From the Twenty-Sixth Discourse—page 568
in Irshad: Wisdom of a Sufi Master, by Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak Al-Jerrahi, trans. Muhtar Holland. An Ashki Book of Amity House, Warwick: 1988.
…In a Persian poem, the venerable Jāmī says: “To make one heart happy is greater than making the Pilgrimage. To make one heart happy is greater than making the Pilgrimage. To make one heart happy is more meritorious than building a thousand Ka’ba’s. For, while the Ka’ba was built by the Prophet Abraham, the heart is built by Allāh, and the believing heart is the place where He is manifest.”
The meaning of these lines is truly immense and most profound. Let us just consider the enormous importance of the Ka’ba. How many noble beings have visited that sacred station since the time of Abraham, on him be peace! Those who have worshipped there include the final Prophet, the chief of all Prophets and leader of the saints, the Messenger to men and jinn, the venerable Muhammad Mustafā who is a mercy to the eighteen thousand worlds and the reason for the creation of the universe. Between the nearby hills of Safā and Marwa lie fifty-two Prophets, while the venerable Ishmael is buried at the spot called al-Khātam. Numbered among those who have pressed their blessed faces against the revered Ka’ba are: Abū Bakr, chief of the veracious ones; ‘Umar, the most just of the just; ‘Uthmān, whose modesty made the angels jealous; ‘Alī the Lion of Allāh, and Hamza, the Lion of His Messenger; Hasan and Husayn, the Princes of Paradise; the Messenger’s own daughter Fātima; Hudhayfa al-Yamānī, the Messenger’s confidant; the Ten who were promised Paradise; the greatest of the Noble Companions; and many saints and other righteous, devout, wise and perfect men. We should also mention the blessed Prophet’s wives and children, as well as the children of ‘Alī, the Elect, all the Imams and the Cardinal Saints: ‘Abd al-Qādir Geylānī, Ahmad al-Rifā’ī, Ahmad al-Badawī, Ibrāhīm al-Dasūqī, Hasan al-Shādhilī, Sa’d al-Dīn al-Jibāwī, ‘Abd al Salām al-Asmar, Abū-l Madyan al-Maghribī, Muhyī’l Dīn ‘Arabī, Mevlana Jālal al-Din Rūmī, Molla Jāmī, Muhammad Bahā’ al-Dīn al-Naqshbandī and countless other founding saints and noble individuals, all of whom prostrated themselves in worship at this sacred spot, toward which Muslims everywhere turn their faces when they pray.
Is it possible to imagine a more sublime and sanctified station anywhere on earth? Is not the revered Ka’ba the All-Merciful’s House of Worship, the first ever built for mankind? Indeed it is; we may say without doubt or hesitation, that there exists no place or station superior to it. Nevertheless, a human being pleasing to Allāh is more excellent than the Ka’ba with all its special qualities; for the Ka’ba is the work of Abraham while a human being is the work of Allāh.
The human heart is the place of divine manifestation. If the Exalted Lord had not created mankind, there would have been no need for Paradise or hell, for the Ka’ba or this world itself, for the Hereafter, for the Book, for the Balance or the Reckoning. In the Sacred Tradition, the Exalted One says: “O Mankind, I have created the whole universe for you and I have created you for Myself.”