Idries Shah Quotes - Page 3

THE BIRD AND THE WATERA bird which has not heard of fresh waterDips his beak in salt-water year after year.(Anwar-i-Suhaili)
Idries Shah
Until you can understand illogicality, and the meaningfulness of it, shun the Sufis except for limited, precise, self-evident services.
Idries Shah
When sense has left a head, it should be called a tail.
Idries Shah
Generosity is also marked by doing what one says one will do. Saadi teaches: ‘when the generous promise, they perform
Idries Shah
BARQI: AESTHETICS IS ONLY THE LOWEST FORM OF PERCEPTION OF THE REAL.
Idries Shah
If you want to be a calligrapher, write, and write, and write.
Idries Shah
A book, for the Sufis, is an instrument as much as it is something to give information.
Idries Shah
I am the Real, for I have not ceased to be real – through the Real.
Idries Shah
If the father cannot, the son will finish the task.
Idries Shah
No effort makes a black crow into a white hawk.
Idries Shah
Pick up a bee from kindness, and learn the limitations of kindness.
Idries Shah
Have the nature of a dervish: then wear a stylish cap.
Idries Shah
The sort of man who, throwing a stone upon the ground, would miss.
Idries Shah
Better the demon which makes you improve than the angel who threatens.
Idries Shah
As Ibn Arabi says: ‘Absolute existence is the source of all existence’.
Idries Shah
Be kind to the hawk and harm the sparrow.
Idries Shah
One day the cub will become a wolf, even if it has been reared among the sons of man.
Idries Shah
Each flies with its own kind: pigeon with pigeon, hawk with hawk.
Idries Shah
MAGHRIBI: Learning is in activity. Learning through words alone is minor activity.
Idries Shah
I ask about the sky, but the answer is about a rope.
Idries Shah
Much smoke has been seen, and caused great fear of fire — even when no fire ensued.
Idries Shah
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.
Idries Shah
The aspirant has to be guided by a mentor. The stage at which this guidance can take effect is seldom, if ever, perceptible to the learner.
Idries Shah
Those who say ‘I am ready to learn’, or ‘I am not ready to learn’ are as often mistaken as they are correct in their surmise.
Idries Shah
A Sufi is one who is not bound by anything nor does he bind anything
Idries Shah
Things which are seemingly opposed may in fact be working together
Idries Shah
Like calls to like, truth to truth and deceit to deceit.
Idries Shah
Whatever goes into a salt-mine becomes salt.
Idries Shah
It is experience which teaches, not controversy based on supposed logic and assumptions of what is likely to be true.
Idries Shah
Sufism is education, in that it has a body of knowledge which it transmits to those who have not got it.
Idries Shah
Sufi Teachers are not, as you might hope, people who make you feel peace and harmony.
Idries Shah
Of whom can we think well when it is believed that if nothing bad is done to you, this has been a kindness?
Idries Shah
Sufism is that which succeeds in bringing to man the High Knowledge.
Idries Shah
What you are pleased to call Sufism is merely the record of past method.
Idries Shah
Before garden, vine or grape was in the world," writes one, "our soul was drunken with immortal wine.
Idries Shah
Brave is the thief who carries a lamp in his hand.
Idries Shah
The definition of the word 'finished' is: 'This word means finished.
Idries Shah
I will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages.
Idries Shah
Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it.
Idries Shah
Information about the activities of one body of Sufis may be harmful to the potential of another.
Idries Shah
Nothing cheap without reason.
Idries Shah
Q: How can I help myself?A: By remembering the proverb: ‘The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service’, from Saadi.
Idries Shah
Ibn El-Arabi wrote, ‘The Teacher is he who hears you, then unveils you to yourself
Idries Shah
And Rumi tells us, ‘Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book nor from tongue’.
Idries Shah
The selection and following of a spiritual guide is the most important duty of a Sufi.
Idries Shah
It is necessary to note," says Rumi, "that opposite things work together, even though nominally opposed" (Fihi Ma Fihi).
Idries Shah
At His door, what is the difference between Moslem and Christian, virtuous and guilty? At his door all are seekers and He the sought.
Idries Shah
Saying of the Prophet.Ink and Blood:The ink of the learned is holier than the blood of the martyr.
Idries Shah
At His door, what is the difference between Muslim and Christian, virtuous and guilty? At his door all are seekers and He the sought.
Idries Shah
The pathways into Sufic thinking are, it is traditionally said, almost as varied as the number of Sufis in existence.
Idries Shah
The totality of life cannot be understood, so runs Sufi teaching, if it is studied only through the methods which we use in everyday living.
Idries Shah
Practise your knowledge, for knowledge without practice is a body without life
Idries Shah
As with any other specialisation, teaching is a vocation, open only to those who are truly capable of discharging its functions.
Idries Shah
The fruit of timidity is neither gain nor loss.
Idries Shah
When you get a principle on which everyone is agreed, you get the beginning of complacency and deterioration.
Idries Shah
When you feel least interested in following the Way which you have entered, this may be the time when it is most appropriate for you.
Idries Shah
The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work.
Idries Shah
Unbelief and belief are both marching on His road, while both are saying, ‘He is one and He has no associates’.
Idries Shah
Understanding and knowledge are completely different sensations in the realm of Truth than they are in the realm of society.
Idries Shah
If you forsake a path, it is because you were hoping for conviction from it. You seek conviction, not self-knowledge.
Idries Shah