Jesus Christ and Sufism: By Mourad Rashad

To be attached to the world means that you are not yet ready for the Divine to take hold of your heart and mind. The way or path is only a preparation for you to be ready to receive the Divine. When you become ready, God Chooses you.  You have to offer yourself to the Divine, you have to offer your heart and mind to the Divine in order that the Divine takes hold of your mind and heart. You are God’s bride. Unless you – the Bride – are ready, God will not choose you and come to take charge of you.

In the Gospel of Thomas Logion No.75 “Jesus said: “Those who are waiting at the door are many, but those who shall enter the bridal chamber are only the solitaries”. Again in Matthew 22:14 “For many are called, but few are chosen”.

For you to become the vehicle of God or the bride of God, you have to be solitary. You have to empty your heart and mind from everything but Him. You have to empty your heart and mind from yourself and your world. Nothing should distract you from your way and nothing should occupy your heart or mind. Anything that occupies your heart and mind is a barrier, a dam between you and the Divine.  Solitary means, you want only  God to reside in your heart and mind and to take charge of  your whole life, as if you are offering your life to him as a sacrifice or as a token for your devotion to Him. When God takes hold of you, then you have found your solitary jewel, a solitary jewel that will make your life the richest of the rich. God will not accept  from you anything less than your whole life. If your heart and mind contain anything besides God, then you are not of the solitary, you are not of the chosen and you will not be chosen.

Al Junaid, also called the glass-maker, the great Sufi Master, said: ” The Divine takes hold of man’s heart and mind, till this man experiences nothing other than the Divine, as if he was possessed by the Divine”.