One cannot learn from someone whom one distrusts.

The Apparent is the Bridge to the Real

Better to quarrel with a friend than to support enemies.

If you have two shirts, sell one and with the money buy a flower’.

Sufism, the “secret tradition,” is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.

Truth is one, unique, single; it isindivisibly One.And its Oneness, and the knowledge ofthat oneness belongs to him; isplaced in him.Impossible, impossible; it is aloofness,estrangement, separation; he is known onlyby them.Knowledge of One is abstract;...

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaAdherent:Someone who will believe anything except what he should.

Saying of the ProphetStruggleThe holy warrior is he who struggles with himself.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaBribeSubstitute for law, which is a substitute for justice.

There is a saying that, according to what a person’s mentality is, even an angel may seem to him to have a devil’s face.

You have come a long way, and you do not know it. You have a long way to do, and you do know what that means.

Sufism is therefore not ‘Do as I say and not as I do’, or even ‘Do as I do’, but ‘Experience it and you will know’.

The donkey which brought you to this door must be dismissed if you want to get through it’.

EPITAPH OF JALALUDIN RUMIWhen we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.

Sufism, in one definition, “is” human life.

The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.

Islam and Sufism are one. Teaching that to understand Islam one must be a lover, how can one understand Islam when the heart is empty of love.

To understand the extreme lengths to which the Sufis were prepared to go in reading esoteric meanings into the quite simple language of their Scriptures, it is necessary to remember that the Koran was committed...

THE HEAVENSTo the mallet of the Highest MindThe heavens are the smallest possible ball.(Akhlaq-i-Mohsini)

DistribuzioneE’ Dio che dà, io sono solo un distributore.

Poor greedy one, wherever he runs He’s after food, and death is after him.(Saadi)

The stupidest man I ever met had a favourite saying. It was: ‘What do you think I am, stupid, or something?

If you seek a teacher, try to become a real student. If you want to be a student, try to find a real teacher.

Saying of the ProphetObjectsIt is your attachment to objects which make you blind and deaf.

Only the search for truth is valid, the desire for wisdom the motive. The method is assimilation, not study.

Sufism is always systematised only for limited or transitory periods: because Sufism is primarly instrumental, not for enjoyment or display.

WisdomSufian said: ‘The wisdom which is invisible but which sustains is a hundred times better than the appearance of wisdom, for that has itself to be sustained.

Books”—which it merely restores. The Kaaba, center of the Muslim world, becomes space as soon as one is inside the building: the ritual direction of prayer is then projected toward the four cardinal points.If Christianity...

An intelligent enemy,’ he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, ‘rather than a foolish friend.’ Or, ‘He learnt the language of pigeons, and forgot his own.’ Or, the favourite...

In the value-framework of his age the verbal expression of Hallaj’s ecstatic state existed as a totality, and the meaning of the expression rested on the biographical evidence and on the dimensions available within the...

Saying of the ProphetTHE PEOPLEIt is the people who are God’s family.(Muhammad the Prophet)

Premature independence is the daughter of conceit.

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

Better to be safe than to be sorry’ is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives.

The Sufis are unanimous that a Guide (Sheikh) is absolutely essential, though never available on demand: ‘the Sufis are not merchants’.

Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.

Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to entrust secrets.

Hazrat Ali, in a saying attributed to him, says: ‘Man is in disguise, covered by his tongue’.

A Better Beard that Yours. ‘All true devotees wear a beard,’ said the Imam to his audience. ‘Show me a thick and lustrous beard and I’ll show you a true believer!’ ‘My goat has a...

different from the traditional education in their various societies, and this by itself was enough to mark them out as a group” (Kwanashie 2002: 50). This new education enabled them to climb the social and...

Because sugar is not arsenic, many graves are full.

Saying of the ProphetInk and BloodThe ink of the learned is holier than the blood of the martyr.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaSupporter: Someone who will say anything.

When humility is exercised, people begin to realise that they do not, as it were, exist at all.

They say: ‘Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom.

There is a Persian proverb: ‘To test that which has been tested is ignorance.’ To try to test something without the means of testing is even worse.

You yourself are your own barrier – rise from within it.

If you cannot sit on a throne like a king, seize, like a tent-pitcher, the rope of the Royal tent.

When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial.

You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.