Hazrat Inayat Khan - The Way of Illumination

The question very often arises, If an angel comes from above, does it descend outwardly before a person; or, manifest within a person in the heart?' The 'lift' which brings a soul down and takes it back to heaven is situated within; that 'lift' is the breath; the soul comes to earth with the breath, and with the same breath it returns. Those among human beings who are not even aware of their own breath, how can they know who comes within themselves and who goes out?

Many seem wide-awake to the life without, but asleep to the life within; and though the chamber of their heart is continually visited by the hosts of heaven, they do not know their own heart; they are not there.

There is a very interesting story told in the Arabic scriptures. It is that God made Iblis the chief among the angels, and then told him to bring some clay that he might make out of it an image. The angels, under the direction of Iblis, brought the clay and made an image; then God breathed into that image, and asked the angels to bow before it. All the angels bowed; but Iblis said, 'Lord, Thou hast made me chief of all angels, and I have brought this clay at Thy command, and made with my own hands this image which Thou commandest me to bow before.' The displeasure of God arose and fell on his neck as the sign of the outcast.

This story helps us to understand what Jesus Christ meant when He said, 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.' What Iblis denied was the reflection of God in man; and one can observe the same law in every direction of life. A person may be rich in wealth or high in position, but he still must obey the policeman; it is not the rank and wealth which the latter has, but in him is reflected the power of the government, and when a man takes no heed of the policeman, he refuses to obey the law of the state. In everything small or great it is the same law; and in every person there is a spark of this tendency of Iblis; the tendency which we know as egotism, the tendency to say, 'No, I will not listen; I will not give in; I will not consider. Because of what? Because of 'I'; because 'I am.' 'But there is only one 'I' – the perfect 'I'. He is God, whose power is mightier than any power existing in the world, whose position is greater than that of anyone; and He shows it in answer to the egotistic tendency of man, who is limited. This is expressed in the saying, 'Man proposes, but God disposes.' It is this thought which teaches man the virtue of resignation, which shows him that the 'I' he creates is a much smaller 'I', and that there is no comparison between this 'I' and the 'I' of the great Ego, God. Another story tells how frightened the soul was when it was commanded to enter the body of clay; it was most unwilling, not from pride, but from fear. The soul, whose nature is freedom, whose dwelling-place is heaven, whose comfort it is to be free and to dwell in all the spheres of existence, for that soul to dwell in a house made of clay, was most terrifying. Then God asked the angels to play and sing, and the ecstasy that was produced in the soul by hearing that music made it enter the body of clay where it became captive to death.