Sufism Quotes

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.

~ Idries Shah

Saying of the ProphetAngerYou ask for a piece of advice. I tell you: 'Do not get angry.' He is strong who can withhold anger.

~ Idries Shah

Saying of the ProphetEnvyEnvy devours good deeds, as a fire devours fuel.

~ Idries Shah

What you are seeking in your retreat, I see clearly in every road and alleyway.

~ Idries Shah

In the realm of Greater Understanding, the workshop is dismantled after the work is finished.

~ Idries Shah

The tongue is the best masseur of furrowed brows.

~ Idries Shah

The barren branches may appear inelegant: They are, to the cook, the means to make his fire.

~ Idries Shah

A Sufi is alive to the value of time, and is given, every moment, to what that moment demands.

~ Idries Shah

Sufism, they say, is that which enables one to understand religion, irrespective of its current outward form.

~ Idries Shah

None should say: ‘I can trust,’ or ‘I cannot trust’ until he is master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.

~ Idries Shah

The lightning said to the oak tree: ‘Stand aside, or take what is coming to you!

~ Idries Shah

However fast you run, or however skilfully, you can’t run away from your own feet.

~ Idries Shah

Most of the supposedly Sufi organizations, exercises and “orders” are in fact only of archaeological interest.

~ Idries Shah

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.

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah

Remember the proverb: 'A sign is enough for the alert, but a thousand counsels are not enough for the negligent.

~ Idries Shah

Laziness is always your fault. It is the sign that a man has persevered in uselessness for too long.

~ Idries Shah

One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one.

~ Idries Shah

Premature independence is the daughter of conceit.

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah

When humility is exercised, people begin to realise that they do not, as it were, exist at all.

~ Idries Shah

Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah

The stupidest man I ever met had a favourite saying. It was: 'What do you think I am, stupid, or something?

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah

The colour of the water seems to be the colour of the glass into which it has been poured

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah

Crucially we haven't been figuring out how to live in oneness, with the Earth & every other living thing; we have just been insanely trying to figure out how to live with each other, billions of each other, only we're not living with each other our crazy selves are living with each other, and perpetuating an epidemic of disconnection.

~ Thandie Newton

Sufism expresses what I have found to be Real.

~ Efrat Cybulkiewicz

When Fortune knocks, open the door,' they say. But why should one make fortune knock, by keeping the door shut?

~ Idries Shah

To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from preconceptions, and not to try to avoid what is your lot.

~ Idries Shah

Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.

~ Idries Shah

Knowledge is something which you can use. Belief is something which uses you.

~ Idries Shah

One should not pray if that prayer is vanity.

~ Idries Shah

TeachingOne hour's teaching is better than a whole night of prayer.

~ Idries Shah

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’?

~ Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi

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.

~ Idries Shah