The words we use for the Creator are a reflect of ourselves. If we think of God as fear and shame, we are scared and have something to be ashamed of ... But if we see love, compassion and kindness, it is because we possess these qualities.
Interpretation
Our perceptions of the Creator mirror our own inner qualities and emotions.
This quote by Shams Tabrizi emphasizes the deep connection between our self-perception and how we envision the divine. If we associate God with negative emotions like fear and shame, it suggests we harbor those feelings within ourselves. Conversely, viewing God as embodying positive traits such as love and compassion indicates that these virtues are present in our own hearts.
In practice
In a discussion about spirituality, one might say, 'As Shams Tabrizi pointed out, the words we use for the Creator are a reflection of ourselves.'
God is busy with the completion of your work, both outwardly and inwardly. He is fully occupied with you. Every human being is a work in progress that is slowly but inexplicably moving toward perfection. We are each an unfinished work of art both waiting and striving to be completed. God deals with each of us separately because humanity is a fine art of skilled penmanship where every single dot is equally important for the entire picture.
Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighbourhood of despair. Even when all doors remained closed, God will open up a new path only for you. Be thankful! It is easy to be thankful when all is well. A Sufi is thankful not only for what he has been given but also for all that he has been denied.
If you are insulted, if you are accused, if they gossip about you, don't say anything bad. Don't be the one who sees the shame, be the one who corrects it.
Be sure that someday you'll praise and thank God for your unanswered prayers that once you had wept for them.
Remove all the walls and curtains so you can get closer and purely love. Have principles but do not use them to exclude or to judge the others. Stay far from idols, specially from those you made from your own principles. Have a powerful faith, but do not play the powerful.
You can study God through everything and everyone in the universe, because God is not confined in a mosque, synagogue or church. But if you are still in need of knowing where exactly His abode is, there is only one place to look for Him: in the heart of a true lover.
All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside you.
Old age is a special problem for me because I've never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself - a lad of about 19.
Moral philosophy is nothing else but the science of what is good, and evil, in the conversation, and society of mankind. Good, and evil, are names that signify our appetites, and aversions; which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different.
I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all.
In the big picture, it doesn't really matter if we never made a record, or we never sang a song. That isn't important.
The right to freedom being the gift of God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.
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