Hazrat Inayat Khan continues to speak of the world of jinns, the theme begun in the previous post, and concludes with insight into the nature of the prophet.
It is beyond possibility to explain exactly what the jinn looks like, and yet there is no being who lives without a form. There is much that can be said in support of man’s imagination, which pictures the angels or jinn more or less in the form of man, for everything in the world proves on examination that it is striving to culminate in the form of man. Rocks, trees, fruits, flowers, mountains and clouds all show a gradual development towards the image of man. A keen observer of nature will prove this a thousand times; there is everything in the world to support this argument. Every form shows either a part of the human form or an undeveloped outline of it. As it is with material things and with the lower creation, so it is that even the form of the jinn and the angel is growing towards the human form. It is this idea which is expressed in the words of the scriptures. ‘We have made man in our own image.’ If I were to add a word of explanation I would say, ‘We have made all forms in order to complete the image of man.’
The world of the jinns is the world of mind; yet the minds of the jinns are not so developed as the minds of men. The reason for this is that the experience of life on the earth completes the making of mind. In the world of the jinns the mind is only a design, an outline; a design which is not yet embroidered. What is the occupation of the jinns? What does the world of the jinns look like? One may give a thousand explanations, but nothing can explain it fully. For instance, if a person were to ask me what China looks like, I would say, ‘Most wonderful, most interesting,’ but if he said, ‘What is wonderful in China?’ I would say, ‘Go and take a tour through China in order that you may see it fully.’
We have not adequate words to explain what the jinn is like, or what the world of the jinn is; but what little can be said is that it is a world of music, art, poetry; a world of intelligence, cheerfulness and joy; a world of thought, imagination and sentiment; a world that a poet would long for and a musician would crave to dwell in. The life of the jinn is an ideal life for a thinker; a life which is free from all illness, pure from all bitterness of human nature, free to move about through space without any hindrance. This sphere is a most joyful place, where the sun of intelligence shines; where the trouble of birth and death is not so severe, life not so short as on the earth. If there is any paradise it is the world of the jinn. Hindus have called it Indra-Loka, and picture Gandharvas and Apsaras [celestial singers and dancers] to be there; it is a paradise, of which every prophet has spoken to his followers in the way in which they could understand it.
The question, ‘How does a prophet know of this?’ may be answered by saying that the soul of the prophet is like a fruit which by its weight touches the ground; it has not dropped on to the earth like other fruits; it is still connected with the branch to which it is attached, the branch which droops through all the planes of existence; and so he, in his experience of the different planes, so to speak, touches all worlds. It is this mystery which is hidden behind the life of the prophet. It is through this branch that the fruit is connected with the stem. Therefore, though on earth, he calls aloud the name of God. While to many God is an imagination, to him God is the reality.
To be continued…