Heart of Religion

A certain man was crying ‘Allah’ all night, till his lips grew sweet from praise of God.
The devil said: Oh, garrulous man, where is the reply ‘Here Am I’ to all this ‘Allah’ of thine?
Not a single response is coming from the throne.
How long will you cry ‘Allah’ with grim face?’
He became broken hearted and lay down to sleep.
In a dream he saw Elijah amidst the verdia who said: Hark, you have held back from praising God.
Why do you repent of having called unto Him?
He said: No ‘Here Am I’ is coming in response, hence I fear I’m turned away from the door.
Elijah said: Nay, God saeth that ‘Allah. of thine is my ‘Here Am I’
And that grief and ardour and supplication of thine are my messenger to thee.
Thy fear in love are the noose to catch my favour.
Beneath every ‘Allah’ of thine there is many a ‘Here Am I’ from me.

This is from the Masnavi. But it speaks of the Heart of Religion. The man crying Allah … No reply … and then you heard the rest. Well, there’s a heart but the heart is not visible. We know about the heart from the pulse. And if religion doesn’t have a pulse, doesn’t have a throb, in our lives, the form may be perfect but it will be like a marble statue,without a living heart.

Now we can say ‘What is the basis of religion? We don’t see any God. Not a single reply is coming from the throne, hence we fear we are turned away from the door. Perhaps there is no God, as the Devil says’. Well, the teachers and the different religions give us certain indications and tell us to notice certain things. For instance we never complain about being, about weighing, about gravity, this is quite natural. But we don’t accept the fact of suffering. We feel somehow we ought to be happy. We don’t feel somehow we ought to be light and floating in the, but we feel somehow we ought to be free from suffering  and this is one indication.