At the core of Islam is the idea of surrender, the concept of surrender. And to truly understand the path, one has to understand surrender, and one has to be capable of surrendering. The concept of surrender and the qualities that it takes to surrender have to be understood.
It’s very difficult for somebody to surrender in a situation where there’s fear. It’s very difficult for somebody to surrender in a situation where there’s anger. It’s difficult for people to surrender in situations where there’s aggression. Yet we see religions that show aggression, and show anger, and try to instill fear, that still have adherence.
Well, they do; they have adherence but there’s no surrender there. There’s the creation of more fear, more anger, and more aggression. And religions that don’t have love end up with something else – the opposite: stubbornness, aggression.
In Sufism, the methodology that is used by the teachers is to give out profound, deep love to the students, to the dervishes. Love that is so strong, and so overwhelming, that fear leaves, that aggression leaves, that the need to be aggressive leaves. This can only be done by a master who has himself surrendered, and has gotten to the point where his interaction with all of those who come before him is an interaction where he dispenses love, where he dispenses kindness, where he dispenses generosity, so that people, when they come in his presence, are able to relax, are able to let go of their anxiety, are able to let go of their fears, are given a moment of respite from all of the difficulties in the world.
Sufism, in its formative years, was a monastic path. There were Sufi monasteries, with a sheikh in the monastery, and people interacted with him on a regular basis, and he dispensed to them kindness, and understanding, and love. And through their watching him, they could understand kindness, and understanding, and love, and it would become part of their being also.
Now, in reality, to be truly in a state of love, and in a state of surrender is a rare phenomenon, and we should all understand that it is a rare phenomenon, but it is a possible phenomenon, and we should be attempting to become part of that phenomenon. We should be setting the intention to learn how to love and to learn how to surrender through love.
When we take on the qualities of Allah and incorporate them into our being, and understand the nature of those qualities, it becomes easier for us to love. Sufism is known as the path of love as opposed to the path of aggression, as opposed to the path that separates. Sufism is inclusive. Love is inclusive. Love doesn’t make distinctions. Love just accepts. And it’s in this acceptance that we are able to disappear into that love and into that surrender.
As the ability in our own being to accept everything that we see, and everyone that we see, grows, the amount of differences that we have within ourselves lessens. As the amount of differences that we have within ourselves lessens our separation from Allah lessens, our separation from God lessens, and we become closer and closer to the truth that is love and kindness…
