Sufism Quotes

Saying of the ProphetSleepSleep is the brother of death.

~ Idries Shah

They have fixed our nutrition and arranged our life-span. More than this, and ahead of this, efforts will not be productive.

~ Idries Shah

But the world itself, as well as special attitudes, properly understood, constitute the Sufi school.

~ Idries Shah

Make mankind your dwelling place.

~ Idries Shah

What you have to learn is how to find the unworldly in everything.

~ Idries Shah

Trying to force something is the best way to stop it from happening.

~ Idries Shah

If you assume that it is there, you will generally not be far off the truth…

~ Idries Shah

The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service

~ Idries Shah

it was being written in the East that 'Sufism was formerly a reality without a name: now it is a name without a reality'.

~ Idries Shah

But the Sufis work IN the world, and therefore WITH 'things of the world'.

~ Idries Shah

Sufis are not here to satisfy a demand. They exist to share what they have got. These two things are not always the same.

~ Idries Shah

You can perceive a person's aspiration if it is genuine, because this creates a change in the emanations from such a person.

~ Idries Shah

The automatism of man is overcome, in the words of Dhun'Nun, by aiming for 'being as you were, where you were, before you were'.

~ Idries Shah

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

Sufis hold that the superior experience and knowledge comes to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth,capacity,and earning of it.

~ Idries Shah

Sufism is transmitted by means of the human exemplar, the teacher.

~ Idries Shah

Laziness - The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.

~ Idries Shah

Mediation - Before you learn how to meditate, you must unlearn what you think meditation might be.

~ Idries Shah

Definition of a SufiTo learn, people must give up a great deal, and this includes ritual as something from which they imagine they might learn. It is to emphasise this that Abu-Yaqub al-Susi, quoted in Kalabadhi's Taaruf, states that the Sufi is 'One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for what he has not.

~ Idries Shah

The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. As Prince Dara Shikoh says, in a Persian poem: Do you wish to be included with the Lords of Sight? From speech (then) pass on to experience. By saying 'Unity', you do not become a monotheist; The mouth does not become sweet from the word 'Sugar

~ Idries Shah

Humility cannot be taught by propaganda, though slavery can. Shouting for humility is a form of arrogance. One of my most abiding recollections is of a priest at a religious occasion once roaring, in the most threatening way imaginable: ‘O our Lord God, we most humbly pray…!’Real humility is not always the same as apparent humility. Remember that fighting against self-conceit is still fighting: and that it will tend to suppress it temporarily. It does not cure anything.Remember, too, that humility itself does not bring an automatic reward: it is a means to an end. It enables a person to operate in a certain manner.

~ Idries Shah

… the Sufi attitude is: ‘Let the real truth, whatever it may be, be revealed to me’.

~ Idries Shah

People who have fallacious objectives are like the barren soil. The flowers grow from soil which is composed of the right objectives.

~ Idries Shah

The more wakeful a man is to the things which surround him, the more asleep is he, and his waking is worse than his sleep.

~ Idries Shah

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.

~ Mansur Al-Hallaj

You have seen what Eblis the accursed has seen, when he said I am of fire, while Adam is of clay.Cover up the Eblis-like eye for just a moment; how long will you see just the form? How long, indeed, how long?Alas for that eye that's blind and bruised! Within it the sun seemed like an atomOf an Adam who had no like. He saw nothing but a lump of

~ Jalaluddin Rumi

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

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

~ Bediüzzaman Said Nursî

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

~ Bediüzzaman Said Nursî

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.

~ Zarina Bibi

Saying of the Prophet. The Bequest: I have nothing to leave you except my family.

~ 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 ProphetHelping othersI order you to assist any oppressed person, whether he is a Muslim or not.

~ Idries Shah

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

~ Idries Shah

Saying of the ProphetMonkishnessNo monkery in Islam.

~ Idries Shah