Sufis Quotes - Page 3

The barren branches may appear inelegant: They are, to the cook, the means to make his fire.

StagesFirst I thought that a Teacher must be right in all things. Then I imagined that my teacher was wrong in many things. Then I realised what was right and what was wrong.What was wrong was to remain in either of the first two stages. What was right was to convey this to everyone.(Ardabili)

Because sugar is not arsenic, many graves are full.

What is humanity? To feel pain at the sorrows of our neighbours, to feel humiliated at the humiliation of fellow-beings.

Those who can’t, try: those who can, don’t have to.

The door of illumination is open to those for whom other doors are closed.

For every Pharoah there is a Moses.

Saadi’s dictum, in the Bostan: ‘The Path is not in the rosary, the prayer-mat and the robe

Remember the proverb: 'A sign is enough for the alert, but a thousand counsels are not enough for the negligent.

At His door, what is the difference between Moslem and Christian, virtuous and guilty? At his door all are seekers and He the sought.

He who is fortunately enlightened [the Sufi]Knows that sophistry is from the devil and love from Adam.

A Sufi is alive to the value of time, and is given, every moment, to what that moment demands.

The great poet Hafiz says that you should dye your prayer-carpet with wine if your teacher tells you to do so.

The Sufi saying has it: "God, to the bee, is something which has TWO stings!

In the realm of Greater Understanding, the workshop is dismantled after the work is finished.

Teaching:One hour's teaching is better than a whole night of prayer.Saying of the Prophet

Sufi secrets are perceived, not understood by words.

Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed. They attract you because... they appeal to your greed.

We and all our existences are non-entities. Thou art the absolute being whose appearance is transitory.

Hazrat Ali, in a saying attributed to him, says: ‘Man is in disguise, covered by his tongue’.

Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.

One day the cub will become a wolf, even if it has been reared among the sons of man.

When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge

Poor greedy one, wherever he runs He's after food, and death is after him.(Saadi)

The candle burned the moth:But soon it will vanish in its own fat.

Saying of the ProphetAccusationsAnyone reviling a brother for a sin will not himself die before committing it.

When people believe that the form is more important than the Truth, they will not find truth, but will stay with form.

Proverbs and truisms are for this reason dangerous, because they produce blindness or non-thought.

When the mind is full of established biases, it will not be able to graft Sufism on top of them.

Take the straight path, even if it is long: marry no widow, even if she is a houri.

When you get a principle on which everyone is agreed, you get the beginning of complacency and deterioration.

Patience is the food of understanding.

The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service

You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel.(Gulistan)

If you assume that it is there, you will generally not be far off the truth…

Saying of the ProphetAngerYou ask for a piece of advice. I tell you : 'Do not get angry.' He is strong who can withhold anger.

Sufi Teachers are not, as you might hope, people who make you feel peace and harmony.

Learning without action is like wax without honey.(Anwar-i-Suhaili)

An intelligent enemy,' he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, 'rather than a foolish friend.' Or, 'He learnt the language of pigeons, and forgot his own.' Or, the favourite of Jan Fishan Khan: 'Nothing is what it seems.

I am the Real, for I have not ceased to be real – through the Real.

Everything man needs is in the world.

The teacher works in accordance with the prospects of his students and the possibility of maintaining the community of Sufis.

Laziness is always your fault. It is the sign that a man has persevered in uselessness for too long.

Saying of the ProphetObjectsIt is your attachment to objects which make you blind and deaf.

It is experience which teaches, not controversy based on supposed logic and assumptions of what is likely to be true.

Debating whether one trusts or not is a sign that one does not want to trust at all, and therefore is still incapable of it.

Man thinks many things. He thinks he is One. He is usually several. Until he becomes One, he cannot have a fair idea of what he is at all.

He who sleeps on the Road will lose either his hat or his head.

Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.

Helping othersI order you to assist any oppressed person, whether he is a Moslem or not.

Be a dog, but don't be a younger brother.Proverb.

What you are seeking in your retreat, I see clearly in every road and alleyway.

Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it.

Rust through washing never became white.

The Sufis say, "This is not a religion; it is religion

Sufism is therefore not 'Do as I say and not as I do', or even 'Do as I do', but 'Experience and you will know'.

Sufism, the "secret tradition," is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.

Feeling important is a vice, not a virtue, however concealed as participation in something noble.

Eat what you desire, but dress like other people.

But the minimum human duty is to serve others: it is no great attainment.