Sayings of Sultan Valad: Sufi quotations
Contents
Sultan Valad (1226-1312), Rumi’s son, gathered his father’s teaching and organised the Mevlevi order. His Ibtida-name and Intiha-name are major sources on Anatolian Sufism.
Sultan Valad: patience and the plenitude of faith
Learn the meaning of this secret that God revealed in the Qur’an: whether He makes you unhappy or happy, sad or full of hope, whether you lose your goods or suffer troubles of a spiritual order, whatever else heaven sends you, be patient, so that thousands of divine graces may reach you. He who patiently endures the pain that comes from God will obtain the plenitude of faith. The Qur’an announces glad tidings for those who are patient, for afterwards they will obtain a great joy. They must perceive grace even in the divine wrath, and think of Him with serenity, attaching themselves to Him with all their heart and all their soul. God is absolute mercy, and no misfortune can come from Him.
Sultan Valad: you are asleep, wake up
Consider the false trails and understand: you are asleep, wake up. The joys and sorrows of this world are like a dream. They resemble the mirage one mistakes for water.
Sultan Valad: the body is but a cage for the bird of the soul
God has given you the means to do charitable deeds and to advance on His way. Consider the nature of men, not their appearance. The body is but a cage for the bird of the soul. If a sack is filled with wheat or gold, what matters is not the sack but what is inside it. In this fleeting world, the body is borrowed for a few days. Think of God, not of the affairs of this world. Nothing abides but God. Blessed the soul that unceasingly calls upon His name.
Sultan Valad
Words and discussions are a veil on the path of love. They are useless. Speech attests the resistance of individuality.
Sultan Valad
If you understand that you are without power and that there is none other than God’s, then you will benefit from the divine power. If you sacrifice your body, you will gain your soul… God granted you existence so that you might annihilate yourself and your individuality dwindle until it is nothing. Humble yourself and make a nothingness of yourself. Set out towards God; do not remain in yourself.
Sultan Valad
The shaykh purifies you… It is impossible to learn a trade all by oneself. A candle is lit on contact with the flame of another candle. If it does not draw near it, it will remain unlit.
Sultan Valad
Whatever of your life you spend without dedicating it to God, on the Day of Resurrection you will know that you lost it, whereas you will reap the fruit of your submission.
Sultan Valad
The unbelievers are like drops fallen into the earth, the believers like drops of water in the sea. The latter are united with their origin; the others are imprisoned in the earthly silt. The outward is perishable. The inward is eternal.