Sam

"January 2, 1971.  Praise be to Allah!

This has been a glorious exit, and one which will go down in history, a sign of all the beauty, truth, and goodness in the universe.  One has been truly saved from the jaws of death and adversity, and may live on indefinitely as God wills. It is the sign of all symbol and goodness, and the establishment of God's message in the western world forever, praise be to Allah!

For I am the first one born in the west to have received the divine message, and believe to have representatives in all the purity and goodness of which Allah is capable and which will now be presumed done forever."

~ Text of a letter dictated by Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti (Murshid Samuel L. Lewis; Murshid SAM) on his deathbed to Pir O Murshid Sufi Barkat Ali, Solar Wala, Lyallapur District, West Pakistan

"Sufi Sam often wrote in defence of his unorthodoxy to orthodox or traditionalist Sufis. Did the position of Sufi Sam remained the same throughout his life? What did he communicate to you regarding this?

A practicing Muslim quotes not only HIK but Sufi Barkat Ali, Murshid’s Murshid, both of whom instruct Murshid to practice Nimaz and to give his students as well the Islamic prayers. There is no doubt that what Murshid was giving would inspire some to come at him with knives, when they saw men and women holding hands in a circle. But he was adamant. He wanted to reach Americans, he wanted to open hearts, he wanted to get 100,000 Americans to say “Allah”. What he communicated to me through his example was that you do what you are inspired to do. He dialogued respectfully at length with Sufi Barkat Ali about these matters, but he demonstrated that he was guided to do what he did, and that was that. No compromise...

People say they believe in the Bible. They don't. If they did, all deeds would be done in love.

There was an article in the paper today finding the faults of this Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who came here. It's really very funny. I went to India. He used to go all over India and nobody came to his lectures. Here they come to his lectures by the thousands. Nobody paid any attention there. But he knew how to fool Americans, and they liked it. I tried to help some people that got 'burnt' one time to get there money back, but it wasn't worth it, not at all. I made up my mind next time it happens to let those people lose. They want a magic and that's all they're going to get. They're not going to work in the world of love, so they like magic.

I could get a thousand followers. Go out on any street corner and say "Omph Bak Buk" and they'd go out and say it. I wouldn't have any idea of what it means myself, but they would do it. That's easy. Go to any elderly ladies' club and start that and you'd have a lot of people doing it. They think they've found something. Jesus said don't repeat as the heathens. We do and we think we're wonderful. I don't know what is gained by it.

I have to leave you for a while. This is the whole thing: to begin to understand the growth of the love-capacity in all of us, to recognize our potentials. We've got potentials of great Light. We can be born again, the Light can shine before men. The psychic world is absolutely real, but not nearly so important as the people who can't grasp beyond it think. The spiritual world is the important one. There's where your Light will shine before men. There's where you'll do things in love.

And with that message, I think I'd better close now. So, let us pray:

"Our Father, Which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory, Forever. Amen."