Quotes by Sufis - Page 2

Saying of the Mulla Nasrudin. If I survive this life without dying, I'll be surprised.
Idries Shah
Salute to the Thief. Junaid of Baghdad was passing the scene of a public hanging, where a thief was on the scaffold. Junaid bowed towards the criminal. Someone asked him: 'What did you do that?' Junaid said: 'I was bowing before his single-mindedness. For his aim, that man has given his life.
Idries Shah
The would-be students wish to transcend books.But, ask yourselves: if someone says that books do not contain wisdom, and yet he writes books; books do not contain Sufism, and yet he continues to publish books on Sufism, what is really happening? It really is your duty, and not mine, to ask and to find the answer to that question, if you are interested enough.
Idries Shah
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.
Idries Shah
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.
Idries Shah
To say "yes" to the Sufi way is to say "no" to imagined escapes.
Idries Shah
Three things cannot be retrieved:The arrow once sped from the bowThe word spoken in hasteThe missed opportunity. Ali, the Lion of Islam.
Idries Shah
Feeling important is a vice, not a virtue, however concealed as participation in something noble.
Idries Shah
With enough information, it is almost impossible "not" to predict people's action.
Idries Shah
But the minimum human duty is to serve others: it is no great attainment.
Idries Shah
Sayings of the ProphetTrust: Trust in God – but tie your camel first.
Idries Shah
One lie will keep out forty truths.
Idries Shah
Whoever gives knowledge to a fool loses itAnd who keeps it from the deserving does wrong.
Idries Shah
ServiceI will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages.Rabia el-Adawia.
Idries Shah
Generosity is also marked by doing what one says one will do.
Idries Shah
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'.
Idries Shah
Sufism is experiential
Idries Shah
The people of the world have a fixed destiny. But the spiritually developed receive what is “not” in their destiny.
Idries Shah
Counsels of BahaudinYou want to be filled. But something which is full has first to be emptied. Empty yourself so that you will fill properly, by observing these counsels, which you can do as duties to yourself:FirstNever follow any impulse to teach, however strong it might be. The command to teach is not felt as an impulsion.
Idries Shah
If you are uninterested in what I say, there's an end to it. If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it. If you like some of the things I say, and dislike others, you could try to understand why. If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what formed your attitude?
Idries Shah
Voice in the nightA voice whispered to me last night: 'There is no such thing as a voice whispering in the night!
Idries Shah
As the Eastern saying, by the sage Hilali, has it, 'one person who understands is worth a hundred who merely obey a custom.
Idries Shah
WisdomSufian said: 'The wisdom which is invisible but which sustains is a hundred times better than the appearance of wisdom, for that has itself to be sustained.
Idries Shah
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