Love is the Essence...

Love is the essence of all religion, mysticism and philosophy.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Love is the practice of the moral of Suluk, the way of beneficence. The lover's
pleasure is in the pleasure of the beloved. The lover is satisfied when the
beloved is fed. The lover is vain when the beloved is adorned. 'Who in life
blesses the one who curses him? Who in life admires the one who hates him? Who
in life proves faithful to the one who is faithless? No other than a lover.' And
in the end the lover's self is lost from his vision and only the beloved's
image, the desired vision, is before him for ever.

Love is the essence of all religion, mysticism, and philosophy, and for the one
who has learnt this, love fulfills the purpose of religion, ethics, and
philosophy, and the lover is raised above all diversities of faiths and beliefs.

For the Sufi there is one principle which is most essential to be remembered and
that is consideration for human feeling. If one practices in his life this one
principle he need not learn much more; he need not trouble about philosophy, he
need not follow an old or a new religion, for this principle in itself is the
essence of all religions. God is love, but where does God dwell? He abides in
the heart of man.