Saying of the ProphetThe TongueA man slips with his tongue more than with his feet.
~ Idries Shah
Saying of the ProphetThe JudgeA man appointed to be a judge has been killed without a knife.
Saying of the ProphetAngerYou ask for a piece of advice. I tell you: 'Do not get angry.' He is strong who can withhold anger.
Saying of the ProphetEnvyEnvy devours good deeds, as a fire devours fuel.
What you are seeking in your retreat, I see clearly in every road and alleyway.
In the realm of Greater Understanding, the workshop is dismantled after the work is finished.
The tongue is the best masseur of furrowed brows.
The barren branches may appear inelegant: They are, to the cook, the means to make his fire.
A Sufi is alive to the value of time, and is given, every moment, to what that moment demands.
Sufism, they say, is that which enables one to understand religion, irrespective of its current outward form.
None should say: ‘I can trust,’ or ‘I cannot trust’ until he is master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.
The lightning said to the oak tree: ‘Stand aside, or take what is coming to you!
However fast you run, or however skilfully, you can’t run away from your own feet.
Most of the supposedly Sufi organizations, exercises and “orders” are in fact only of archaeological interest.
The Sufi is one who does what others do – when it is necessary. He is also one who does what others cannot do – when it is indicated.
if... says: 'Do not be greedy, be generous', you may inwardly interpret this in such a manner that you will develop a greed for generosity
Greed harms you: generosity helps you. This is why it has been said: 'Greed is the mother of incapacity'.
Remember the proverb: 'A sign is enough for the alert, but a thousand counsels are not enough for the negligent.
Laziness is always your fault. It is the sign that a man has persevered in uselessness for too long.
One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one.
Premature independence is the daughter of conceit.
There can be no spirituality, according to the Sufi masters, without psychology, psychological insight and sociological balance.
When humility is exercised, people begin to realise that they do not, as it were, exist at all.
Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.
RemedyYour medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it.Hazrat Ali
When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.
The stupidest man I ever met had a favourite saying. It was: 'What do you think I am, stupid, or something?
The word 'choice' is a fraud while people choose only what they have been taught to choose.
The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured
When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge
When Fortune knocks, open the door,' they say. But why should one make fortune knock, by keeping the door shut?
To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from preconceptions, and not to try to avoid what is your lot.
The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.
Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.
Knowledge is something which you can use. Belief is something which uses you.
If a Manx cat tells you that it is trying to preserve its long, beautiful tail, you don't have to believe it - especially if you have eyes.
One should not pray if that prayer is vanity.
TeachingOne hour's teaching is better than a whole night of prayer.
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.
Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it to others.
