April 2017

A response to Pir Zia’s new book Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions:

With the love of the Supreme Creator, who is the most Gracious and the most Merciful

“Both worlds, the spiritual and the material have no knowledge of Love itself. There are seventy- two kinds of madness, there are seventy-two types of insanity. The lover’s creed is far from being able to embrace the seventy-two religions! The lover’s teacher is God, the owner of majesty. In this world there are hidden stairs that reach, with steps leading one by one, all the way to the heavens. Every community has their own stairs, their own heaven. Each one is unaware of what another’s situation is like. See the believer and the unfaithful with your own secret- with the eye of your heart. In each of one of them and according to their own beliefs, there is nothing but yearning that cries out ‘Oh Lord’ ‘Oh True Life’.” Hz. Mevlânâ Jelâleddin-i Rûmî

This exceptional piece of work, written by our very precious and dear friend Pir Zia Inayat Khan, will undoubtedly be a fountain of Nothingness and will illuminate the hearts and eyes of those who discover the lesson of Love. Knowledge that does not free mankind from duality and lead to unity and togetherness, is nothing but a heavy burden. The divine laws that we call religion, are intended for us to experience absolute oneness or unity, which in this world of appearances, is revealed within multiplicity. God is One. There is no doubt that He wishes to see His servants, His creation, also living in Unity. This is why Semitic beliefs never accept duality. Religion is not the personal matter of the prophets, it belongs to God, totally. The prophets are responsible for spreading the commands that are of an elevated, divine nature belonging to God, across the world. For that reason, personalizing religion and making discriminations between prophets make a very wrong ideology. The Essence and the Truth of religions is the same. What is different in appearance is created by the requirements of the present times and its conditions, and by the design of the Supreme Creator; there are the surface waves, the outer shell, forms and appearances. Consequently, to be attached to surface appearances, to form, to the facade of a religion is another type of idolatry. As told in the Surat Fatiha, it leads us away, separates us from the “True Owner of Religion” away from Essence, from Truth, away from His Divine Love. It must also be acknowledged that religion is not the ultimate goal, it is a divine instrument that enables us to reach that goal, it is the best path, the most beautiful and the most virtuous.

In Surat Al-Maidah 48 and An-Nahl 93: “Oh Muhammad, we have revealed to you the Coran, in truth, confirming and protecting all the holy scriptures that preceded. To each of you we have prescribed a sacred law and a method. Had God willed, He would have made you one nation, but He intended to test you  in what He has given you. So then, race towards goodness and beauty. To God is your return, all of you together. He will then inform you the truth, concerning that over which you used to differ.” “If God had willed, he could have made you of one religion. You will surely be questioned about your past actions.” So, if you still fall into this duality despite all the warnings, think of when you will be surely questioned.

We pray that this book called ‘Mingled Waters’, filtered through a blessed and pure heart, will bear witness to Unity and to our Oneness on the day of Resurrection, and we offer our most sincere gratitude to Pir Zia Inayat Khan for offering us this exquisite work which extends our horizons and illuminates our souls.

Within Love, praying to be amongst the lovers and the true-hearted.

H. Nur Artiran

President of Sefik Can International Mevlânâ Education and Cultural Foundation

Istanbul, Turkey

Mingled Waters: Sufism & the Mystical Union of Religions is now available for preorder from Suluk Press and Amazon.com.