Dye your hair, certainly. But what can you do for your face?

Truth has no form.

The would-be students wish to transcend books.But, ask yourselves: if someone says that books do not contain wisdom, and yet he writes books; books do not contain Sufism, and yet he continues to publish books...

Similitude of the heart is like that of a telephone operator between man and God.

Soar on to the King, the crown jewel,And then you’ll truly seeThat nothing is as beautifulAs His grand Majesty.

Even if false gold makes a man happy:At the mint it will be identified.

Saying of the ProphetWomenWomen are the twin-halves of men.

…most systems end up by making imagined humility into a form of vanity, so they end up with vanity just the same.

The institution of teachership is there for this reason, that the learner must learn how to learn.

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.

Saying of the ProphetAccusationsAnyone reviling a brother for a sin will not himself die before committing it.

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

To Him who has sense, a sign is enoughFor the heedless, however, a thousand expositions are not enough.

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

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...

A wise teacher is a keen and true student of absolute beauty and truth, and he searches everywhere for them in nature with all his heart

Selfishness keeps man blind through life.

Three ThingsThree things cannot be retrieved:The arrow once sped from the bowThe word spoken in hasteThe missed opportunity.(Ali the Lion, Caliph of Islam, son-in-law of Mohammed the Prophet),

They asked Abboud of Omdurman: ‘Which is better, to be young or to be old?’ He said: ‘To be old is to have less time before you and more mistakes behind. I leave you to...

Patience is the food of understanding.

HE is a Master who may teach without it being totally labelled teaching; HE is a student who can learn without being obsessed by learning.

It is a Sufi contention that truth is not discovered or maintained by the mere repetition of teachings. It can only be kept understood by the perpetual experience of it. And it is in the...

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

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...

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...

Soudain, il me sembla que le ciel descendait. De la terre, surgit comme une fontaine d’énergie dorée. Cette chaude énergie m’encercla, et mon corps et mon esprit devinrent très légers et très clairs. Je pouvais...

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaTruthful man:He who is, secretly, regarded by everyone as an enemy.

Saying of the ProphetPracticeWho are the learned? Those who put into practice what they know.

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

Laziness is always your fault. It is the sign that a man has persevered in uselessness for too long.

…action is in fact knowledge in operation. Right action stems from right knowledge. Right knowledge is acquired through the teacher.

Neither imagine that you are false, nor lash yourself, for both may be forms of self-indulgence.

You may have forgotten the Way: But those who came beforeDid not forget you.Saying of Master Bahaudin Naqshband of Bokhara

What do I sing, and what does my tambourine sing?

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

A great deal of thought is only a substitute for the thoughts that the individual would really find useful at the time.

A worshipper perceives that he is near to God because he is awake all night worshipping God. But after worship, your prayers are for health, long life, wealth, and for the damsels and slaves of...

Here we may observe fully developed the doctrine of passing away in God (fanā) which from Abū Yazīd’s time onwards assumes a central position in the structure of Sufi theory. It was after all not...

Opportunity’s precious, and time is a sword.

Saying of the ProphetPrivacyWhoever invades people´s privacy corrupts them.

In the realm of Greater Understanding, the workshop is dismantled after the work is finished.

RemedyYour medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it.Hazrat Ali

Never follow any impulse to teach, however strong it might be. The command to teach is not felt as an impulsion.

Saying of the ProphetDeathDie before your death.

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’.

Continuously, in commemoration of the FriendWe drank wine, even before the creation of the vine.

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

To drown in treacle is just as unpleasant as to drown in mud.People today are in danger of drowning in information; but because they have been taught information is useful, they are more willing to...

Politics is the application of Sufism to earthlife…To refuse to act politically is to starve your children, destroy civilization.

I’m born with wild horses in my head..With an imagination to conquer this world..I will not settle for comforts of a golden cage.