approximate to words by Hazrat Inayat Khan, 1925

These words were spoken to people in the West belonging to a Christian culture.
Therefore terms like 'church', 'altar', 'Jesus Christ' are used; it does not indicate a special tendency.




The Universal Worship is
      the religious service of the Church of All and of all churches. 

It is so named because it aims to promote the unity of religious ideals, to give an opportunity to those belonging to different religions to worship together, and to discover that there is one source from which all Scriptures have come.




The Universal Worship is
      not another church

to be included among the variety of existing churches. It is a church which gives an opportunity to those belonging to different religions to worship together, to pay respect to the great ones who have come from time to time to help humanity. The different scriptures of those who have taught wisdom are read at the altar of the Church for All. Nevertheless, no man is compelled even to attend this Church of All but a person to whatever church it goes, is welcome. The idea of the unity of humanity is a point of view. It means having a certain outlook on life, but not necessarily going to a particular church. Religion is something which touches the depths of the heart, and everyone has his own conceptions of religion which he holds as sacred. (remark: a slightly changed version)




The Universal Worship is
      the religion of all great teachers of humanity.

This was the message of Jesus Christ and all other great teachers of humanity. Therefore it is not a separate line; it is the same line and the same message which is being given to the world. It is the continuation of all the great religions which have come from time to time, and a unification of all. It was the hope of all prophets, the prayer and the desire of all great souls: that the light given in all the different forms such as the Buddhist scriptures, the Qur'an, the Tenach, the Bible, or the teachings of Krishna or Zarathushtra, should be known by everyone.




The work of the message in the Universal Worship is
      to spread the unity of religion.

It is not a mission to promote a particular creed or any church or religion; it is a work to unite the followers of different religions and faiths in wisdom, so that without having to give up their own religion they may strengthen their own faith and focus (from another point of view) the light upon it. In this way a greater trust, a greater confidence will be established in mankind.

Behind all wars there is a suggestion of religion. Whenever there has been a war, and even now in such wars as we have gone through, we always see the finger of religion. People think that the reason for war is mostly political, but religion is a greater warmonger than any political ideas. Those who give their lives for an idea always show some touch of religion.




The Universal Worship isinaugurated for this purpose
      that people of different faiths and religions
            may come together and give their adoration in one form.

In the first place there is the greatest need that East and West may be united together for the spiritual evolution of the whole humanity and this can only be done if all different religions, at least the followers of different religions, come and worship together. Then it will spread so widely because this is the pressing need of the whole world and of humanity. The need of the Universal Worship is greater than one can imagine, for this reason that it gives a facility to the people of all religions.




The Building

How is it designed, and how is it to be constructed? It is designed by the hand of God, and it is to be constructed by our thoughts of harmony, of love, of beauty. It is our thoughts and our feelings which will serve in this temple as stones and bricks and tiles, and it is our feelings which will hold this temple for centuries to come.

              

If that is the only reason why must we have a temple; will any little thing not do? Why must we dream of big things and great things? But can you ever imagine such a thing, that there could be something too good for... a symbol of the religious unity and tolerance?

When we stand in the physical world there is dignity to be considered. Will your sense of dignity be content to imagine the Universal Worship given in a garage? But at the same time we (remark: all people which work for it) must not spare to contribute, to add to it beauty in whatever form we may be able to give it. For it will remain on the plane of the earth a little souvenir: a souvenir of your devotion for the Cause, a souvenir of that struggle and fight through which you have to go and are going in this pioneer work, that people will see your devotion after centuries, how you worked for it even on the physical plane, proving your devotion by having constructed that building on the spiritual plane also...

In conclusion I would like to say that we should be content with the temple that one day will be build, and that we shall never think that the temple intended to be built can be too good or can be too beautiful for us.




Hazrat Inayat Khan is the first authentic Sufi master who brought the ideas and the wisdom of the Sufis to the West (1910-26), developing out of them a spirituality of the future, which reaches far beyond the narrow frame of just a 'mystic of Islam', which still restricts western media in their understanding of Sufism today. Inayat Khan was concerned about the realization of the unity of religions emerging altogether from the One Truth.


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