It is the receptivity of our heart and the passivity of our mind, it is the eagerness, the thirst and hunger after truth, it is the direction of our whole life to that Ideal from who all light and truth come, that alone can bring to us truth and the knowledge of God. All knowledge of the earth is as clouds covering the sun. It is the breaking of these clouds and the clearness of the sky, or in other words the purity of heart, which give the capacity for the knowledge of God.
The question may be asked: Is any effort required for realizing the truth? The answer is: Yes, there is a work that one can do which is as the work of a farmer: it is to cultivate the heart. But where man makes a mistake is that, when he cultivates the heart, he wishes to sow the seed himself instead of leaving the sowing to God. As to the way how to cultivate the heart, the first condition is explained in a story. A young man went to a great seer in Persia and asked him for guidance on the spiritual path. The seer asked him, "Have you loved in your life?" "No", said he, "not yet." The seer answered, "Go and love. and know what love is. Then come to me."
According to the belief of a Sufi the heart is the shrine of God, and when the doors of the shrine are closed it is just like a light being hidden under a bushel. The pupil sees that God is love. If He is love He does not stay in the heavens; His earthly body is the heart of man. When that heart is frozen and when there is no love but bitterness, coldness, prejudice and contempt, unforgiving feelings and hatred - which all come from one source: want of tolerance, the feeling, "I am different and you are different"- then that spirit and that light of God, that divine essence that is in the heart of man, is buried as in a tomb. The work that one has to do is to dig it up, as one would dig the ground until one touched the water underneath.
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