Sufism Quotes

A short time in the presence of the Friends (the Sufis) is better than a hundred years’ sincere, obedient dedication.

~ Idries Shah

The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real

~ Idries Shah

Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to entrust secrets.

~ Idries Shah

Abu-Yaqub al-Susi: 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

Better to quarrel with a friend than to support enemies.

~ Idries Shah

The mine is always bigger than the gem.

~ Idries Shah

Whoever has not first dug a well, should not steal a minaret.

~ Idries Shah

Sufism is, in operation, pragmatic.

~ Idries Shah

It is the goldsmith who can assay the gold.

~ Idries Shah

I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so.

~ Idries Shah

Nobody can stand between you and knowledge if you are fit for it.

~ Idries Shah

The means through which people may perceive Truth have forms, Truth has no form.

~ Idries Shah

Whoever might perfume a scorpionWill not thereby escape its sting. Bahaudin Naqshband

~ Idries Shah

Truth has no form.

~ 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

Sufism, in one definition, is human life.

~ Idries Shah

To say yes to the Sufi way is to say no to imagined escapes.

~ Idries Shah

When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial.

~ 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

But the minimum human duty is to serve others: it is no great attainment.

~ Idries Shah

Sayings of the ProphetTrust: Trust in God – but tie your camel first.

~ Idries Shah

One lie will keep out forty truths.

~ Idries Shah

Whoever gives knowledge to a fool loses itAnd who keeps it from the deserving does wrong.

~ Idries Shah

Remembering and ForgettingYou have not forgotten to remember, You have remembered to forget.But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember – and generally more practical.

~ Idries Shah

ServiceI will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages.Rabia el-Adawia.

~ Idries Shah

Generosity is also marked by doing what one says one will do.

~ Idries Shah

Sufism is therefore not 'Do as I say and not as I do', or even 'Do as I do', but 'Experience and you will know'.

~ Idries Shah

He that is purified by love is pure, and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and hath abandoned all else is a Sufi.Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah.

~ Idries Shah

The people of the world have a fixed destiny. But the spiritually developed receive what is “not” in their destiny.

~ Idries Shah

Counsels of BahaudinYou want to be filled. But something which is full has first to be emptied. Empty yourself so that you will fill properly, by observing these counsels, which you can do as duties to yourself:FirstNever follow any impulse to teach, however strong it might be. The command to teach is not felt as an impulsion.

~ Idries Shah

If you are uninterested in what I say, there's an end to it. If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it. If you like some of the things I say, and dislike others, you could try to understand why. If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what formed your attitude?

~ Idries Shah

Voice in the nightA voice whispered to me last night: 'There is no such thing as a voice whispering in the night!

~ Idries Shah

As the Eastern saying, by the sage Hilali, has it, 'one person who understands is worth a hundred who merely obey a custom.

~ Idries Shah

WisdomSufian said: 'The wisdom which is invisible but which sustains is a hundred times better than the appearance of wisdom, for that has itself to be sustained.

~ Idries Shah

A Better Beard that Yours. 'All true devotees wear a beard,' said the Imam to his audience. 'Show me a thick and lustrous beard and I'll show you a true believer!' 'My goat has a beard far bushier and longer than yours,' replied Nasrudin. 'Does that mean he is a better Muslim than you?

~ Idries Shah

An intelligent enemy,' he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, 'rather than a foolish friend.' Or, 'He learnt the language of pigeons, and forgot his own.' Or, the favourite of Jan Fishan Khan: 'Nothing is what it seems.

~ Tahir Shah

Contrary to Expectation. A wise man, the wonder of his age, taught his disciples from a seemingly inexhaustible store of wisdom. He attributed all his knowledge to a thick tome which was kept in a place of honour in his room. The sage would allow nobody to open the volume. When he died, those who had surrounded him, regarding themselves as his heirs, ran to open the book, anxious to possess what it contained. They were surprised, confused and disappointed when they found that there was writing on only one page. They became even more bewildered and then annoyed when they tried to penetrate the meaning of the phrase which met their eyes. It was: 'When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.

~ Idries Shah