The Ten Sufi Thoughts
“What the world needs today is the message of love, harmony, and beauty.”
The Ten Sufi Thoughts of Hazrat Inayat Khan beautifully and succinctly express the essentials of the Sufi Path. However, these should not be taken as dogmas. Hazrat Inayat Khan was clear: Sufism is freedom from conceptions and beliefs. There are no doctrines imparted, no principals laid down, and no tenets given according to which pupils must order their lives. The Ten Sufi Thoughts are given to inspire and uplift, not as binding doctrines commanding adherence. Murshid’s teaching emphasized what he described as the Message of Love, Harmony, and Beauty, a message that cannot be limited by any doctrine or dogma.
- There is One God, the Eternal, the Only Being; none exists save God.
- There is One Master, the Guiding Spirit of all Souls, Who constantly leads followers towards the light.
- There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader.
- There is One Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction towards the ideal, which fulfils the life’s purpose of every soul.
- There is One Law, the law of reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.
- There is One Brotherhood and Sisterhood, the human brotherhood and sisterhood, which unites the children of earth indiscriminately in the Parenthood of God.
- There is One Moral, the love which springs forth from self-denial, and blooms in deeds of beneficence.
- There is One Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshippers through all aspects from the seen to the unseen.
- There is One Truth, the true knowledge of our being, within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom.
- There is One Path, the annihilation in the Unlimited, which raises the mortal to immortality, and in which resides all perfection.
The “Ten Sufi Thoughts” can be found in The Way of Illumination by Hazrat Inayat Khan. You may also download the Ten Sufi Thoughts with commentary by Hazrat Inayat Khan.
The following is Pir Zia Inayat Khan’s essentialized version of The Ten Sufi Thoughts:
DEFINITIONS
God: The One
Prophet: The Complete Human
Holy Book: The Universe
Religion: Toward the One
Law: Reciprocity
Race: Humankind
Moral Code: Kindness
Inspiration: Beauty
Truth: Self-Knowledge
Path: Die and Be Reborn