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...

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

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.

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...

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaEmotionalist:A man or woman who thinks he has experienced the divine.

There can be no spirituality, according to the Sufi masters, without psychology, psychological insight and sociological balance.

A Sufi is alive to the value of time, and is given, every moment, to what that moment demands.

Learning how to learn involves examining assumptions. Mulla Nasrudin tales very often fulfil this funcition.

Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.

Angels are the powers hidden in the faculties and organs of man

Sandals. The Sufi teacher Ghulam-Shah was asked what pattern he used in formulating his courses for disciples. He said: ‘Barefoot until you can get sandals, sandals until you can manage boots.

Now that I have found thee, I know that in the first step I took, I moved away from thee.

find” him, for then his inner call is audible to me, even if it is silent to him.’ ‘Seek and you will be found.

God said to him [Eblis], ‘You have become proud.’ He replied, ‘If I had been with you but a moment my pride would have been justified; I have been with you for centuries.

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.

Saying of the ProphetAngerYou ask for a piece of advice. I tell you: ‘Do not get angry.’ He is strong who can withhold anger.

That which is capable of perceiving objective reality is, in Sufism, the human soul (ruh).

One of the great Sufis said: ‘A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one.

Why did I do such-and-such a thing?’ is all very well. But what about ‘How otherwise could I have done it?

Sufism is known by means of itself.

Sufi secrets are perceived, not understood by words.

You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel.(Gulistan)

That which is given free is never knowledge. It may be information….but knowledge does not come in that manner.

It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.

I am a lover, and I deal in love. Sow flowers,So your surroundings become a garden.Don’t sow thorns; for they will prick your feet.We are all one body,Whoever tortures another, wounds himself.

No colour comes after black.

THE BIRD AND THE WATERA bird which has not heard of fresh waterDips his beak in salt-water year after year.(Anwar-i-Suhaili)

Saying of the ProphetLoveDo you think you love your Creator? Love your fellow-creature first.

If you have no troubles – buy a goat.

When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge.

Do not try to be humble: learn humility.

Saying of the ProphetSleepSleep is the brother of death.