In Sufi terms, the divine manner is called Akhlak Allah. A human being feels, thinks, speaks and acts according to the pitch to which their soul is tuned. The highest note a person could be tuned to is the divine note, and once a person has arrived at that pitch, they begin to express the manner of God in everything they do.
What is the manner of God? It is the royal or sovereign manner – a manner that is not even known to the kings and queens. For it is a manner that only the Sovereign of Heaven and of Earth knows, and that manner is expressed by the soul who is tuned to God. It is a manner that is void of narrowness, a manner that is free from pride and conceit. It is the manner that is not only beautiful but beauty itself, for God is beautiful and God loves beauty. The soul who is tuned to God also becomes as beautiful as God, and begins to express God through all they do; they express the divine manner in their life. Why is it a sovereign manner? The word sovereign only signifies someone who possesses power and wealth in abundance.
It is that soul who is tuned to God, before whom all things fade away and in whose eyes the importance of all little things (which every person thinks about so much) is lessened, that begins to express the divine manner in the form of contentment. It might seem to an ordinary person that to this soul nothing matters. No gain is exciting; no loss is alarming. If anyone praises that person, it is of no consequence, if anyone blames them, it does not matter. Honor and insult, this is all a game. At the end of the game, neither the gain is a gain nor the loss a loss. It was only a pastime.
You might think, what does such a person do for others? What good is such a person to those around them? That person is a healing for others and those around them. That person has the influence of uplifting souls, the souls who are suffering from the narrowness and limitation of human nature. For human nature is not only narrow and limited, but also foolish and tyrannous. This is because the nature of life is intoxicating. Its intoxication makes people drunken. What does the drunken person want? The drunken person wants drink. The drunken person does not care about another. In this life there are so many liquors that a person drinks: the love of wealth, passion, anger, greed, the love of power, the desire for possessions. A person is not satisfied with only possessing the earthly properties, but they also wish to possess those whom they pretend to love. In this way, a person proves to be tyrannous and foolish. For all things of the world that a person possesses, the person does not in reality possess them. A person is only possessed by them, be it wealth or property or a friend or position or rank.
The soul with divine manner is, therefore, sober compared with the drunken person of the world. It is this soberness that produces in a human being the purity called Sufism, and it is through that purity that God is reflected in a Sufi’s mirror-like soul. For the soul who reflects God, nothing frightens them, for they are above all fright. For this soul possesses nothing, and all fright is connected with the possessions that a person has.
Does it mean that you must leave the world, and go and pass their life in the caves in the mountains? Not in the least. You may have the wealth of the whole world in your possession; you may have the kingdom of the whole universe under you. Nothing binds you; nothing ties you. Nothing frightens you, for that only belongs to you that is your own. When your soul is your own, all is your own, and what belongs to you cannot be taken away. If anyone takes it away, it is you yourself who did it. You are your own friend and foe. So, there is no longer a pain or suffering, a complaint or grudge. You are at peace, for you are at home, either on earth or in heaven.
October 9, 1923
CW 1923, Vol. II, pp. 754-756.
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