If you are covetous, you are a prisoner: If you are greedy, you will never be filled.

Saying of the Mulla Nasrudin. If I survive this life without dying, I’ll be surprised.

La raison qui m’a conduit à proférer de la poésie (shi‘r) est que j’ai vu en songe un ange qui m’apportait un morceau de lumière blanche ; on eût dit qu’il provenait du soleil. « Qu’est-ce que...

Saying of the Prophet.Lies, promises, trustHe is not of mine who lies, breaks a promise or fails in his trust.

The Sufis,’ runs the saying, ‘understand with their hearts what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds

orders” are in fact only of archaeological interest.

There is a succession of experiences which together constitute the educational and developmental ripening of the learner, according to the Sufis. People who think that each gain is the goal itself will freeze at any...

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

With enough information, it is almost impossible “not” to predict people’s action.

The impatient man is his own enemy; he slams the door on his own progress.

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

If a pot can multiply. One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbour, who was giving a feast. The neighbour returned them, together with one extra one – a very tiny pot. ‘What...

Eblis said, “No man who thinks ill, will hear the truth despite a hundred signs.When one who fantasises is presented with reason his fantasies increase.When one talks to such a person, their words become the...

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaWisdom: Something you can learn without knowing it.

Day and NightThe night is long: do not shorten it by sleep. The day is fair: do not darken it with wrongdoing.

From the beginning, from the age of Adam to the time of kingship: from the powerful, pardon: from the poor, sins.

Show a man too many camels’ bones,or show them to him too often,and he will not be able to recognize a camel when he comes across a live one.

All approaches to a study or an individual may start with a desire for attention. However they start, they must never end up in this manner.

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

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

Eat what you desire, but dress like other people.

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

One lie will keep out forty truths

One day Lal shahbaz was wandering in the desert with his friend Sheikh Bhaa ud-Din Zakariya. It was winter, and evening time, so they began to build a fire to keep warm. They found some...

The first lesson to learn is to resign oneself to the little difficulties in life, not to hit out at everything one comes up against. If one were able to manage this one would not...

Saying of the ProphetThe BequestI have nothing to leave you except my family.

Saying of the ProphetReflectionThe Faithful are mirrors, one to the other.

People who cannot trust are themselves not trustworthy, and therefore cannot be entrusted with important things.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaIntellectual: One who knows no craft.

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

Form is useful, but it is secondary.

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.

No surgeon can treat the wounds of the tongue.

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...

My life is on loan, like money borrowed from a bank. God is the lender, and He retains the right to call in the loan any time. Though I am responsible for taking care of...

No soul in the world is without a particular mission to perform and accomplish, and the misery of every soul is in not having come to understanding of the purpose for which he is born....

From my insufficiency to my perfection, and from my deviation to my equilibriumFrom my sublimity to my beauty, and from my splendor to my majestyFrom my scattering to my gathering, and from my rejection to...

Saying of the ProphetSome behaviourI am like a man who has lighted a fire, and all the creeping things have rushed to burn themselves in it.

When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what ‘belief’ is really for.

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

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.

The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.

A book, for the Sufis, is an instrument as much as it is something to give information….The key is the teacher.

The major barrier to understanding is wishful thinking and following that which pleases one.

Sufism is, in operation, pragmatic.

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...

you are a volume in the divine booka mirror to the power that created the universewhatever you want, ask it of yourselfwhatever you’re looking for can only be foundinside of you

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaDrugs: Source of the mystical experience of the ignorant.

Saying of the ProphetHumilityHumility and courtesy are themselves a part of piety.

Forms are vehicles and instruments, and vehicles and instruments cannot be called good or bad without context.