Hazrat Inayat Khan here concludes his teaching about vibration and the Word, giving a glimpse of the extraordinary power of the Word when it is spoken with faith. The previous post in the series is here.
In the story from The Thousand and One Nights about Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves we find the mystery of the Word portrayed by Ali Baba. It was at a time when Ali Baba was in great distress for lack of money; he badly wanted a change of circumstances. He was even wondering whether he should commit suicide, and then he thought he would try and obtain what he needed, try if he could find a place where his desire would be fulfilled. After traveling some time he arrived at a certain place where a dervish was sitting. He began a conversation with him, and the dervish said, ‘Yes, I will give you the key to what you want. Go to such and such a place, and there you will find a rock. Then, standing in front of this rock, repeat such and such a word.’ So Ali Baba went to the place indicated by the dervish, and after having found the rock, repeated the word before it. Then the rock split and revealed a path opening up before him.
This rock is the heart of man. The dervish is the Murshid, the spiritual guide, and the word he gave him to utter is this mystery: that by help of the Word the treasure can be found and a door opened by which one can enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Self-confidence, faith, trust, perseverance, and patience are all necessary. As long as you tell yourself that it is not possible for a dervish to give you a word, or that this word cannot possibly do what he says, then even though you went especially to that rock just to call out the word, you would find that the rock would not open. So then you would think, ‘It is no use. I will go home again,’ or you would think, ‘This is a rock – how can it possibly be opened or split?’ True, it will never be opened in this case, for then the word has no power. The word is the sword, and the sword needs an arm to wield it; the arm to wield it is faith. If there is no faith there is no arm either; the sword is there but there is no one to wield it. Someone must be there to hold the sword, and it is faith that will hold it.
The power of the Word has shown itself to me in all the experiences of my life. Every moment has been full of wonder; every successive moment a greater and greater wonder. It is true that people may produce various phenomena by other methods, but this is not the way of the sage. The way of the sage is to understand for himself. When a person wishes to change his purpose in life, like someone who turns over in his sleep, the sage might say to him: ‘Would you like to observe the phenomenon? Then come with me.’ The sage would never go about indiscriminately to people – ‘Look at this phenomenon, which I have performed!’ No, even to his own pupils he will say, ‘I will show you how to see for yourself what the phenomenon of life can reveal to you. If I were to show you these phenomena it would still not be you that is producing them. Even if my showing the phenomena were to give you faith, it would be a much stronger faith if you could observe the phenomena for yourself. If you were only trusting in my phenomenon you would only believe it to be true for a few moments.’
This thing that cannot be spoken of before anyone or everyone is only understood in the heart and kept there. That is why it is called mysticism.