Idries Shah Quotes - Page 2

A Better Beard that Yours. 'All true devotees wear a beard,' said the Imam to his audience. 'Show me a thick and lustrous beard and I'll show you a true believer!' 'My goat has a beard far bushier and longer than yours,' replied Nasrudin. 'Does that mean he is a better Muslim than you?
Idries Shah
Now that I have found thee, I know that in the first step I took, I moved away from thee.
Idries Shah
Hazrat Ali, in a saying attributed to him, says: ‘Man is in disguise, covered by his tongue’.
Idries Shah
If you are covetous, you are a prisoner: If you are greedy, you will never be filled.
Idries Shah
If you have two shirts, sell one and with the money buy a flower’.
Idries Shah
A short time in the presence of the Friends (the Sufis) is better than a hundred years’ sincere, obedient dedication.
Idries Shah
The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real
Idries Shah
Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to entrust secrets.
Idries Shah
Abu-Yaqub al-Susi: the Sufi is 'One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for what he has not.
Idries Shah
Better to quarrel with a friend than to support enemies.
Idries Shah
The mine is always bigger than the gem.
Idries Shah
Whoever has not first dug a well, should not steal a minaret.
Idries Shah
Sufism is, in operation, pragmatic.
Idries Shah
It is the goldsmith who can assay the gold.
Idries Shah
I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so.
Idries Shah
Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it.
Idries Shah
Whoever might perfume a scorpionWill not thereby escape its sting. Bahaudin Naqshband
Idries Shah
Truth has no form.
Idries Shah
A book, for the Sufis, is an instrument as much as it is something to give information....The key is the teacher.
Idries Shah
That which is given free is never knowledge. It may be information....but knowledge does not come in that manner.
Idries Shah
Sufism, in one definition, "is" human life.
Idries Shah
You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel.(Gulistan)
Idries Shah
Knowledge. How curious that a man who closes his hand upon air so often thinks that he has a ruby within his grasp.
Idries Shah
When there is a true or useful thing, there is sure to be a counterfeit.
Idries Shah
Miracles, to the Sufi, are not evidential, they are instrumental.
Idries Shah
Eat what you desire, but dress like other people.
Idries Shah
Continuously, in commemoration of the FriendWe drank wine, even before the creation of the vine.
Idries Shah
Whoever knows God, does not (any longer) say “God”.
Idries Shah
He is the completed Man who, from his completeness, performs, with his Mastership, the work of a slave.
Idries Shah
Everyone does not know the secrets of TruthThe States of Truth are not evidential.
Idries Shah
Sufism is always systematised only for limited or transitory periods: because Sufism is primarly instrumental, not for enjoyment or display.
Idries Shah
To Him who has sense, a sign is enoughFor the heedless, however, a thousand expositions are not enough.
Idries Shah
Whoever has taught me one letter has made me his slave.
Idries Shah
The bird which has no knowledge of pure water, has his beak in salt water all year round.
Idries Shah
Rust through washing never became white.
Idries Shah
If you cannot sit on a throne like a king, seize, like a tent-pitcher, the rope of the Royal tent.
Idries Shah
Those who can’t, try: those who can, don’t have to.
Idries Shah
Give and TakeThe Chief takes less than he is givenAnd gives more than he has taken.
Idries Shah
Give and TakeThe Chief takes less than he is givenAnd gives more than he has taken
Idries Shah
No surgeon can treat the wounds of the tongue.
Idries Shah
None meets harm who knows his capacity.
Idries Shah
Man has less than he suspects of: Time, Friends, Hopes, Qualities.Proverb
Idries Shah
A stolen kiss is not easily returned.
Idries Shah
You will never reach Mecca, I fear: for you are on the road to Turkestan.
Idries Shah
It will pass, whatever it is.
Idries Shah
You make me a sinner if you stop me giving you hospitality.
Idries Shah
Take the straight path, even if it is long: marry no widow, even if she is a houri.
Idries Shah
What goes into a salt-mine becomes salt.
Idries Shah
The power of Allah: no sound, no shape, no form. But when it manifests, none can resist it.
Idries Shah
SENTENCES OF THE KHAJAGANRUDBARI : Heart to heart is an essential means of passing on the secrets of the Path.
Idries Shah
No colour comes after black.
Idries Shah
Sufism is experience, and hence not to be defined – imprisoned – in perennial, static categories.
Idries Shah
Sufism is, in fact, not a mystical system, not a religion, but a body of knowledge.
Idries Shah
Learning without action is like wax without honey.(Anwar-i-Suhaili)
Idries Shah
Even if false gold makes a man happy:At the mint it will be identified.
Idries Shah
A loan is the scissors of friendship.A man's own tongue may cut his throat.The cage has no value without the bird.
Idries Shah
What do I sing, and what does my tambourine sing?
Idries Shah
Dye your hair, certainly. But what can you do for your face?
Idries Shah
EPITAPH OF JALALUDIN RUMIWhen we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.
Idries Shah
THE HEAVENSTo the mallet of the Highest MindThe heavens are the smallest possible ball.(Akhlaq-i-Mohsini)
Idries Shah