People have often asked me: “What has the Sufi to say about reincarnation?” My silence at times, and “Yes” and “No” at times, has made it vague. Some perhaps thought that I did not believe in reincarnation, and that if I did not believe then the Sufis do not believe, naturally. This is not the case. Every Sufi is free to believe what they understand to be right, and what they can understand. Sufis are not nailed to any particular belief. By believing in any doctrine, the Sufi does not go out of Sufism. By not believing, a Sufi does not go out of the Order of Sufis. There is perfect freedom of belief.
For my “Yes” there was a reason; for my “No” there was a reason, a reason not for myself, but for the person who asked me the question. People in the world wish to make things rigid, that are of the finest nature, that words alone cannot explain. It is just like wanting to weigh the soul or photograph the spirit, when a person describes the hereafter. I, personally, think that each individual must be able themself to realize what the hereafter is. You must not depend upon my words. Self-realization is the aim. Beliefs in doctrines are pills given to ill people for their cure.
In point of fact, all things are true to a certain extent, but when compared with the ultimate truth, they fall short in proving themselves existent. Things appear different from every different plane from which you look at them. And when a person standing on the flat part of the earth asks a question of a person standing on the top of a mountain, “Do you also believe something?” the person at the top of the mountain cannot tell you much. There can be no link of conversation between them during that time. The questioner must come on to the top of the mountain to see. The method of the Sufi is quietude and silent progress, and by this the Sufi arrives at the stage where they can see for themself. You may say that patience is needed. Yes, but the spiritual path is for the patient. Patience is the most difficult thing.
1925
CW 1925 Vol. I, p. 1.
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