Sufis Quotes

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaA fool:,A man trying to be honest with the dishonest.

~ 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

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

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

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.

~ Tahir Shah

Fettered feet in the presence of friends is better than living in a garden with strangers.

~ 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

Most people, whatever their opinions and protestations, do not want to learn.

~ 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

The Sufis regard systems which treat everyone alike as mechanical and degenerate.

~ Idries Shah

The candle burned the moth:But soon it will vanish in its own fat.

~ Idries Shah

Yes, the world is an illusion. But Truth is always being shown there.

~ Idries Shah

If you want special illumination, look upon the human face:See clearly within laughter the Essence of Ultimate Truth.

~ Idries Shah

The question of divine knowledge is so deep that it is really known only to those who have it.

~ Idries Shah

It is your duty to do your best. It is not, however, your birth-right to prevail.

~ Idries Shah

A man must be a Solomon before his magical ring will work

~ 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 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

Our objective is to achieve, by the understanding of the Origin, the Knowledge which comes through experience.

~ Idries Shah

ScrapsThe scraps from the meal of the Emir are larger than the gifts of halwa from the merchant. Timur Fazil

~ 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

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

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.

~ Bulleh 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

Religion, for instance, cannot be accepted or rejected out of hand, until the student knows exactly what religion means.

~ Idries Shah

Knowledge cannot be attained except through humility.

~ 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

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaFlattery:One of the most promising of businesses: always brisk.

~ 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

The clothes may vary, but the person is the same.

~ Idries Shah