Sayings of the masters of Sufism
Contents
Sayings of Sufi masters of all traditions: ’Attar, al-Shadhili, al-Basri, the Emir ’Abd al-Qadir, Ibn ’Arabi, Hujwiri, Ansari and many others.
Isma’il ibn Abi Umayya
Isma’il ibn Abi Umayya
The meeting of brothers, however brief it may be, is full of blessings.
’Abida al-Ma’nawiyya: apply your efforts to doing good
’Abida al-Ma’nawiyya
Apply your efforts to doing good while you have the chance. Make haste before it is too late. The pleasures of this world have no savour for the one who possesses knowledge of the essence of things. People of noble character rid themselves of those pleasures the way one tosses a useless object into a ditch.
Abu Sa’id ibn Abi’l-Khayr: on Sufism
Abu Sa’id ibn Abi’l-Khayr
(On Sufism) What you have in mind, abandon it. What you have in hand, give it away. And what comes upon you, do not sidestep it.
Abu Hashim
Abu Hashim
To tear a mountain from its base with the point of a needle is easier than to extirpate the vileness of pride from one’s heart.
Abu Hafs: the first step to take
Abu Hafs
People speak of proximity, of union, of elevated spiritual degrees. As for me, all I ask of God is that He show me the way to follow, even if only the first step to take.
Abu Hafs
Abu Hafs
Do not let your devotion to your Lord become for you a means of turning yourself into an object of worship. See to it that the act of adoration you accomplish towards Him be truly the sign of your attachment to His service and of your condition as a servant, for he who looks complacently upon his acts of devotion in reality worships only himself.
Abu ’Uthman
Abu ’Uthman
All creatures stand before God in the station of gratitude, though they think they stand before Him in the station of patience.
Sayyidi Shaykh Ibrahim al-Dusuqi
Sayyidi Shaykh Ibrahim al-Dusuqi
For the one who wishes to journey, it is necessary to persist in effort: fasting frequently, revivifying the night with prayer, the mention of God, the recitation of the Qur’an, the exaltation of the Name of God, His glorification.
’Abdallah al-Ansari al-Harawi: the gratitude of islam and faith
’Abdallah al-Ansari al-Harawi
God said: “Few among My servants are those who are filled with gratitude” (Qur’an 34, 13). Gratitude implies the acknowledgment of the blessing; it is a road leading to the acknowledgment of the Benefactor. It is in this sense that God called islam and faith, in the Qur’an, gratitude.
Ibn al-’Arif
Ibn al-’Arif
The method for escaping the ego consists in refusing covetousness, disobeying the call of personal desire and avoiding unnecessary things.
Abu’l-Qasim al-Baghdadi: be firm in your faith
Abu’l-Qasim al-Baghdadi
Faith is what gathers you in view of God and unites you to Him. The divine Reality is one, and the believer is unified. He who takes pleasure in the company of things is scattered by the passions, and he whom his passion separates from God, who follows his covetousness and what he loves, passes God by. Do you not see that He has commanded them to renew their pledge at every thought and every glance? For He said: “O you who believe, be firm in your faith in God…!” (Qur’an 4, 136)
al-Hasan ibn Salih al-Bahr
al-Hasan ibn Salih al-Bahr
It is said in a hadith that creation remained in darkness until God sent down upon it a downpour of His light. Those who received this light came out of the darkness of non-existence to reach existence, there to be nourished by the outpourings of His mercy.
Umm al-Banin: receiving good by doing it
Umm al-Banin
Is good received otherwise than by doing it?
Hasan al-Basri: a form of gratitude
Hasan al-Basri
Multiply the mention of God’s blessings, for their remembrance is a form of gratitude.
Hasan al-Basri
Hasan al-Basri
Make your fast of this world, make your breaking of the fast of death, and flee men as you would flee wild beasts.
Hasan al-Basri
Hasan al-Basri
What suffices a goat suffices the believer: a handful of dried dates and a gulp of water. The believer eats and the hypocrite rejoices. The believer eats because he knows he is on the road and has not reached home. He knows he will find there all he needs.
Hasan al-Basri
Hasan al-Basri
What a bad servant (of Allah)! I speak of a servant answering this description: he asks forgiveness while delighting in sin and acts of disobedience. He behaves in a humble and submissive way so as to appear loyal in the eyes of others, while in reality he feigns to conceal his perfidy. He forbids the blameworthy but does not abstain from doing it himself. He recommends what is good but does not conform to his own recommendations. If he gives, he does so grudgingly, and if he refuses to give, he does so without apology. If he is in excellent health, he feels at ease, but if he falls ill, he is full of remorse. If he is poor, he feels sad, and if he becomes rich, he is exposed to temptation. He hopes for salvation but does not act accordingly. He fears chastisement but does not seek to guard against it. He wishes to receive more blessings yet does not give thanks for what he has already received. He loves the idea of spiritual reward but does not hold himself to patience. He hurries to sleep and puts off his fasting until later.
Abu’l-Hasan al-Bushanji
Abu’l-Hasan al-Bushanji
Do nothing of which you could be ashamed before the two angels who keep you company and bear witness to your deeds.
Shaykh al-Buzidi: the other fingers point at you
Shaykh al-Buzidi
When you point your index finger at your brother to show the deed that displeased your poor brain, you see only the index finger; but the other fingers are pointing at you.
’Umar ibn al-Farid
’Umar ibn al-Farid
He whose hand has never known largesse becomes generous, and he who had no greatness of soul learns to restrain himself, even in anger.
’Umar ibn al-Farid
’Umar ibn al-Farid
If through negligence it happened that I thought of other than You, I would count myself among the renegades.
Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Farra
Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Farra
The believer must be for his brothers a torch by night and a cane by day.
Husayn Mansur al-Hallaj: what land so empty of You…
Husayn Mansur al-Hallaj
What land is so empty of You that they should rise up, seeking You in the heavens? And You see them, looking towards You in appearance, yet in their blindness they do not perceive You.
al-Hallaj
al-Hallaj
The one who, thirsting for God, takes reason for his guide is led by it to graze in a perplexity where it leaves him floundering. His states of consciousness wither there in ambiguity, and he says, perplexed: “Does He exist?”
al-Qasim al-Hariri
al-Qasim al-Hariri
Always excuse your brother and do not bring upon him the implacable judgement of one who does not understand desperate situations.
Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi
Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi
Let him multiply the acts that efface sins, let him ask God’s assistance, let him entrust himself to Him, let him journey in the measure of his weak forces: “and whoever walks on the path arrives” (’Umar al-Wardi).
Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi
Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi
Verily, the divine secret lies in the sincerity of the quest.
al-Junayd: more joy in giving than in receiving
al-Junayd
None of you has permission to take what is offered to him, except the one who feels more joy in giving than in receiving.
al-Junayd: patience…
al-Junayd
Patience is swallowing bitterness without grimacing.
Abu Sa’id al-Kharraz: fineness of character
Abu Sa’id al-Kharraz
Fineness of character… consists in setting aside all prejudice, in overcoming one’s ego through patience, in expecting nothing from others, in avoiding situations of disagreement, in concealing one’s poverty and showing abundance and dignity.
Shah al-Kirmani: looking with the eyes of the divine Being
Shah al-Kirmani
He who looks at human creatures with his own eyes is ever in dispute with them, but he who looks at them with the eyes of the divine Being finds excuses for them in what concerns them, and knows they can do only what has been determined for them from all eternity.
al-Majdhub: the people of destitution
al-Majdhub
O you who study the spiritual sciences: here the oceans submerge. They know it, the people of destitution, who stand before their Lord.
Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah al-Mursi: faith and fear
Ibn al-’Abbas al-Mursi
People have their affairs, and our affair is faith and the fear of God.
al-Mutanabbi: the sickness of love
al-Mutanabbi
The sickness of love entered into me like a poison mixed with honey. I delighted in it, and in that delight was death.
Abu Ya’qub al-Nahrajuri: negligence in divine remembrance
Abu Ya’qub al-Nahrajuri
The one whom God has taken charge of guiding is recognised by this: he realises his negligence in divine remembrance, his lack of loyalty and sincerity, and he is never satisfied with his state. He goes towards God with an ever greater spiritual destitution, until he turns away from every other object of desire.
’Abd al-Razzaq al-Qashani: the ocean of matter
’Abd al-Razzaq al-Qashani
On Noah’s Ark: it is conceivable to interpret the Ark esoterically as Noah’s revealed Law, which saved him and those of his people who believed in him… The Flood would be the dominion of the ocean of matter and the death of those who had not divested themselves of it by following a prophet and purifying their souls…
Abu’l-Qasim al-Qushayri: we absolutely need God
Abu’l-Qasim al-Qushayri
A disciple said one day to Abu’l-Qasim al-Qushayri: “O master, and food?” He answered: “God.” The disciple insisted: “We absolutely need food,” whereupon Abu’l-Qasim al-Qushayri answered: “We absolutely need God.”
Yahya ibn Mu’adh al-Razi: minding the service of God
Yahya ibn Mu’adh al-Razi
The more you mind the service of God, the more creatures will mind your service.
Yahya ibn Mu’adh al-Razi: God’s faithful one is like a sprig of basil
Yahya ibn Mu’adh al-Razi
God’s faithful one is like a sprig of basil exhaling a pleasant scent. The righteous breathe it in. Its perfume penetrates their hearts and inspires in them a burning desire to meet their Lord. They render their Lord a still more intense worship, upon beholding that faithful one.
’Ubada ibn al-Samit: as though it were your last prayer
’Ubada ibn al-Samit
True wealth consists in hoping for nothing of what men possess. Beware of cupidity and beggary, for they are poverty itself! As for the prayer, accomplish it like someone on the point of leaving this world.
Sari al-Saqati
Sari al-Saqati
He who forgives when he could have avenged himself is in turn forgiven by God in His omnipotence.
Shaykh ’Abd al-Khaliq al-Shabrawi
Shaykh ’Abd al-Khaliq al-Shabrawi
The Prophet (pbuh) said: prayer is the “marrow” of worship. The marrow of a thing is its essence. Prayer is the marrow because the one who supplicates renounces attributing to himself any power or capacity whatsoever, and acknowledges that everything belongs to God and to Him alone. A prayer of the Prophet (according to Ibn al-’Abbas): My God, I ask You for the mercy that comes from You: by it You will guide my heart; what is scattered in me, You will gather; what is disordered in me, You will set in order; by it You will repel my rebellions, rectify my religion, preserve what is hidden in me, raise up what must be manifested, purify my work, illumine my face, inspire my conduct, and protect me from all evil.
al-Shadhili: only addressing your Master
Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili
When you invoke God, let your care be not that your request be granted, but only that you address your Master.
Shaykh al-Shadhili: the man who did not want to see God’s mercy on earth
Shaykh al-Shadhili
A man came to see Shaykh al-Shadhili to complain of the very numerous sins of one of his neighbours. The shaykh said to him: “You are evidently someone who does not like to see sin on earth, are you not? Well then, know that he who cannot bear to see men commit faults does not accept either to see Allah’s mercy exercised, and he will not bear the Prophet’s intercession on the Day of Judgement.”
Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili: a servant full of gratitude
Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili
Finding myself one day in a cave, said Shaykh Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili, I addressed God thus: “My God, when shall I be a servant full of gratitude towards You (’abd shakur)?” The answer came: “When you consider that you are the only one to enjoy the divine blessings.” “My God,” I said, “how could I perceive myself as the only being on whom You bestow Your blessings, when the prophets, the scholars in religious matters and the kings have received them before?” I received this answer: “Without the prophets you would have had no spiritual model; without the scholars you could not have made your life conform to the divine Law; without the kings you would not be safe. All those beings therefore constitute My blessing for you.”
Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili
Abu’l-Hasan al-Shadhili
One night I saw the Prophet (pbuh) in a dream. He said to me: “O ’Ali, purify your garment of its impurities and you will obtain divine support with every one of your breaths.” I said to him: “What garment is that, O messenger of God?” “God,” he answered me, “has clothed you in the adornments of faith, knowledge, love and the acknowledgment of the divine oneness.” It was then that I understood the meaning of the verse: “And thy garments, purify them” (Qur’an 74, 4).
Imam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti
Imam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti
Sufism, by its very essence, is a noble science. It consists in applying the Sunna, forsaking innovations, disavowing the ego, its habits, its vile interests, its leanings and its personal choices, so as to entrust oneself to Allah, being satisfied with His Will, seeking His Love and seeing that all else is vain.
Abu Bakr al-Farisi al-Tamastani
Abu Bakr al-Farisi al-Tamastani
The best of men is he who sees the good in others and knows that the ways leading to God are many and different from the one he follows. Thus it is that he considers the imperfections within himself, without seeing those of others or their shortcomings.
Abu Bakr al-Warraq: covetousness and doubt towards providence
Abu Bakr al-Warraq
If covetousness were asked: “Who is your father?” it would answer: “Doubt towards Providence.” If it were asked its function, it would answer: “to lead to baseness.” And if it were asked its aim, it would answer: “deprivation.”
Ansari: all are nothingness except Him
Ansari
All that is not Him is caught between a yesterday that is no more, a today that is vanishing and a tomorrow that is not yet. All are nothingness except Him, unless they be through Him. All Being is Him: the rains that reach the ocean are lost in it; the star disappears in the light of day; the one who reaches the Lord is annihilated in himself.
Ansari
Ansari
Nothing comes from anyone for You. Nothing comes from You for anyone. Everything comes from You for You. You are all, and that is all.
Ansari
Ansari
Manliness has three foundations: living with intelligence towards oneself, with patience towards people and in indigence towards God. Intelligence towards oneself is knowing what one is worth, seeing the measure of what one does and striving to improve. Patience towards people is being satisfied with them according to their capacities, finding excuses for them and rendering them justice as far as possible. Indigence towards God consists in seeing that everything coming from Him demands gratitude, that everything you do in His service demands apology, and that what comes to you from His choice is just.
Abu Zayd ’Abd al-Rahman: whence do you come…
Abu Zayd ’Abd al-Rahman
Whence do you come, O you endowed with spirit, ablaze with love, spiritually, motionless in the unfolding of your glory, sovereign in all your states?
Imam al-Rifa’i
Imam al-Rifa’i
The shaykh is the one who attaches you to the Book and the Sunna.
Shaykh Arslan
Shaykh Arslan
You do not suit Us as a friend so long as you pay attention to other than Us.
Shaykh Dawud al-Ta’i
Shaykh Dawud al-Ta’i
Conduct yourself in this world like a man who fasts, and consider your last day as the feast of the breaking of the fast.
’Attar: al-Hallaj’s dogs of the nafs
’Attar
A shaykh set out one day to meet Mansur al-Hallaj, who was dressed in black and accompanied by two dogs. He invited him to eat and yielded his place to him. Mansur al-Hallaj seated his two dogs and shared his bread with them. When he left, the disciples criticised the shaykh. He answered them: “Your own dogs are inside you and it is you who follow them. He keeps his on a leash and it is they who follow him.” In fact, they were the dogs of his nafs (ego).
’Attar: profess to see with purity
’Attar
A dead dog lay on a path, mouth open. A stench emanated from it. Jesus, son of Mary, passing by, said to his companions: “This dog is His. Look at the whiteness of its teeth.” He perceived neither the ugliness nor the foul smell. He saw only the qualities. Profess to see with purity, if you are His servant; to have a pure gaze, if you are the slave of Him who sees all… Choose goodness and beneficence, compassion and faithfulness. If you know God, be devoted, thank Him for His blessings. Do not forget that, for months and years, you have fed on the divine manna.
’Attar: avoid saying “I”
’Attar
God said to His friend: “Do you want to know the secret? Ask Satan then.” The man met the Devil and questioned him on that secret. “Remember only this,” Satan told him: “if you do not want to become like me, avoid saying ‘I’.”
Farid al-Din ’Attar
Farid al-Din ’Attar
If you strive at every instant to reach the Presence, you will deserve the robe of honour and you will hear this call: “Prostrate thyself and draw near” (Qur’an 96, 19).
Bayhaqi
Bayhaqi
He who loves God could not need anything other than God.
Tierno Bokar: He escapes all definition
Tierno Bokar
God is the embarrassment of intelligences, for whatever you conceive in your thought and materialise in your speech as being God thereby ceases to be God, becoming no more than your own manner of conceiving Him. He escapes all definition.
Tierno Bokar: theologies without charity in the heart
Tierno Bokar
A man who learnt by heart all the theologies of all the denominations, if he does not have charity in his heart, may count his knowledge as worthless baggage. No one will enjoy the divine encounter who has no charity in his heart. Without it, the five prayers are insignificant gesticulations. Without it, the pilgrimage is a profitless stroll.
Tierno Bokar: to love what resembles us is to love ourselves
Tierno Bokar
God is love and power. The creation of beings proceeds from His love, not from any constraint. To detest what is produced by the divine Will acting through love is to run counter to the divine Will and to contest His wisdom. To exclude a being from the primordial Love is to show capital ignorance. Life and perfection are contained within the divine love, which manifests as radiant Force, as creative Word animating the living Void. From this living Void He brought forth forms which He apportioned into kingdoms. Let our love not be centred on ourselves! Let it not impel us to love only what resembles us and to espouse only ideas like our own. To love only what resembles us is to love ourselves; it is not to love!
Tierno Bokar: if we emit only good thoughts
Tierno Bokar
If we emit only good thoughts, no evil, no curse can ever reach us in our being. That is why we must always bless, friends and enemies alike. Not only does the blessing go towards its object to accomplish its mission of appeasement there, but it also comes back to us, sooner or later, with all the good it was laden with. That is what the Sufis call “the desirable selfishness”. It is the valid love of Self, bound to respect for oneself and one’s neighbour, for every man, good or bad, is the depository of a parcel of the divine light. That is why the Sufis, in accordance with the Prophet’s teaching, will not soil their mouth or their being with bad words or bad thoughts, even seemingly benign criticism.
Tierno Bokar
Tierno Bokar
A merchant who out of greed refuses a penny to the one who financed his beginnings may be held an example of moral ugliness. But how much greater is the ugliness of the man who refuses his worship to God, from whom he received the very principle of life, source and consummation of Love! To God belongs all that is in the heavens and on the earth. Can one refuse a part to Him who created and gave the whole? Surely not; yet that is what the stray do, in the meanders of earthly life.
Tierno Bokar
Tierno Bokar
Evil must be fought with the weapons of good and of love. When love destroys an evil, that evil is killed forever. Brute force only provisionally buries the evil it wants to fight and destroy. Now evil is a tenacious seed. Once buried, it develops in secret, germinates and reappears more vigorous still.
Buhayra al-’Abida: forsaking desires
Buhayra al-’Abida
If the heart learns to forsake desires, it becomes a familiar of Knowledge and follows it in all places, bearing whatever befalls it.
Chishti: hearing the complaints of the afflicted
Chishti
Prayer consists in hearing the complaints of the afflicted and bringing them relief; in helping the needy and the oppressed; in feeding the hungry and bringing captives out of their captivity.
A tale: my donkey is lost
A tale
Joha arrives in the market square and cries: “Praise be to God! Praise be to God! My donkey is lost. Praise be to God!” A passer-by comes up and remarks to him: “You ought to complain, rather!” Joha retorts: “Praise be to God! Had I stayed on it, I too would be lost.”
A tale: those nearest to the master
A tale
A master one day asked a courtier who had come to visit him: “At court, who stands nearest the Monarch?” “The grandees of the kingdom, in strict order of precedence! The small fry have no chance of approaching him or speaking to him.” “Here,” the shaykh told him, “it is quite the opposite. The nearest are the weakest and those most in need of learning. Far away, over there, you will find those for whom it is all the same whether they hear my words or not.”
Jami
Jami
You desire, through mysticism, to escape yourself. You must expel desire and passion from your head, give what your hand retains, and bear the wound of a hundred trials without moving from your place.
Shaykh al-’Alawi: knowing whether God’s mercy is in you
Shaykh al-’Alawi
The question is not whether you are in God’s mercy, but rather whether God’s mercy is in you.
Shaykh Ahmad al-’Alawi: the community of true believers
Shaykh Ahmad al-’Alawi
…Oblige yourself to consider your brothers, the Sufis, as members of the community of true believers, every one of whose persons we are bound to respect. The Prophet said: “Whoever prays according to our prayer, turns towards our orientation and eats of our sacrificed foods is a Muslim; he is under the protection of a pact between God and His messenger. Do not therefore be the cause of the violation of God’s pact” (hadith, Bukhari).
Shaykh Ahmad al-’Alawi: contraction and unfolding
Shaykh Ahmad al-’Alawi
“God is He who contracts and who unfolds” (Qur’an 2, 245). Because the gnostic is with Him who contracts, not in the contraction itself, and with Him who unfolds, not in the unfolding itself, he is more active than passive, and it is as though nothing happened to him… That very thing which for others would be the fire of hell will become for you a paradise, since the hand of mercy, grace and solicitude rocks you to and fro, taking care that you know no suffering and lack nothing… Be turned towards God, welcoming with satisfaction all that comes to you from Him. Concern yourself with nothing, but let everything concern itself with you. For your part, busy yourself with proclaiming the Infinite by saying “There is no God but God”, thereby wholly freed from all things, until you come to be the same in one state or the other, until you are at Safa as you are at Marwa, and until Perfection (kamal), which is beatitude at once in majesty and in beauty, is your attribute.
Sidi Ya’qut al-’Arshi
Sidi Ya’qut al-’Arshi
He is only what He has willed. Forsake your torments then, and relax; forsake those affairs that busy you, and rest.
al-Busiri
al-Busiri
Do the opposite of what your ego and Satan suggest to you. Disobey them. If you think they counsel you well, accuse them all the same.
Emir ’Abd al-Qadir: if a ray of sunlight
Emir ’Abd al-Qadir
If a ray of sunlight passes through a skylight and is cast upon the wall, you may say that the sun is reflected on the wall. And yet, what is there in common between the sun and the reflection of one of its rays?
Emir ’Abd al-Qadir: when he gives alms
Emir ’Abd al-Qadir
When he gives alms, he sees that the One who gives is God, and that the One who receives is God too, as it is said in the verse: “Do they not know that it is Allah Himself who accepts the repentance of His servants and who takes the alms?” (Qur’an 9, 104)
Emir ’Abd al-Qadir: do you claim to love Me…
Emir ’Abd al-Qadir
God said to one of His servants: “Do you claim to love Me? If so, know that your love for Me is only a consequence of My love for you. You love the One who is. But I loved you when you were not!” He then said to him: “Do you claim that you seek to approach Me? But I seek you far more than you seek Me! I sought you so that you might be in My presence, with no intermediary, on the Day when I said: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ (Qur’an 7, 172), when you were but a spirit (ruh). Then you forgot Me, and I sought you again, sending My messengers towards you once you had a body. All that was love of you, for you, and not for Me.”
Emir ’Abd al-Qadir: is not everything apart from Allah illusion?
Emir ’Abd al-Qadir
The most truthful word a poet ever uttered is this: “Is not everything, apart from Allah, illusion?” What is illusion is sheer nothingness, and if being is attributed to something other than the divine Reality (al-Haqq), it is in a metaphorical manner, for it is only an imaginary existence. Being properly belongs to Him alone, exalted be He, and it is legitimate to deny it to all that is not Him, as is the rule whenever purely metaphorical relations are concerned.
Hamza Fansuri: prayer and mystical knowledge, ma’rifa
Hamza Fansuri
Know that the Prophet (pbuh) said: “Al-ma’rifa sirri”, that is: (mystical) knowledge is My secret. The messenger of God also said: “La tasihhu al-salatu illa bi’l-ma’rifa”: the prayer is only valid with knowledge.
Fatima of Nishapur: maintaining the constant remembrance of God
Fatima of Nishapur
He who constantly maintains within himself the remembrance of God (dhikr), Allah renders him mute as to all that is not the truth. He obliges him to remain decent in his conduct and to cultivate purity of intention within himself.
Fatima al-Naysaburiyya: talking wildly
Fatima al-Naysaburiyya
He who does not consider God in everything falls from grace and talks at random.
Hafiz
Hafiz
No mortal has ever been able to see You, yet a thousand lovers desire You; there is no nightingale that does not know that in the bud sleeps the rose.
Hafiz: do not give your heart to this world
Hafiz
Do not give your heart to this world and its goods: of its faithfulness no one ever saw anything; no one ate its honey without suffering its sting; and in that orchard no one can pick the dates without suffering the thorns; and every torch lit in this world was put out by the wind as soon as it shone. He who carelessly gives his heart to the world feeds his enemy. Have you truly seen that?
Hamdun
Hamdun
For a creature to implore the help of another creature is to act like a prisoner calling another prisoner for help.
Hujwiri: try to come to me through the heart
Hujwiri
One day I went to see a great shaykh named Bab al-’Amm (the gate to the invisible world). He asked me: “Why this visit?” “I wanted to see the shaykh with my eyes and receive his blessing,” I told him. He looked at me with a smile and said: “I have seen you since such-and-such a day.” It was exactly the day of my repentance. He went on: “I shall see you as long as you are on this path. Know that travelling and suppressing distance is child’s play; try to come to me through the heart, and you will find infinitely more there than in the bodily presence of the shaykhs.”
Hujwiri: incapable of spending a few hours adoring my Lord
Hujwiri
A drunken man made his way by night to the dwelling of his beloved. He climbed on his friend’s shoulders and began to contemplate her. He was so wonderstruck by her beauty and by the love he felt for her that he did not see the night go by. When the call to prayer came, he thought it was the night prayer, whereas it was the prayer of dawn. That was the beginning of his repentance. “How,” he asked himself, “can I spend a night marvelling at a human being, to the point of not seeing time pass? And why am I incapable of spending a few hours adoring my Lord?”
Hujwiri: silence is better than speech
Hujwiri
One day Abu Bakr al-Shibli, walking through the streets of Baghdad, heard an impostor declare: “Silence is better than speech.” Shibli retorted: “Your silence is better than your speech, but my speech is better than my silence, because your speech is vanity and your silence a vain pleasantry, whereas my silence is modesty and my speech silence.”
Sahl ibn ’Abdallah
Sahl ibn ’Abdallah
A man would be worthless to God if he continued to fret over his subsistence when he has received a divine guarantee on that score.
Ibn ’Arabi: he whose tongue falls silent
Ibn ’Arabi
He whose tongue falls silent, even if his heart does not, lightens his burden; he whose tongue and heart both fall silent purifies his “secret centre” (sirr), and his Lord reveals Himself there; he whose heart falls silent but whose mouth speaks utters the words of Wisdom; but he of whom neither tongue nor heart falls silent is the object of Satan and subject to his dominion.
Ibn ’Arabi: the perfume of truth
Ibn ’Arabi
The scarab cannot bear the perfume of the rose, though it is one of the finest; but for the scarab it is foul. Likewise, every man who has the temperament of the scarab, mentally and formally, cannot bear the truth when he hears it…
Ibn ’Arabi: perform your ablutions with the water of mystery
Ibn ’Arabi
Perform your ablutions with the water of mystery if you are a man of the secret, or else content yourself with sand and stones.
Yusuf ibn Asbat: like someone who will have no salvation…
Yusuf ibn Asbat
Act like someone who will have no salvation save through his works alone, and entrust yourself to Allah like someone who will undergo only what was destined for him.
Ibn Mashish: the ocean of Unity
Ibn Mashish
Drown me, immerse me in the ocean of Unity, until I see, hear, feel and touch only through It.
’Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud: wealth or poverty
’Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud
I do not care about the conditions in which I may find myself, wealth or poverty. For poverty there is patience. For wealth there is thanksgiving.
’Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud: a guest whose goods are only borrowed
’Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud
Every morning, each man wakes up in this world like a guest whose goods are only borrowed. For the guest will pass on and the goods will be handed back.
’Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud: be content with what God has allotted you
’Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud
Be content with what God has allotted you, and you will be the richest of men. Avoid what God has forbidden you, and you will be the most pious of men. Acquit yourself of what God has imposed on you, and you will be the best servant among men.
Yahya ibn Mu’adh: the devil’s wine
Yahya ibn Mu’adh
This world is like the devil’s wine. He who gets drunk on it wakes only amid the dead, in regret, with the losers.
Muhammad ibn Munawwar: the scholar and Shaykh Abu Sa’id
Muhammad ibn Munawwar
Shaykh Abu Sa’id was preaching at Nishapur. A scholar was there. He said to himself: “I have seen none of these things the shaykh says in the seven parts of the Qur’an.” At that instant the shaykh turned to him and said: “What I say is found in the eighth part. The seventh is that which results from God’s demand (‘O Prophet, make known what has been revealed to thee by thy Lord’, Qur’an 5, 67)… and the eighth proceeds from what He added (‘He revealed to His servant what He had to reveal to him’, Qur’an 53, 10).” Shaykh Abu Sa’id went on: “Do you believe God’s speech is limited? What the Lord revealed to Muhammad is these seven parts of the Qur’an. What He reveals and will ever reveal will never cease. At every instant His servants will receive His messages, in accordance with what the messenger of God said: ‘Beware of the believers’ sagacity, for they observe by the light of God’ (hadith).”
Hadith, Ibn al-Najjar
Hadith, Ibn al-Najjar
Faith is not a vague appropriation or a mere adornment: it is what takes root in the heart and is confirmed by deed.
Isma’il ibn Nujayd
Isma’il ibn Nujayd
No one will attain to anything of their spiritual degree (the malamatis) so long as, in his own eyes, all his actions do not appear as hypocrisy and all his inner states as vain pretensions.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya: the dhikr… like water for the fish
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya
The remembrance of Allah (dhikr) is to the heart what water is to the fish. What would the fish’s state be out of water?
’Iraqi: intelligence is blind
’Iraqi
Omar Khayyam: this world is but an instant
Omar Khayyam
For the love of God, do not clothe yourself in the robe of hypocrisy. The future life is forever. This world is but an instant. Do not sell the kingdom of eternity for a second.
Majida: spending one’s time in futile games
Majida
Strange spirits, those of the inhabitants of this world! They find themselves in a house where each has received the warning to prepare for an imminent journey. And yet they keep on spending their time in futile games, as though the call were not addressed to them, as though the interests at stake were not theirs and concerned only persons foreign to their group.
Majida al-’Adawiyya al-Qurashiyya: preparing for the last rendezvous
Majida al-’Adawiyya al-Qurashiyya
The believers are too absorbed in the long preparation for the last rendezvous to concern themselves with anything else.
Khwaja Mir Dard
Khwaja Mir Dard
As long as my life lasts I shall be in search of You. As long as my life lasts, that shall be my quest.
Mu’adha of Basra: resist sleep
Mu’adha of Basra
Be patient, O my soul, resist sleep, for it will surely be your lot in the grave.
Abu’l-’Abbas al-Qassab
Abu’l-’Abbas al-Qassab
An overturned bowl is never filled. If you persist in turning your back on reality, happiness and unhappiness will slide over your heart like river water over pebbles. Yet man needs happiness and unhappiness to live in balance.
Rabi’a al-’Adawiyya: speaking of the goods of this world
Rabi’a al-’Adawiyya
The messenger of God said: he who loves something speaks of it constantly. To speak of the goods of this world, if only to blame their possession, shows that idleness still holds your hearts. You would not speak of them so often if you were drowned in other goods than those.
Rabi’a al-’Adawiyya: the true asking of forgiveness
Rabi’a al-’Adawiyya
When we ask God’s forgiveness for our faults, we must also pray Him to forgive us the lack of sincerity in the asking of forgiveness itself.
Abu ’Ali al-Rudbari
Abu ’Ali al-Rudbari
No prison, for the sighing lover, is more unbearable than the company of those who are not like him.
Ruqayya of Mosul: eternal salvation and canonical commentaries
Ruqayya of Mosul
O jurists, exercise your talents as commentators of the religious Law on the rites that procure eternal salvation, not on the canonical way of mounting a mule or a young she-camel!
Sayyid Sultan: learn to be truly humble
Sayyid Sultan
If you pray and feel contentment with it, your prayer has made you worse. In that case, stop praying until you have learnt to be truly humble.
Shabistari
Shabistari
Your existence is nothing but brambles and weeds. Cast all that far from you. Go sweep the chamber of your heart; prepare it to become the dwelling of the Beloved. When you come out of it, He will enter. In you, emptied of yourself, He will manifest His beauty.
al-Shibli: what is false
al-Shibli
He said one day to one of his disciples: “Do you know what is false in your effort to unite yourself to God?” “No, master!” “You take care only to call Him to you.”
al-Shibli: fear and the opening of wisdom
al-Shibli
Every day I have feared Allah. Every day His fear has given me a glimpse, on His part, of an opening of wisdom and teaching.
Shaykh al-Tadili: your brother… the one who harms himself to serve you
Shaykh al-Tadili
Your true brother is the one who is with you, the one who harms himself to be of use to you, the one who, when the vicissitudes of time assail you, scatters himself to gather you.
Abu Ya’qub al-Susi: pure action is that which is known neither…
Abu Ya’qub al-Susi
Of all works, the pure action (khalis) is the one known neither to the angel who would then be charged with recording it, nor to the adversary who would corrupt it, nor to the soul that would take pride in it.
Yunus Emre
Yunus Emre
You will not be built until you are in ruins.
Yunus Emre
Yunus Emre
O friends, hear me. Love is like the sun, and the heart without love is like a black stone… What can grow from a heart of stone? …At the gate of our King, in the service of our Lord, the stars of the lovers stand like sentinels.
Shaykh al-Zarruq: the eye of the heart is like the eye, the least dust…
Shaykh al-Zarruq
Shaykh al-Shadhili used to say that the eye of the heart is like the eye: the least dust that falls into it prevents it from seeing, even if it does not make it blind. There is a peril in what blurs the sight and makes thoughts turbid. To desire them removes all the good…
Zayn al-’Abidin: wake me from the sleep of the heedless
’Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn ’Ali ibn Abi Talib
Wake me from the sleep of the heedless, from the peaceful slumber of the prodigal, and from the drowsiness of the one who has given up. Carry my heart towards that by which You busy the pious, impassion the worshippers and save the negligent. Give me refuge against what holds me far from You, what comes between me and my share of You, and what bars my path to reaching that towards which I strive in You!
Zayn al-’Abidin: to reach Your proximity
’Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn ’Ali ibn Abi Talib
Tear from my heart the roots of the love of this lower world, which removes me from all that is with You, hampers the search for meditation towards You, and distracts from the effort to reach Your proximity!
Zayn al-’Abidin: solitude in prayer
’Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn ’Ali ibn Abi Talib
Embellish for me the solitude in the prayer I murmur to You, night and day!
Zayn al-’Abidin: O most Merciful of the merciful
’Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn ’Ali ibn Abi Talib
Concerning the complaints of Your servants against me, I ask You this: if there is a single servant among Your servants, or a single handmaid among Your handmaids, who has cause to complain of me because I have harmed his person, his reputation, his goods, his spouse or his child, because I spoke ill of him or her in his absence, because I wronged him through partiality, caprice, contempt, anger, hypocrisy or fanaticism, in his absence or his presence, in his lifetime or after his death, in such a way that my hand could not and my capacities failed to make him reparation and so free me in his regard…