Quotes by Sufis - Page 10

A donkey eats a melon, it remains a donkey
Idries Shah
A man's capacity is the same as his breadth of vision.
Idries Shah
Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza.Poverty: The result of marriage.
Idries Shah
What is humanity? To feel pain at the sorrows of our neighbours, to feel humiliated at the humiliation of fellow-beings.
Idries Shah
History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
Idries Shah
Right time, right place, right people equals success.Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.
Idries Shah
History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant.
Idries Shah
Right time, right place, right people equals success.Wrong time, wrong place, wrong people equals most of the real human history.
Idries Shah
The Sufi saying has it: "God, to the bee, is something which has TWO stings!
Idries Shah
The object of Sufi preparatory study, however, being to illustrate, expose and out-manoeuvre superficial ambition.
Idries Shah
Thou seekest Lailâ. Yet she manifesteth herself within thee.Thou deemest her to be elsewhere, but elsewhere existeth not.That is a madness, well-known to lovers. So be on your guard, for otherness is the epitome of separation.Seest thou not, how her beauty enfoldeth thee.She disappeareth only if thou refusest part of thee.Come close to me, thou sayst to her, to her who is thine All.And when she loveth thee, she leadeth thee to thyself.Bliss ineffable is the meeting with her.No one reacheth her, who knoweth not essence without form.I have dissimulated about her,After I had truly displayed her through my veil.I hid her from myself, with the garment of mine own existence,And, out of jealousy, I hid her from the envier.Dazzling beauty! Should the light of thy countenanceTouch the eyes of a blind man, he would see each particle of dust.She is adorned with every grace pertaining unto beauty.And wherever she appeareth, she is desired by those who love.(Diwân)
Muhammad al-Harrâq
Sufis deny the absolute reality of time, space and physical form. These things are both relative and local. They only appear to be absolute.
Idries Shah
Sufis deny the absolute reality of time, space and physical form. These things are both relative and local. They only appear to be absolute.
Idries Shah
Correct teaching brings out human excellence.
Idries Shah
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.
Idries Shah
If you assume that it is there, you will generally not be far off the truth.
Idries Shah
Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?'.
Idries Shah
Is your division of Understanding into Greater and Lesser common to all Sufis? Nothing which is put into words is common to all Sufis.
Idries Shah
The clothes may vary, but the person is the same.
Idries Shah
The teaching must, of course, work with the best part of the individual, must be directed to his or her real capacity.
Idries Shah
Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaFlattery:One of the most promising of businesses: always brisk.
Idries Shah
Knowledge gives nothing to a man until he gives everything to it.
Idries Shah
Sufis (the name for the realised individual, not the learner or follower) are reunited with objective Reality and Unity.
Idries Shah
Knowledge cannot be attained except through humility.
Idries Shah
People in this civilization are starving in the middle of plenty. This is a civilization that is going down, not because it hasn't got the knowledge that would save it, but because nobody will use the knowledge.
Idries Shah
Religion, for instance, cannot be accepted or rejected out of hand, until the student knows exactly what religion means.
Idries Shah
Sufism," according to the Sufi, "is an adventure in living, necessary adventure.
Idries Shah
Knowledge is something which you can use.Belief is something which uses you.
Idries Shah
Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.
Idries Shah
Three ThingsThree things cannot be retrieved:The arrow once sped from the bowThe word spoken in hasteThe missed opportunity.(Ali the Lion, Caliph of Islam, son-in-law of Mohammed the Prophet),
Idries Shah
The decline in the influence of religion has been due, in the main, not to religion itself, but to the very shallowness of many practitioners. People who are indoctrinated and mistake implanted obsession for faith, are themselves destroyers of the very thing which they imagine themselves called upon to try to protect.In fact, of course, they have no such call: and their capacity to protect something which is other than their imaginings makes for a comical situation.
Idries Shah
Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction. A human being may be clinically alive and yet, despite all appearances, spiritually dead.
Idries Shah
As swords were designed to killThey did well to make them tongue-shaped.(Anwar-i-Suhaili)
Idries Shah
Superior experience and knowledge will be made available to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth, capacity and earning of it
Idries Shah
ScrapsThe scraps from the meal of the Emir are larger than the gifts of halwa from the merchant. Timur Fazil
Idries Shah
Our objective is to achieve, by the understanding of the Origin, the Knowledge which comes through experience.
Idries Shah
A man must be a Salomon before his magical ring will work. (Hafiz)
Idries Shah
Imagination blocks you like a bolt on a door. Burn that bar. (Rumi)
Idries Shah
Any society which enjoins its members to adhere to both of these (politeness and truth) is a fraud.
Idries Shah
A man must be a Solomon before his magical ring will work
Idries Shah
It is your duty to do your best. It is not, however, your birth-right to prevail.
Idries Shah
The question of divine knowledge is so deep that it is really known only to those who have it.
Idries Shah
If you want special illumination, look upon the human face:See clearly within laughter the Essence of Ultimate Truth.
Idries Shah
Yes, the world is an illusion. But Truth is always being shown there.
Idries Shah
The candle burned the moth:But soon it will vanish in its own fat.
Idries Shah
The Sufis regard systems which treat everyone alike as mechanical and degenerate.
Idries Shah
One of the basic Sufi needs is to enable people to see themselves as they really are.
Idries Shah
The Sufi teacher’s mission is to be in the service of those who can learn.
Idries Shah
The teacher works in accordance with the prospects of his students and the possibility of maintaining the community of Sufis.
Idries Shah
Most people, whatever their opinions and protestations, do not want to learn.
Idries Shah
If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the method.
Idries Shah
Fettered feet in the presence of friends is better than living in a garden with strangers.
Idries Shah
SAYING OF SHEIKH ZIAUDIN:Self-justification is worse than the original offence.
Idries Shah
It is not Sufism if it does not perform its function for you. A cloak is no longer a cloak if it does not keep a man warm.
Idries Shah
If wine is the enemy of religion, I shall devour the enemy of religion.
Idries Shah
The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted, not to leave unaltered traces.
Idries Shah
Haste is from the Devil.
Idries Shah
One day we will all wear a garment which has no pockets...
Idries Shah
Wisdom is when you understand what, previously, at best you only knew.
Idries Shah
In a village where everyone has only one leg, the biped will hop about more lamely than anyone else, if he knows what is good for him.
Idries Shah