On the Healing Service

Series III

by

Murshid Samuel L. Lewis

(Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti)

Note: The Healing Service is to be led by a Healing Conductor, who is initiated and trained by the Dervish Healing Order.

Anyone interested please contact the DHO.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 1

Real healing is permanent healing. It is healing alike of mind and body, it is purification of mind and body.

In the service, a piece of amber is used to symbolize magnetism. Now the nature of magnetism is very strange. One can magnetize a piece of steel, that steel becomes a magnet and it attracts other pieces of steel. Sometimes using a steel magnet, by induction one can magnetize another piece of steel so that it becomes a magnet also. This shows there is a kind of attunement which arouses latent energy in the second body without depriving the first body of its power.

Spiritual healing obeys a similar law of induction and attunement. By it, life is aroused in the personality of another. For this, contact is not necessary. While through the power of love one can sometimes touch the heart of another, there is also a psychic transference of magnetism which operates without the heart activity. Psychic healing is not without value but spiritual healing benefits one on earth so much that the benefit can be retained even after leaving this plane.

It is often possible to employ Healing Services for those ready to leave this plane. It is permissible in some instances to perform three such services after the departure; more are not necessary. When the soul is of a mureed it is preferable to call the name at a special service held for this purpose, or where names of mureeds only are used. But if the departed person is not a mureed the name may be included in regular services three times. This holds true whether any ceremony of Universal Worship be held for such persons or not. More than three such repetitions are not necessary because by that time the soul will probably be awakened to the life on the higher plane, when it is no longer to the advantage of either party to maintain any contact.

The idea in the Healing Service is spiritual. That is to say, the object is to free sick people from disease. As disease arises mostly from some psychological cause, either curing the body or its dissolution does not remove that cause, unless the mind is also healed. For that reason it is unwise to attempt anything for unsympathetic persons. While they may receive some benefit thereby, time is given to every soul to serve God to the mutual advantage of God and lover of God. There may be no wisdom in endeavoring to help others who do not and would not appreciate it.

In cases of an epidemic or a plague it is better to have general meditations than Healing Services. Such meditations help to purify the atmosphere and so benefit many instead of the few whose names are called. Besides, all mureeds are not expected to participate in healing ceremonies, but all may unite in the meditations. Besides meditation which quickens the heart is the best preventative as well as an excellent remedy at all times. It is not wrong to hold meditations for the heads of governments or leaders of humanity but the Healing Service is reserved for mureeds and friends of the Cause.

Meditation may also be substituted for healing in case of a general crisis, when the suffering is very wide-spread. It may also be substituted when Shifayat and assistants are lacking in magnetism. Negative persons can help others through meditation, which is selfless, more than they can help in any other way. Such meditation bears a certain resemblance to prayer but is more powerful as it touches the heart. This attunement of the heart is most important.

Finally, meditation may be substituted whenever there is any doubt about the kind of help to be proffered. Doubt itself indicates need for meditation, for when the intuition is alive there can be no doubt. Mind-activity which causes disease cannot be its cure. The cure of the heart alone can be permanent.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 2

The proper attitude for prayer is very valuable in the performance of the Healing Service. Every Sufic prayer contains a statement; to the devotee it is a plea, to the sage it is knowledge, true knowledge of our being, which is nothing but God.

The prayer used in the first part of the service: “O Thou Whose nature is Mercy and Compassion,” teaches that to heal others we also need to express mercy and compassion. By our mercy and compassion toward others we may not only heal, we may prevent disease. Why? Because the nature of disease is mainly psychological. Touching the heart of anyone we can so impart magnetism and life to them through the heart, so that even the blood and physical body are easily benefited.

The feeling of gentleness towards others is very helpful; even to God it is helpful. To call one Shifayat and have that one be unkind, uncharitable and selfish is to acquiesce in sin. No one is Shifayat who is ever harsh, for this prevents even God from bestowing love through a personality chosen to represent Him upon earth.

We can see this better in the prayer in the second division of the Healing Service, which begins, “O Thou Who art the spirit of our souls.” Nothing is so much a barrier to Shifayat as self-assertion. Love, light and life of God are all one, in Sufic terms Ishk. This Ishk is not the greatest force in the Universe, it is the force of the Universe. It is not to be divided nor can it be so divided by the mind of man. Whatever is called love, power, energy or will is nothing but Ishk. Ishk is all-powerful before the selfless person. Asserting “ I-ness” and “my-ness” is like putting clouds before the sun.

As some people are helped by sunlight, so can they be helped by a kindly word, deed or thought of a humble person. Ordinary sunlight is physical and its influence is chiefly upon the physical body. But the light of intelligence which shines from the heart of man is much greater and can heal the wounds of both mind and body. Still greater is the spiritual light which comes with awakening and illumination; it is all healing by itself.

Generally speaking, removal of moral weakness by expression of divine qualities heals body and mind and gives added strength. That is the true meaning of virtue. So we find in the prayer in the third portion of the service the words, “by Thy Mercy may all these and all others ... be healed....” It is this very life of God, Who is called Rahman, which heals us. This is nothing but Ishk, Supreme Love.

The last prayer in the third section is that we be freed from pain and suffering in order to heal others. This is possible so long as we strive to express divine attributes. When we cease from mercy, when we return to self-hood, we cannot truly help others. This supposes a division between Shifayat and humanity. If so, Shifayat is not Shifayat. As the heart is the healer in the body, so Shifayat may help humanity as part of humanity. When any claim, when any action, when any attitude tends to make one appear different, the healing powers go, they disappear. For a short while one may retain some psychic magnetism, but even this cannot be revivified when spiritual qualities are lacking.

To guard against any such danger, the Sufis practice Darood.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 3

The greatest difficulty in the training of those on the path of Shifayat is in bringing the realization that healing is not apart (not separate) from spiritual training and development. Physical treatments of all sorts may be prescribed by physicians; with them the Sufi has no quarrel. Rather would he cooperate as much as possible. Those undergoing such care are not debarred from the healing lists. In fact such cooperation is desirable for many reasons.

Neither is cooperation withheld from psychologists and all accepted professional people using suggestion and other means to reach the mind. Sufis welcome any methods free from psychism and the application of hypnotism. Hypnotizing makes it somewhat difficult to apply a spiritual treatment for the patient is already negative to the personality of the psychologist. Often this stands in the way of making him or her negative to God, and so one cannot always receive the full benefit of spiritual help. Even material healing may be hampered if one goes to a hypnotist having any prejudices about food, medicine or forms of treatment; the patient becoming negative to the will of that person may be hindered rather than helped on the road to health. Hypnotists are not all-wise or all-perfect and their ability is hampered by their short-comings.

Psychic treatments are often illusions. Personal magnetism may be transferred to or induced in the sick person. This does not remove the cause of disease. It may momentarily impart some energy which temporarily alleviates the trouble. After a while the life-energy of the patient flags and the disease manifests. This is particularly true of influenza and related ailments. So psychic treatments may be classified with drugs and intoxicants in the good or harm they do.

In performing the Healing Service one does not necessarily take account of the various methods of Shifayat. The work of the individual and of the group are to be considered apart, yet they in no way conflict. They do not conflict because both are based upon spiritual principles. In the one case the power is transmitted through the group by the accommodation they make. In the other instance, it depends somewhat upon the individual.

Group treatment, as in the service, is always spiritual in so far as it is effective; it can never be mental, be it strong or weak. That is to say, the group is as an individual, but its efficiency depends upon its harmony with the Universal. This is expressed through the Invocation. Use of the Invocation calls up spiritual energy through the heart, and this is confirmed by meditations. In other words, the Healing Service gives out only spiritual magnetism, the power of which depends upon the group as a whole, and when interest or concentration is lacking, there is not much gain.

Personal healing is quite different, for then magnetic forces are brought into play. If Shifayat has taken proper precautions the treatment will be spiritual and the benefit lasting. Doa, Dum, Darood and all the practices given to Shifayat have great spiritual values.

Now the individual may act as a unit in mind and body as well as in heart and this unity is a source of strength or weakness. A selfless Shifayat adds to the treatment by bestowing a blessing through the magnetism so that healing may be full and complete. This blessing is referred to in the closing lines of Saum, “in us be reflected Thy Grace, Thy Glory, Thy Wisdom, Thy Joy and Thy Peace.”

When Shifayat permits other thoughts in the mind, thereby throwing the shadow of nufs across the light, some mental magnetism may be transferred which helps but not so much as the spiritual treatment which is selfless. If Shifayat’s zeal is greater than his or her wisdom, only psychic power may be transmitted which helps the sick person momentarily, often at the risk of depleting the healer.

Yet this same psychic power, if transmitted by Shifayat with heart and soul qualities, accompanying the mental treatment and the spiritual offering, will do much to rebuild the sick body. The law may be expressed: the spiritual medicine removes the cause of disease, the mental treatment restores and stabilizes the mind, the psychic energy strengthens the physical vehicle. When separated from each other, these forces are applied with mixed advantages; when combined they form a battery of tremendous power, capable of accomplishing great good.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 4

Prevention is always better than cure. With the individual, so with the ruling State. As the State is not a person, one cannot assign special exercises to it. Of course there is always the hope and possibility that governments will be established on a hierarchical basis, making it possible for spiritual forces to touch this plane in a more direct manner. In the absence of such institutions it is permissible to use the Healing Service to protect the State.

This is included in the last part of the service when all hold the concentration, “In Unison With the Will of God We Will to Have Peace.” This concentration for peace is more than an endeavor to prevent or stop wars—it helps to bring to earth the most spiritual atmosphere, of Grace, Glory, Wisdom, Joy and Peace. If the question be asked, “Could not such a concentration be used selfishly?” the answer is evident that it could not. In unison with the Will of God there can be no selfishness. Success depends upon unselfishness and righteousness, and then evil forces are always defeated.

Therefore it would not be wrong to employ the Healing Service in times of greatest stress as in wars or depressions. Better yet would it be to hold services regularly at all times. Healing Service, meditations, Universal Worship, prayers, practices and lessons all help to promote peace. One really healthy person would radiate health, one real wise man would spread wisdom, one who has found peace within goes far in maintaining peace for all. All that man calls peace may not be peace in the sight of God, but when one is attuned to God, it is God Who acts through man.

Healing Services may be used to protect areas although Sufis have other methods for accomplishing the same. But thought that the service does this or accomplishes that can turn spirituality and mysticism into magic. Oneness with God, Who is the healer, and feeling that the service is the means He employs to reach humanity is of great value.

It is easy to talk about selflessness; it is not so easy to maintain it. Healing is spiritual so long as it lacks self-hood. Spiritual healing through ceremony may or may not attain its aim. It may not have any mental or psychic effect upon the person whose name is read, but it may have a decided mental or psychic reaction upon the participants. Any thought of “I-ness,” any thought of connection of personality with the healing, even thought of healing may defeat its purpose. Keeping heart, mind and soul in unison with Allah brings greatest benefit.

It can be said in a word that since disease is psychological by nature, it is best removed by purifying the mind. So long as mind is cluttered with useless thoughts and unnecessary cares, it cannot be purified. Then there can be no concentration, there is no unity, there is division of purpose and of function and this duality is the cause of all difficulties. Sooner or later this division lends to weakness and weakness to disease.

The chief work of the healer is not to bring health to everybody, rather it is to escape this dilemma of dualism. In other words, self-healing is the only healing. From the highest view there is no healing but healing of self. What good then is the Healing Service? It is of the highest good for it impels the purest thoughts and feelings and the spirit of Unity. Then one is able to send out fine healing thoughts to another. The whole Healing Service enables one to do this in the easiest and best manner.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 5

The full value of the Healing Service can best be comprehended when the service is regarded as a whole, including all parts. If there is any value in prayer that value is used. If there is any value in meditation that value is included. If there is any value in concentration, that value is applied. If there is any value in the repetition of sacred phrases or in Silence, those values are combined. In other words, all the esoteric exercises are employed in a ceremonial form so that the combined benefit of all can be obtained to minister to humanity.

All spiritual practices help everybody. It need not be supposed that in repeating Wazifa, for instance, only the talib is benefited. His meditation room is helped, anybody coming into that room is helped, his personal atmosphere is strengthened. He becomes a focal region for the Divine Attributes, an instrument of the Message.

All these advantages and opportunities are integrated in the Healing Service. Viewed in this light, one can well appreciate every word, every movement, every object of the ceremony. More than that, one can realize the relation between spirituality and health. If God is the Source of Peace, the Bestower of Health, the Father of Mercies, then every disease shows absence of spirituality and of unity. Goodness and kindness alone do not constitute spirituality, do not confer health. It is only in one-ness that there is whole-ness and holiness.

After one has participated in many services one begins to feel a rejuvenation, a quickening of spirit. Yet it is not always advisable to have older people present. Feeling of rejuvenation is desirable for younger persons; for older folk inner feeling of oneness is more important and beneficial. This is gained through meditation and silence. In all cases it may be understood: the best way to help others is by perfecting oneself.

Thought of self and others is always a hindrance. This ends love, makes all sins and crime and disease possible, brings all inhumanity, cruelty and selfishness. Even a few people may change world conditions by a complete change in their attitudes. In that way the Healing Service becomes the greatest of services.

Therefore to keep in the proper condition for the Healing Service one needs to practice Darood at all times, making every moment, every breath an opportunity. This brings one closer to perfection. It is not necessary to think of right or wrong, to consider whether one’s acts are wise or foolish. What matters is that every effort be made to harmonize with God—In Unison With the Will of God We Will to Have Peace.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 6

It will be found after many ceremonies that the room where there have been Healing Services will become peaceful like a Meditation Hall. There need not be too many rules or restrictions about such a place except that it never be the scene of discussions or dissensions. Sometimes it is advantageous to have a special room for healing work. If that is not possible any room might be used so long as it is kept scrupulously clean, and not used for frivolity or arguments.

Such a room might be a library, art salon, study, workshop or even a bedroom. It should not be a music parlor as one cannot predetermine the kind of selections played nor the type of conversations in such a place. It need not be a room of silence yet a Meditation Hall may be used for the healing work. As the thoughts in healing are directed toward weaker people, one needs a certain understanding of psychic law.

In fact the need for cleanliness is as much psychic as physical. Dirt may be dust, mud, lint or other substances. Not only are they foreign in their nature, but they carry something of the atmosphere of their origin. As meditation and class rooms may be used often and it is not always convenient or possible to be cleaning them repeatedly, another room may be selected and kept free from foreign substances.

If possible it is proper to have a rug on the floor, then not used for other occasions. Otherwise it is good to have rugs or carpets cleaned just prior to the service, or else removed from the room. A clean but bare floor offers no difficulties. When it can be conveniently arranged, it is well to have mureeds remove shoes, replacing them by sandals or just sitting in stocking feet. It is even good to follow the Islamic custom of bathing feet prior to the service. This removes dirt and odor and especially the earthy and psychic atmosphere.

White or light colored clothing is best, and orange and yellow are the best colors after white. Garments worn at the service are not to be considered esoteric but should be kept psychically pure. That is to say, the wearer need not be of any rank or grade of initiation. The ideal is to preserve purity during the hour of tendering healing for humanity.

Garments are to belong to the individuals. They may be worn upon all esoteric occasions and there is no need to place anyone to useless expense. Care of garments is of vital necessity, not the need to buy clothes for each occasion. Selflessness of heart is far more important than light colored clothing, but knowledge of psychic law is always helpful and its application beneficial. Purity of garment is good, purity of mind perhaps a million times more important, and purity of heart the greatest essential for Healing work.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 7

It is not advisable to perform the service more than once weekly. If there are sufficient participants and many requiring help there may be two groups at different times, say one to meet in the daytime and one at night. If many require help, even when there are plenty of mureeds to assist, that indicates a whole area needs protection and care. In such event it is advisable to concentrate on the area, to protect the area and all persons in it, mureeds or non-mureeds.

Every person may meditate, every person may pray. When the heart is open, no ceremony, no congregation is required. Often there is some confusion through assuming that individual disease has other causes than the general ills of humanity such as mental anguish, personal misfortune, adversity, melancholy or any unfavorable condition. All pain, evil, disease, inharmony and misfortune arise because of nufs. It is the cleansing of nufs that ends all trouble.

And how is this done? By the flooding in of the light of God through the human heart. This is the one medicine which cures every ache, pain and ill. With that in mind, one can see that everything in Sufism is a healing. Only in the service there is a provision for non-mureeds and for mureeds, who at the moment are unable to meditate or perform spiritual practices.

Therefore it is not wrong to include in the list of names those preparing for long journeys, those on the high seas. Prevention is better than cure. Analysis and diagnosis are not necessary but do not hinder. In the private work of Shifayat they are often very important, even requisites.

The restrictions on the use of the Healing Service are not to be confused with prohibitions. The wise course in life is to take the most efficient road. Meditation, recourse to a physician, and retiring of a sick person to Khilvat all have their place. The main factor in the Healing Service is the production of the chain of magnetism and this can continue indefinitely regardless of the withdrawal of persons. Continued over a long period, especially when conducted in the same room, such a marvelous atmosphere can be produced that even miracles are possible because of it.

Sufis discourage pilgrimages for the sake of being healed physically, knowing that without restraint of nufs the gain is small. Some people are cured near the tombs of sages and many tombs are the scenes of pilgrimages among followers of every religion. It is not wrong to conduct services near such places, but care is needed to keep away any magical phenomena which would attract all sorts of undesirable persons. By undesirable is meant those who are interested in the performance of phenomena but who put little thought upon its cause.

Heart phenomena are the only real phenomena. The rest are but passing fancies, where great psychic forces are brought quickly into play, only quickly to disappear, producing no lasting or beneficial effects. The best equipped persons for healing work are therefore sympathetic people who can extend mercy but who are quite free from sentimentality.

If every breath is regarded as a treasured gift from God, presented as a loan or as a responsibility, few would be prone to carelessness or heedlessness. There would be no wasting of precious time—another gift from God—in solicitude over the unworthy or unwary. Holding on tight to this divine love but exhibiting a willingness to share it with all who are willing to share in it (divine love)—not only does healing become easier but people will more quickly escape all manner of disease.

It is the ever repeated problem of nufs and God. There is no other problem. There will never be any other problem.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 8

All the work in Sufism is healing. The more we clean our channels, the more light we can reflect in the world. This is the most sacred and precious duty. Call it healing, it is a healing. Call it enlightenment, it is the work for the enlightenment. Call it Dharma or religion, it does not matter. The real work for the mureed is to spread the Message of God.

This spreading is not only a propagation before the world, it is chiefly a cleansing of the self. God is the great Physician, yet by His Mercy it is possible for the self-healed to help all others. This guarding of the self is the supreme duty in life. When the inner light of man shines outwardly others can be helped. Yet this healing and helping is not to be done lavishly. There is a psychic protection, a need to guard one’s finer bodies, and to live in accordance with natural laws. For this purpose there are the lessons on Self-Protection which are especially beneficial for those on the path of Shifayat. However all these matters can be summed up in the single principle—keep the heart fixed upon God.

The growth of Sufism will offer ample scope for every mureed, for every type of development. As the laws of music and harmony are better understood, it will be possible to create better physical bodies. These laws operate through the breath and it can even be said that most healing is done through the breath. It is only when there is sincere repentance that the heart is able to restore itself and its vehicles.

This service, through its concentration upon Murshid, offers a chain of spiritual transmission and tradition of greatest value. By this means one generation is connected with another by a continuous chain of magnetism and light, a running stream of living waters which extends its influence beyond the physical, far out into the mental world. This concentration helps to build up a unity, helps to coordinate and strengthen and preserve the Message. The great work of Murshid is a great work, perhaps the greatest work that can be undertaken by a man.

This concentration may be practiced at other times, uniting mureeds through the generations. Its power will become manifest through the ages. The linking of all souls of every religion is the greatest achievement of history. To heal all people from prejudice, superstition, ignorance and hatred, this is the great work of Holy Murshid.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 9

Better than the Healing Service but not in contradiction to it is the living realization of God. Instead of paying attention to disease or healing or even suffering, more is gained by rising above all conditions of duality, enabling one to radiate life. This is a grand undertaking. It is not difficult to pass beyond the stage of praying, to become the channel for God’s love, light and life, to the stage of actualizing these processes, which are really one.

Every breath brings us Divine Energy and Love; with every exhalation we may return praise to God and so radiate this supreme vigor. Devotion to God is therefore a healing. Whatever touches the heart of one may touch the heart of all. It is the same type of vibration which awakens and expands the heart of an individual which can also bring force and life to every being in the universe. In heart is no separation, in heart is unity. Heart is the healer and uniter; heart is the abode of love and throne of the Savior. Heart-life or spiritual life rescues one from all conditions of misery.

This positive expression is greatly to be desired. Those who have attained need no Healing Service for themselves, nor do they have to perform it to assist others. They may attend such services and cooperate in all ways, but the thought of life and light, that is to say of Ishk, is always better than thinking of healing.

The first and second portions of the service, with their invocations, silences and prayers in no ways conflict with such an attitude. Rather they serve as means of expression for those who have realized the spiritual magnetism and can radiate it. These advanced souls are able to protect areas and groups, and need not confine their work to any particular personality or service. There is the age of Nufsaniat and there is the ceaseless desire of man to bring brotherhood to earth, that all may know and understand and appreciate the Fatherhood of God.

In other words, any means which leads towards the goal, whether formal or informal is beneficial. So a large group may cooperate, as in meditation; a small group may unite in a service, or a single person by his power may secure the desired result. Shifayat often works alone, and the Ghous does work alone, and every Salik may have some special duty to perform to aid suffering humanity.

The greatest value of the Healing Service is its essential selflessness. In the end the participants will be the greatest gainers. They will reap all the advantage of all the esoteric exercises. They will benefit from the sacred convocations in peaceful atmospheres. They will derive tremendous advantages from performing the duties suggested or required. Finally, if they develop sufficient will-power, they will reach the stage where the life-force will flow through their very vitals, and they may become healers consciously or unconsciously.

As shadow disappears in the sunlight, so nothing is more beneficial than ceaseless concentration on God, Who is all Love, Light and Life. One can still call it Healing Service, but healing in the sense of making whole, or restoring that which was lost or separated, of making others feel oneness, of enabling them to overcome the shortcomings which are menaces to the personality, of overthrowing the age of Nufsaniat and bringing in fullness and power the Kingdom of God to earth. All this and much more is conveyed in the lessons and performances of the Healing Service.

Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls
Who Form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.

Series III Number 10

All objects and utensils of the Healing Service can acquire great occult power and magnetism. This will be noted after a time. Not only will people be able to feel the magnetism of the room, but after a while the vase for flowers, glass for water, incense burner, amber, cloth and everything used in the service will acquire tremendous magnetism. Yet they should be regarded with a practical veneration rather than with anything like superstitious awe.

When one speaks of practical veneration, that is to say holiness through use. Man is the noblest work of God. For a glass, let us say, to become an object of admiration, is foolishness if not infidelity. But for a glass to be washed carefully, filled with water only on certain occasions, this accompanied by prayer or Darood, and for such water to be drunk only by the deserving—this shows wisdom. That glass acquires its sacredness when touched by man. Apart from its ministrations to man it has no sacredness and so with all the paraphernalia of the service, and indeed of any holy convocation.

Through the ages buildings, places and objects have been sanctified and little attention has been paid to the truth that God created man in His image, that it is man’s body which is the temple of the Divine Spirit, and that God does not always enter into edifices erected by human hands. This error is to be avoided. As soon as material things acquire sanctity, as soon as respect is paid to other than to men and women who are representatives of God, then Dharma decays and religion becomes superstition.

Man glorifies himself by praising God and God is also glorified when respect is shown to man. Healing or making whole is one method of uniting people. In the English language we still speak of a person being “hale and hearty.” This hale-ness, whole-ness and healthi-ness is only possible through harmony with God. And the term “hearty” shows that mankind has unconsciously, perhaps, preserved the idea that well-being is a matter of right condition of heart. When the heart is right, all is right.

As the purpose of man is self-realization, that is to say, God-realization, the more one studies the healing ceremonial, the more one participates in it, the more one meditates upon it, the clearer will it become that all is a service not only to help humanity, not only to drive disease away from this body or that person, that not only has it great value in purging areas or helping groups, but that the whole is a great mystical service of highest potentiality to the devotee. The more that is put into it, the more will be profited therefrom.

When one sees there is no self but God, no life but Allah, and that in sickness, pain or sorrow it is God Who is missing, one will understand that there is just one problem in the world and one solution. It may be presented in many forms, it may bear many aspects, it may appear with many names, but it is always one and the same problem, the Absence of God. Its solution is the Presence of God. As daylight follows darkness, so the latter comes and when it comes it destroys ignorance, superstition, fear and egoism, even with suddenness when conditions are right.

No doubt many miracles can and will be performed. That does not matter. In fact recognition and attention to miracles prove to be detrimental and dangerous, the greatest danger in occult and spiritual healing. This can easily be diverted by love and devotion to God. The selfless person, one poor in spirit, escapes these dangers; he will not take on the condition of disease, neither will he ascribe to other than to God the credit for any healing.

By losing the self in God all evils are averted, whatever be their nature. This is the purpose of Sufic training. Deny the self, ignore the self, neither posit nor negate the self; like the angel fly around the throne of God uttering praise to God. Then God’s mission upon earth, the highest purpose of His Creation will be fulfilled.