Sufis Quotes - Page 2

It is your duty to do your best. It is not, however, your birth-right to prevail.

When the Higher Man does something worthy of admiration, it is an evidence of his Mastership, not the object of it.

Satisfaction is a treasure which does not decay.Proverb

People change and needs change. So what was Sufism once is Sufism no more.

No surgeon can treat the wounds of the tongue.

It is as true as anything else which can be spoken to say that all knowledge is really available everywhere.

No effort makes a black crow into a white hawk.

Continuously, in commemoration of the FriendWe drank wine, even before the creation of the vine.

It is no accident that Sufis find that they can connect most constructively with people who are well integrated into the world, as well as having higher aims, and that those who adopt a sensible attitude towards society and life as generally known can usually absorb Sufi teachings very well indeed

Humility is a teacher of itself. It is learnt by means of its practise.

Saying of the ProphetDeathDie before your death.

Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.

Generosity is also marked by doing what one says one will do. Saadi teaches: ‘when the generous promise, they perform

Whoever has taught me one letter has made me his slave.

Things which are seemingly opposed may in fact be working together

Yes, the world is an illusion. But Truth is always being shown there.

No colour comes after black.

Certain levels of human understanding cannot be attained, it is claimed, until the brain can work in more than one way.

Sufism expresses what I have found to be Real.

One lie will keep out forty truths.

Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaIntellectual: One who knows no craft.

It is necessary to note," says Rumi, "that opposite things work together, even though nominally opposed" (Fihi Ma Fihi).

The bowl is warmer than the soup.

When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow's thoughts.

He had found riches beyond worldly imagination. He had found the never ending well of love.

Mediation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be.

Sufism," according to the Sufi, "is an adventure in living, necessary adventure.

But the Sufis work IN the world, and therefore WITH 'things of the world'.

When you are still fragmentated, lacking certainty — what difference does it make what your decisions are?

ServiceI will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages.Rabia el-Adawia.

Sufis hold that the superior experience and knowledge comes to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth,capacity,and earning of it.

Only the search for truth is valid, the desire for wisdom the motive. The method is assimilation, not study.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaFlattery:One of the most promising of businesses: always brisk.

The Seeking of the Master. Musa Najib was asked why he charged a fee from those who came to his sessions; and why he often did not even address his audience. He said: 'I charge for this object lesson: people believe that knowledge must be given freely, and consequently mistake everything which is free for knowledge. I do not always lecture because, among Sufis, “The Master finds the pupil.” The pupil has to be physically present: but he may be absent in every other sense. When I discern that a pupil is “present” then I “find” him, for then his inner call is audible to me, even if it is silent to him.' 'Seek and you will be found.

The lightning said to the oak tree: ‘Stand aside, or take what is coming to you!

The skilled artisan uses the same iron to make a horseshoeAs he does for a polished mirror for the King.

Sandals. The Sufi teacher Ghulam-Shah was asked what pattern he used in formulating his courses for disciples. He said: 'Barefoot until you can get sandals, sandals until you can manage boots.

The pathways into Sufic thinking are, it is traditionally said, almost as varied as the number of Sufis in existence.

You make me a sinner if you stop me giving you hospitality.

The Sufi is one who does what others do – when it is necessary. He is also one who does what others cannot do – when it is indicated.

Information about the activities of one body of Sufis may be harmful to the potential of another.

A man must be a Solomon before his magical ring will work

A man must be a Salomon before his magical ring will work. (Hafiz)

A loan is the scissors of friendship.A man's own tongue may cut his throat.The cage has no value without the bird.

The automatism of man is overcome, in the words of Dhun'Nun, by aiming for 'being as you were, where you were, before you were'.

Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.

I will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages.

Saying of the ProphetFoodNobody has eaten better food than that won by his own labour.

Show a man too many camels' bones, or show them to him too often, and he will not be able to recognize a camel when he comes across a live one. (Mirza Ahsan of Tabriz)

Even if false gold makes a man happy:At the mint it will be identified.

Any society which enjoins its members to adhere to both of these (politeness and truth) is a fraud.

If wine is the enemy of religion, I shall devour the enemy of religion.

You will never reach Mecca, I fear: for you are on the road to Turkestan.

If you do not understand, you cannot love. You can only imagine that you love.

Before the antidote arrives from Iraq The man with snake-bite will be dead.

People carry on whole conversations in proverbs. But they are not LIVING the proverbs.

EXPECTATION If, from time to time, you give up expectation, you will be able to perceive what it is you are getting.

If I knew what two and two were – I would say Four!

When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial. This is quite obvious to people nowadays, when it is widely recognised that fixations are not the same as valuable and laudable observances. One should not pray if that prayer is vanity; rituals are wrong when they provide lower satisfactions, like emotional stimulus instead of enlightenment; he or she should not be an ascetic who is only enjoying it.