“May your faith be strengthened.”. Those words were spoken to Hazrat Inayat Khan by his Murshid , Abu Hashim Mahdani when he left India for the west. Of the many things he could have blessed him with, why this blessing.
If we go to Murshid’s teachings we see that he differentiates between belief and faith. We all do practices and many of us participate in healing services.
Do we have faith or belief and is there a process that we go through that leads us to having faith and to our faith strengthening. I find that there are times when my faith comes into question and is tested. Those are the times that lead me to go deeper into my own beliefs and find my faith or lack thereof. So we are going to explore belief and faith in this e-class.
Hazrat Inayat Khan takes us through a process and tells us that there are stages of belief and that belief can culminate in faith. He defines belief as an idea which has taken root in us as a “settled thought” and faith as that which has become our being. Often, we become identified with our beliefs and take them for Truth. That makes it hard for us to break our beliefs on the rock of Truth.
We are going to meditate on what we believe without judgment. What do you believe that our healing practices do for us? Do they cure us? Or do they lead us to a deeper truth about healing and what we have to learn from our illnesses and from the illnesses of those that we love. Do your beliefs come from the Sufi collective, from your teacher, from your experience doing practices. When you become ill do you remember that you have tools for healing? Do you go to a doctor for medicine. Do you do both? Many of us say a daily prayer that includes the phrase “Bless all that we receive in thankfulness”. Are you grateful for your difficulties and your illnesses?
Meditate on the last time you became ill and what you did and didn’t do to heal. Then explore your history with illness and how you handled it. Find where your beliefs are and where your faith becomes reality.
Mahdiah