Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927)

“In our everyday life we see the phenomenon of love. The first lesson that love teaches us is: ‘I am not; thou art’. The first thing to think of is to erase ourselves from our minds and to think of the one we love. As long as we do not arrive at this idea, so long the word love remains only in the dictionary. Many speak about love but very few know it. Is love a pastime, an amusement, a drama; is it a performance? The first lesson of love is sacrifice, service, self-effacement.
There is a little story of a peasant girl who was passing through a field where a Muslim was offering his prayers. And the law was that no one should pass by a place where somebody was praying. After a time this girl returned by the same way, and the man said, ‘O girl, what a terrible thing you have done today.’ She was shocked and asked, ‘What did I do?’ He said, ‘You passed by this way! It is a great sin. I was praying, thinking of God!’ She said, ‘Were you thinking of God? I was going to see my young man! I did not see you; how did you see me when you were thinking of God?’ ”

From; The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Alchemy of Happiness, Volume VI