Sufism Quotes

What has he found who has lost God? And what has he lost who has found God?

The happiness of the drop is to die in the river.

It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.

Reflection is the lamp of the heart. If it departs, the heart will have no light.

Worry is itself an illness, since worry is an accusation against Divine Wisdom, a criticism of Divine Mercy.

Farsi Couplet: Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast, Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast. English Translation: If there is a paradise on earth, It is this, it is this, it is this

Islam and Christianity promise eternal paradise to the faithful. And that is a powerful opiate, certainly, the hope of a better life to come. But there's a Sufi story that challenges the notion that people believe only because they need an opiate. Rabe'a al-Adiwiyah, a great woman saint of Sufism, was seem running through the streets of her hometown, Basra, carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When someone asked her what she was doing, she answered, 'I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven of fear of hell, but because He is God.

You have no choice. You must leave your ego on the doorstep before you enter love.

The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.

But there’s a Sufi story that challenges the notion that people believe only because they need an opiate. Rabe’a al-Adiwiyah, a great woman saint of Sufism, was seen running through the streets of her hometown, Basra, carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When someone asked her what she was doing, she answered, ‘I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven or fear of hell, but because He is God.

Listen, O drop, give yourself up without regret, and in exchange gain the Ocean. Listen, O drop, bestow upon yourself this honor, and in the arms of the Sea be secure. Who indeed should be so fortunate? An Ocean wooing a drop! In God's name, in God's name, sell and buy at once! Give a drop, and take this Sea full of pearls.

You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.

Be kind to people whether they deserve your kindness or not. If your kindness reaches the deserving good for you if your kindness reaches the undeserving take joy in your compassion.

Materialism, attachment to things of the world, includes pride. Many religious people suffer from pride: taking pleasure or even delight in being good, or religious.

The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.

The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love.

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.

در غم ما روزها بی گاه شد روزها با سوزها همراه شد

Three Things Three things cannot be retrieved: The arrow once sped from the bow The word spoken in haste The missed opportunity. (Ali the Lion, Caliph of Islam, son-in-law of Mohammed the Prophet),

I will speak of love until you go mad and join me in my mad worship of love.

The first lesson to learn is to resign oneself to the little difficulties in life, not to hit out at everything one comes up against. If one were able to manage this one would not need to cultivate great power; even one's presence would be healing.

Islam and Sufism are one. Teaching that to understand Islam one must be a lover, how can one understand Islam when the heart is empty of love.

Q: What is a fundamental mistake of man's? A: To think that he is alive, when he has merely fallen asleep in life's waiting-room.

There are two aspects of individual harmony: the harmony between body and soul, and the harmony between individuals. All the tragedy in the world, in the individual and in the multitude, comes from lack of harmony. And harmony is the best given by producing harmony in one's own life.

I belong to no religion. My religion is love. Every heart is my temple.

Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it to others.

Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.

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

I spent all night weaving a poem for you to wear. You look so beautiful when you wear my light.

We seek the fire of the spark that is already within us.

You know how it goes: at some point in your life, you fell in love with someone and had a glimpse of God. Then you abandoned life and lover and started celebrating your love for God.

Sayings of the Prophet Trust: Trust in God – but tie your camel first.

گفتم: ای پیر، چشمه ی زندگانی کجاست؟ گفت: در ظلمات. گفتم: راه از کدام جانب است؟ گفت: از هر طرف که بروی، می رسی. گفتم: نشانی ظلمات چیست؟ گفت: تو خود در ظلماتی، اما نمی دانی.

You only truly possess that which you cannot lose in a shipwreck.

One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.

I have loved in life and I have been loved. I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar, and have been raised above life's joy and sorrow. My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it. My heart has been rent and joined again; My heart has been broken and again made whole; My heart has been wounded and healed again; A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet. I went through hell and saw there love's raging fire, and I entered heaven illumined with the light of love. I wept in love and made all weep with me; I mourned in love and pierced the hearts of men; And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks, the rocks burst forth as volcanoes. The whole world sank in the flood caused by my one tear; With my deep sigh the earth trembled, and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved, I shook the throne of God in heaven. I bowed my head low in humility, and on my knees I begged of love, "Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret." She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth, and spoke softly in my ear, "My dear one, thou thyself art love, art lover, and thyself art the beloved whom thou hast adored.

They will become Godly when they will have God in their hearts.

The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.

Good. Show me a man who thinks that he knows what 'good' is, and I will probably be able to show you a horror of a person. Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.

Dance less in motion and more in spirit; awaken the dreamer within.

You yourself are your own barrier – rise from within it.

Selfishness keeps man blind through life.

God said to him [Eblis], 'You have become proud.' He replied, 'If I had been with you but a moment my pride would have been justified; I have been with you for centuries.

Sufilere sohbet gerek Ahilere ahret gerek Mecnunlara Leyla gerek Bana seni gerek seni

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

There can be no spirituality, according to the Sufi masters, without psychology, psychological insight and sociological balance.

The person that you feel yourself to be, according to the Sufis, is a false person, which has no true reality.

He causes huge bodies like sun to proclaim His Majesty through His Names the All-Gracious, Great, reciting: ' O Glorious One, O Great One, O Mighty One', while tiny animate creatures like flies and fish proclaim His Mercy, reciting: 'O Gracious One, O Compassionate One, O Generous One

Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being.

Do not try to be humble: learn humility.

Polish the mirror of your heart until it reflects every person's light.

Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.

One day we will all wear a garment which has no pockets...

Worry is a cloud which rains destruction.

You must be more alive than life. You must see darkness dance and hear silence sing. You must be more awake than light for we aren’t born sleeping and we shouldn’t live sleeping. Only then will death’s slumber become sweet.

The first time I heard you laugh, I only wanted to say funny things so you would always be laughing. You know what happens to chocolate when you leave it out in the sun? I’m that unfortunate chocolate and you, you are the laughing sun. For this reason, I am offering myself to you not as a martyr or some selfless fool, but as a self-indulgent moth who actively pursues the light without much fear for the flame. The moth who revels in the heat and declares: Burn me.

IF words come out of the heart, they will enter the heart, but if they come from the tongue, they will not pass beyond the ears.

Greed harms you: generosity helps you. This is why it has been said: 'Greed is the mother of incapacity'.

They say: 'Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom.

Close your eyes. Meditate on your love. This is God.

How can you be a lover of love and not be a lover of God? It is impossible.

Remedy Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it. Hazrat Ali

التصوف هو تدريب النفس على العبودية، وردها لأحكام الربوبية.

The impatient man is his own enemy; he slams the door on his own progress.

Yesterday, I was clever so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I want to change myself.

Music does not need language of words for it has movements of dance to do its translation.

God sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal, and awakens in man.

I am a lover, and I deal in love. Sow flowers, So your surroundings become a garden. Don't sow thorns; for they will prick your feet. We are all one body, Whoever tortures another, wounds himself.

I have made You the companion of my heart. But my body is available to those who desire its company, And my body is friendly toward its guest, But the Beloved of my heart is the guest of my soul. 

Saying of the Prophet Understanding Speak to everyone in accordance with his degree of understanding.

But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps.

Love is an involuntary gift that manifests unplanned.

I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so.

The sight of God in woman is the most perfect of all." Ibn Arabi.

Wisdom is when you understand what, previously, at best you only knew.

Saying of the Prophet Struggle The holy warrior is he who struggles with himself.

Saying of the Prophet Food Nobody has eaten better food than that won by his own labour.

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

Saying of the Prophet The Tongue A man slips with his tongue more than with his feet.

The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.

A worshipper perceives that he is near to God because he is awake all night worshipping God. But after worship, your prayers are for health, long life, wealth, and for the damsels and slaves of the Paradise. Ponder! Did you ever pray to God, ‘O’ God, I desire from Thee nothing but Thee’?

In the year of the sun was sun eclipse, the sun of piety, knowledge and divinity. The establisher of the path of Tijaniyya, the reviver of the traditions of the chocest of Adnan. The servant of Allah, the Imam of the Maliki law, and affairs are for Allah for he is the possessor. He added that Sufism is a spritual clinic with doctors who have knowledge of attending to ailments of the soul. For a sick patient who requires cure and dosses of medicine from the clinic, there is the need for him to make declaration of his sickness and acceptance of patienthood.

Remembering and Forgetting You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget. But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember – and generally more practical.

He knows all my thoughts. He knows all I’ve ever done and He loves me all the same. What is our purpose, you ask. It is to love like God.

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

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.

Soar like an eagle beyond skies of heavens reach; as wings of dreams dance with winds of reality.

Dance resides within us all. Some find it when joy conquers sorrow, others express it through celebration of movements; and then there are those... whose existence is dance,

Not a believer in the mosque am I, Nor a disbeliever with his rites am I. I am not the pure amongst the impure, I am neither Moses nor Pharaoh. Bulleh, I know not who I am. Not in the holy books am I, Nor do I dwell in bhang or wine, Nor do I live in a drunken haze, Nor in sleep or waking known. Bulleh, I know not who I am. Not in happiness or in sorrow am I found. I am neither pure nor mired in filthy ground. Not of water nor of land, Nor am I in air or fire to be found. Bulleh, I know not who I am. Not an Arab nor Lahori, Not a Hindi or Nagouri, Nor a Muslim or Peshawari, Not a Buddhist or a Christian. Bulleh, I know not who I am. Secrets of religion have I not unravelled, I am not of Eve and Adam. Neither still nor moving on, I have not chosen my own name! Bulleh, I know not who I am. From first to last, I searched myself. None other did I succeed in knowing. Not some great thinker am I. Who is standing in my shoes, alone? Bulleh, I know not who I am.

My father used to tell me that stories offer the listener a chance to escape but, more importantly, he said, they provide people with a chance to maximize their minds. Suspend ordinary constraints, allow the imagination to be freed, and we are charged with the capability of heighetned thought. Learn to use your eyes as if they are your ears, he said, and you become connected with the ancient heritage of man, a dream world for the waking mind.

Every spiritual path leads the sincere seeker to the truth that can only be found within. The Sufi says that there are as many roads to God as there are human beings, “as many as the breaths of the children of men.” Because we are each individual and unique, the journey of discovering our real nature will be different for each of us. At the same time different spiritual paths are suited to different types of people.

One sip of this wine and you will go mad with drunkenness. You will drop your masks and tear your clothes — destroying everything that separates you from the Lover. Once you taste the fruit of this vine, you will be kicked out of the city of yourself. You will forget the world. You will forget yourself. I tell you: you will become a madman who wanders the streets looking for the Lover once you drink this Wine of Love.

Farsi Couplet: Naala-e zanjeer-e Majnun arghanoon-e aashiqanast Zauq-e aan andaza-e gosh-e ulul-albaab neest English Translation: The creaking of the chain of Majnun is the orchestra of the lovers, To appreciate its music is quite beyond the ears of the wise.

I first believed without any hesitation in the existence of the soul, and then I wondered about the secret of its nature. I persevered and strove in search of the soul, and found at last that I myself was the cover over my own soul. I realized that that in me which believed and that in me that wondered, that which was found at last, was no other than my soul. I thanked the darkness that brought me to the light, and I valued this veil that prepared for me the vision in which I saw myself reflected, the vision produced in the mirror of my soul. Since then, I have seen all souls as my soul, and realized my soul as the soul of all. And what bewilderment it was when I realized that I alone was, if there were anyone, that I am whatever and whoever exists, and that I shall be whoever there will be in the future.

Karl Marx famously called religion 'the opiate of the masses'. Buddhism, particularly as it is popularly practiced, promises improvement through karma. Islam and Christianity promise eternal life to the faithful. And that is a powerful opiate, certainly, the hope of a better life to come. But there's a Sufi story that challenges the notion that people believe only because they need an opiate. Rabe'a al-Adiwiyah, a great woman saint of Sufism, was seen running through the streets of her hometown, Basra, carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When someone asked her what she was doing, she answered, 'I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven or fear of hell, but because He is God.

This is a day of celebration! Today, we are divorcing the past and marrying the present. Dance, and you will find God in every room. Today, we are divorcing resentment and marrying forgiveness. Sing, and God will find you in every tune. Today, we are divorcing indifference and marrying love. Drink, and play that tambourine against your thighs. We have so much celebrating to do!

From my insufficiency to my perfection, and from my deviation to my equilibrium From my sublimity to my beauty, and from my splendor to my majesty From my scattering to my gathering, and from my rejection to my communion From my baseness to my preciousness, and from my stones to my pearls From my rising to my setting, and from my days to my nights From my luminosity to my darkness, and from my guidance to my straying From my perigee to my apogee, and from the base of my lance to its tip From my waxing to my waning, and from the void of my moon to its crescent From my pursuit to my flight, and from my steed to my gazelle From my breeze to my boughs, and from my boughs to my shade From my shade to my delight, and from my delight to my torment From my torment to my likeness, and from my likeness to my impossibility From my impossibility to my validity, and from my validity to my deficiency. I am no one in existence but myself,

Ibn Arabi observes that the most perfect of mystic lovers are those who love God simultaneously for himself and for them- selves, because this capacity reveals in them the unification of their twofold nature (a resolution of the torn "conscience malheureuse" ). He who has made himself capable of such love is able to do so because he combines mystic knowledge ( ma rrifa ) with vision ( shuhud) .

A Drunkard accuses a Drunkard... A sot became extremely drunk - his legs And head sank listless, weighed by wine's thick dregs. A sober neighbour put him in a sack And took him homewards hoisted on his back. Another drunk went stumbling by the first, Who woke and stuck his head outside and cursed. "Hey, you, you lousy dipsomaniac," He yelled as he was borne off in the sack, "If you'd had fewer drinks, just two or three, You would be walking now as well as me.

between the universe that can be apprehended by pure intellectual P.erception (the universe of the Cherubic Intelligences) and the universe perceptible to the senses, there is an intermediate world, the world of Idea-Images, of archetypal figures, of subtile substances, of "immaterial matter." This world is as real and objective, as consistent and subsistent as the intelligible and sensible worlds; it is an intermediate universe "where the spiritual takes body and the body becomes spiritual," a world consisting of real matter and real extension, though by comparison to sensible, corruptible matter these are subtile and immaterial. \The organ of this universe is the active Imagination; it is the place oftheophanic visions, the scene on which visionary events and symbolic histories appear in their true reality.\ Here we shall have a good deal to say of this universe, but the word imaginary will never be used, because with its present ambiguity this word, by prejudging the reality attained or to be attained, betrays an inability to deal with this at once intermediate and intermediary world.