On Salvation

By salvation I mean, not barely, according to the vulgar notion, deliverance from hell, or going to heaven; but present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity; a recovery of the divine nature; the renewal of our souls after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy and truth.

John Wesley, "A Further Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion"

From the Rose Garden of Mystery...

'That man a liege of Christ I hold to be,
Who from all ties and trammels is set free.
To whom the Holy God is fane and shrine,
Whose home the Spirit, ageless and divine.
Such men of Christ's pure Spirit have received,
Who was Himself of Holy Ghost conceived.
Thou also hast from God the soul inmost,
Which is the sign in thee of Holy Ghost.
Whoever earth's entanglements decries,
Enters the Holy Presence in the skies.
Whoever on angelic pureness bent,
Like Christ, ascends the starry firmainent.
So Jesus said, who now is heaven's light,
'The Father's Voice is calling from the height.
Dear son, go thou to thy Father's heart!
Others have gone; remain not thou apart!'

--Mahmoud Shabistary (d. 1320), In Gulshan-l-Raz (Rose Garden of Mystery), tr. Norman Sharp

(quoted from H. B. Dehqani-Tafti)

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God"

Jesus and his disciples passed by a dead dog, and the stench of it was over-powering. His disciples exclaimed, "How this corpse smells!" But Jesus replied, "How lovely is the white of his teeth!"
--Recounted by Abu Hamid al Ghazali,
in his classic Ihya Ulum id-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences)

A Muslim View of Jesus' Power and Holiness

"It is my conviction that Christianity began to lose its power of sanctification as it lost its Eastern home and character. It was in this Eastern piety and spiritual dynamism of the holy desert fathers tat Islam was born and nourished. It was not dogma but holiness, victory against demonic spirits of uncleanness, which spoke to the needs of men and women. We dismiss as a bit of Eastern superstition that Jesus cast out unclean spirits. Yet it was this piety of healing and sanctification, whose ultimate source Jesus was, that played an important role in the life of the society of the ancient Near East, and that can once again rejuvenate the materialistic society of out world today."

--Mahmoud Ayoub, A Muslim View of Christianity: Essays on Dialogue, 77

O Sea of Love!

O Sea of Love!
O Sun of Wisdom dispelling the darkness of sin!
O God who for thy humble servant's sake didst become man and didst give up thy life!
I knew not this truth, and was a worthless wretch.
Now is the time to make me thine.
I offer up my heart to thee, O Prince of Virtue!

--H. A. Krishna Pillai, 19th century Tamil poet and hymn writer

A Couplet from the Tomb of Hafiz

A beautiful couplet is found on the tomb of the Persian poet Hafiz, and written by the poet himself. This was translated by the great scholar A. J. Arberry:

And if the Holy Ghost descend
In grace and power infinite
His comfort in these days to lend
To them that humbly wait on it,
Theirs too the wondrous works can be
That Jesus wrought in Galilee

Moulana Rumi on "The House of `Isa"

'The house of 'Isa was the banquet of men of heart.
0 afflicted one, quit not this door.
From all sides the people ever thronged,
Many blind and lame, halt and afflicted,
At the door of the house of 'Isa at dawn,

That with his breath he might heal their ailments.
As soon as he had finished his orisons
That holy one would comc forth at the third hour.
He pondered those impotent folk sitting,
Troop by troop, at his door in hope and expectation.
He spoke to them saying.- 'O stricken ones,
The desires ofyou all have been granted by God,
Arise, walk without pain or affliction,
Acknowledge the mercy and beneficience of God.'
Then all, like camels whose feet are shackled,
When you loose their feet on the road,
Straightway rush in J'OY and delight to the halting place,
So did they run upon their feet at his command.'

-Jalaluddin Rumi (translated by E. H. Whinfield)