad. By many he was given the name Ummi, which means ‘unlettered’, although according to the ideas of that time the Prophet was very well versed in the Arabic language. This shows that worldly education does not make the prophet, though it may help to express in more intelligible form the spiritual message which his heart receives.

We see in the world’s scriptures four different forms in which the prophetic message was given: the ancient Hindu form, which can be traced in the scriptures of India and which was continued by Buddha; then the form of Beni Israel, which is to be found in the Old Testament, and which one can follow from the time of Abraham to the time of Muhammad. The third form is the form of Zarathushtra, which showed two aspects: the Gayatri of the Hindus and the prayer of Beni Israel; and the fourth form is the form of the New Testament, which gives the story and the interpretation of the teaching of Jesus Christ, and which has been made, with every new version, more intelligible to the mind of the people in the West. But the moment a soul dives deeper into these scriptures it begins to realize the one voice within all these outer forms, and that it is the same voice that has adopted these different forms to answer the need of every age.

What the prophet says is much less than what he really hears, and the sense of what he says is much deeper than what his outer words mean, for the task of the prophet is a most difficult one; it is trying to present to the world the whole ocean in a bottle. No one has ever been able to do it; yet they have all tried, for that has been their destiny. People have taken these bottles when given to them, and have said, ‘See, here is the ocean; I have the ocean in my pocket!’ But through what the prophets have taught in the scriptures they have only tried to point out the way. They have not pictured the goal, for no one can put the goal into a picture. The goal is above all form and beyond the power of words to explain.

Those who have benefited by the life and message of the divine message-bearers are not necessarily the followers of their message, but rather the imitators of their life; for they have not only followed the teaching, but also the teacher, who is the living example of his teaching. All the ancient traditions of religious evolution tell us how those around the prophets have benefited by this imitation, rather than by following the strict laws and by arguing about the differences between the laws. There is no scripture in which contradiction does not exist. It is the contradiction which makes the music of the message. The message would be rigid, like pebbles, if there were no contradiction. Even pebbles are not all alike. How can all words mean the same? The message is nothing but an answer to every question, every need, every demand of the individual and collective life.

Rumi has tried to explain in the Masnavi, from beginning to end, the nature and character of the heart of the prophet, and by this he has given the key to the door which opens onto the prophetic path. Therefore in reading any scripture we must remember first that it is not the words we read which are so important, but what is hidden behind them. To the ordinary mind, which only sees the surface, the words of the scriptures are nothing but simple phrases, and sometimes the ideas appear simple, even childish. But the one who tries to discover what is behind them, will find out in time that there is a vast field of thought hidden behind every word that has come from the lips of the prophets. Verily the words of the prophets are like seals upon the secret of God.