Sufi Quotes

We are highly susceptible to self destruction when we aren’t doing what we really want with our lives.

~ James Dillehay

Ultimately though, we are not responsible for another's happiness. The unhappy person almost always suffers from self-inflicted pain.

~ James Dillehay

The intelligence of the heart bypasses the intellect in the head which works on assumptions and requires a lot of thinking and confusion and makes a person tired and weak. But, the heart intelligence is not only direct and to the point, it also gives you energy, vitality and strength.

~ James Dillehay

If you don't know how to take care of your own needs, when you try to give to others, you are giving from a bankrupt account.

~ James Dillehay

My life is on loan, like money borrowed from a bank. God is the lender, and He retains the right to call in the loan any time. Though I am responsible for taking care of it, I do not own this life; it is borrowed. Why should I fear its loss or the loss of anything else in this world when I must surrender it all anyway?

~ James Dillehay

Similitude of the heart is like that of a telephone operator between man and God.

~ Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi

There is a Persian proverb: 'To test that which has been tested is ignorance.' To try to test something without the means of testing is even worse.

~ Idries Shah

Love is an involuntary gift that manifests unplanned.

~ Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi

An educated man believing in a this-that vile sky-god rewarding him-her, but punishing your enemies with hell and fire, is uneducated.

~ Fakeer Ishavardas

Only the search for truth is valid, the desire for wisdom the motive. The method is assimilation, not study.

~ Idries Shah

If you are 'humble', it may help you in ordinary life. If you are not, you will get nowhere in higher things.

~ Idries Shah

The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.

~ Idries Shah

No practice exists in isolation.

~ Idries Shah

Not to be greedy is, paradoxically, the highest form of looking after one's true interests.

~ Idries Shah

Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.

~ Idries Shah

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.

~ Idries Shah

The true saint goes in and out amongst the people and eats and sleeps with them and buys and sells in the market and marries and takes part in social intercourse, and never forgets God for a single moment.

~ Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

Saying of the ProphetMonkishnessNo monkery in Islam.

~ Idries Shah

Then Gai told me about the famous cup of the heart, which I should now begin to empty. The Sufis compare our spiritual heart, the seat of God within us, with a cup into which the love of God flows. This cup, however, needs to be emptied before it can be filled with Divine love. This emptying is a long process that requires courage, strength of character, determination, and, above all, sincerity. It is a process of reining in and eventually extinguishing the ego, of letting go of material needs, bad and unhealthy habits and emotional attachments in order to make room for God. Sufis often likened it to the process of dying and being born again. ‘Die before you die’ is a famous Sufi saying. This was the essence of every spiritual path, Gai told me.

~ Kristiane Backer

The Sufi Islam practiced in northern India is quite different from the Shi'a Islam practiced in Lebannon, which in turn is different from the Sunni Islam practiced in Pakistan. Even within a single branch of Islam there are customs and practices that vary by region and across time. Thus, the Islam of seventh-century Arabia is different from the Wahhabism that exists today in Saudi Arabia.

~ Deepa Kumar

When people have a hard task to do - one which stretches them - they become less concerned with trivial matters.

~ Idries Shah

When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety;if I sit in my own place of patience,what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me,is looking for me and attracting me.There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.

~ Shams-I Tabrizi

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

~ Idries Shah

The major barrier to understanding is wishful thinking and following that which pleases one.

~ Idries Shah

Careful preparation is necessary before people can perceive something which is there all the time.

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Kamand Kojouri

EPITAPH OF JALALUDIN RUMIWhen we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.

~ 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

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

I searched for my Beloved in the strangest of places, until the day I realized I couldn't take my eyes off Her.

~ Eric Micha'el Leventhal

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

~ Idries Shah

No one is born beneath this dance. This dance gives birth to you.

~ Holly Lynn Payne

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

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah

The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah