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“The Prophet's character was termed tremendous because his concern was for God alone.”
― Imam Junayd al-Baghdadi

“Saying of the Prophet
Practice
Who are the learned? Those who put into practice what they know.”
― Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams

“The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service”
― Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth: A Handbook

“Now that I have found thee, I know that in the first step I took, I moved away from thee.”
― Idries Shah

“The teaching must, of course, work with the best part of the individual, must be directed to his or her real capacity.”
― Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

“The source of my suffering and loneliness is deep in my heart. This is a disease no doctor can cure. Only Union with the Friend can cure it.”
― Rabia Basri

“Do not dwell upon whether you will put yourself into the hands of a teacher. You are always in his hands.”
― Idries Shah, Thinkers of the East

“Sufism is known by means of itself.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“A short time in the presence of the Friends (the Sufis) is better than a hundred years�� sincere, obedient dedication.”
― Idries Shah

“None should say: ‘I can trust,�� or ‘I cannot trust�� until he is master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.”
― Idries Shah, Reflections

“In the realm of Greater Understanding, the workshop is dismantled after the work is finished.”
― Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi

“The aspirant has to be guided by a mentor. The stage at which this guidance can take effect is seldom, if ever, perceptible to the learner.”
― Idries Shah, Sufi Thought and Action: An Anthology of Important Papers

“Beauty

Void lay the world, in nothingness concealed,
Without a trace of light or life revealed,
Save one existence which second knew-
Unknown the pleasant words of We and You.
Then Beauty shone, from stranger glances free,
Seen of herself, with naught beside to see,
With garments pure of stain, the fairest flower
Of virgin loveliness in bridal bower.
No combing hand had smoothed a flowing tress,
No mirror shown her eyes their loveliness
No surma dust those cloudless orbs had known,
To the bright rose her cheek no bulbul flown.
No heightening hand had decked the rose with green,
No patch or spot upon that cheek was seen.
No zephyr from her brow had fliched a hair,
No eye in thought had seen the splendour there.
Her witching snares in solitude she laid,
And love's sweet game without a partner played.
But when bright Beauty reigns and knows her power
She springs indignant from her curtained bower.
She scorns seclusion and eludes the guard,
And from the window looks if doors be barred.
See how the tulip on the mountain grown
Soon as the breath of genial Spring has blown,
Bursts from the rock, impatient to display
Her nascent beauty to the eye of day.
When sudden to thy soul reflection brings
The precious meaning of mysterious things,
Thou canst not drive the thought from out thy brain;
Speak, hear thou must, for silence is such pain.
So beauty ne'er will quit the urgent claim
Whose motive first from heavenly beauty came
When from her blessed bower she fondly strayed,
And to the world and man her charms displayed.
In every mirror then her face was shown,
Her praise in every place was heard and known.
Touched by her light, the hearts of angels burned,
And, like the circling spheres, their heads were turned,
While saintly bands, whom purest at the sight of her,
And those who bathe them in the ocean sky
Cries out enraptured, "Laud to God on high!"
Rays of her splendour lit the rose's breast
And stirred the bulbul's heart with sweet unrest.
From her bright glow its cheek the flambeau fired,
And myriad moths around the flame expired.
Her glory lent the very sun the ray
Which wakes the lotus on the flood to-day.
Her loveliness made Laila's face look fair
To Majnún, fettered by her every hair.
She opened Shírín's sugared lips, and stole
From Parvíz' breast and brave Farhád's the soul.
Through her his head the Moon of Canaan raised,
And fond Zulaikha perished as she gazed.
Yes, though she shrinks from earthly lovers' call,
Eternal Beauty is the queen of all;
In every curtained bower the screen she holds,
About each captured heart her bonds enfolds.
Through her sweet love the heart its life retains,
The soul through love of her its object gains.
The heart which maidens' gentle witcheries stir
Is, though unconscious, fired with love of her.
Refrain from idle speech; mistake no more:
She brings her chains and we, her slaves, adore.
Fair and approved of Love, thou still must own
That gift of beauty comes from her alone.
Thou art concealed: she meets all lifted eyes;
Thou art the mirror which she beautifies.
She is that mirror, if we closely view
The truth- the treasure and the treasury too.
But thou and I- our serious work is naught;
We waste our days unmoved by earnest thought.
Cease, or my task will never end, for her
Sweet beauties lack a meet interpreter.
Then let us still the slaves of love remain
For without love we live in vain, in vain.

Jámí, "Yúsuf and Zulaikha". trans. Ralph T. H. Griffith. Ballantyne Press 1882. London. p.19-22”
― Nūr ad-Dīn 'Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī

“If we don't bring others close to us then who will bring us close,
If we don't shake hand first who will come forward to shake hand with us,
If we don't smile at others who will smile seen us,
If we are not happy seen others happy who will happily see us happy,
If we don't take care of others then who will take care of us,
If we don't respect others who will respect us,
If we don't think of good for others who will think good of us,
If we don't tell the truth then who will tell truth for us,
If we don't change ourselves then who will change for us.”
― Aiyaz Uddin

“A book, for the Sufis, is an instrument as much as it is something to give information....The key is the teacher.”
― Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

“Si buscas un maestro, trata de convertirte en un verdadero estudiante. Si quieres ser un estudiante, trata de encontrar un verdadero maestro.”
― Idries Shah, Aprender a aprender

“El Sendero no ha de ser encontrado en lugar alguno excepto en el servicio humano��.”
― Idries Shah, Seeker After Truth: A Handbook

“En el domino de la Comprensión Mayor, el taller se desmantela cuando el trabajo ha terminado.”
― Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi

“The would-be Sufi needs guidance precisely because books, texts, while telling you what is needed, do not tell you when.”
― Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

“You have read for years, and where has it got you? Your head is filled with masses of ideas and concepts, and you yearn for experience that others on the path have had. Before your true nature is understood all those ideas and concepts must melt away. No books �� the only book is the manuscript of nature, the lesson is life itself. Live passionately! Who said that this path should be so serious that there is no joy in it? This is the most exciting adventure possible, and it should be enjoyed. �� Hamid”
― Reshad Feild, The Last Barrier: A Journey into the Essence of Sufi Teachings

“Islamic Tasawwuf traditionally has its origin in the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and Imam Ali ('Alaihi Assalam) with the Forty Companions. The forerunners of Islamic Tasawwuf are the Ahlul Bayt, the family of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), and the 'insan kamils,' the perfect human beings, who by following this road have held a light to our world and to humanity.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Today, the Qutubs are the guardians of the message of Divine Revelations.”
― Laurence Galian, Beyond Duality: The Art of Transcendence

“Hamzah’s sha’ir derived its original or primary influence not from the ruba’i, but from the four-line shi’r of Ibnu’l-Arabi and ‘Iraqi which forms the bulk of quotations of Sufi poetry in his works.”
― Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, The Origin of the Malay Sha'ir

“It seems to me that apart from the aptness of the Malay language in the construction of four-lined verses with a AAAA pattern of rhyme, the influence of Ibnu’l-‘Arabi’s and ‘Iraqi’s four-line shi’r and Jami’s ruba’i, the concept of the bayt and the shi’r in Arabic and Persian prosody, the creative genius of the poet, Hamzah’s choice of the four-line shi’r composed of a single bayt could well have been influenced also by the symbolism in the Sufi doctrines.”
― Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, The Origin of the Malay Sha'ir

“The analogy of the fourfold Law Way, Truth and Gnosis in which they are compared to a house may be said to be a static one, and this is because what is aimed at here is comprehension of the concept of the absolute unity of the Way to the Truth; but the spiritual journey itself is a dynamic concept, and hence sometimes the fourfold unity of the Way to the Truth is also to a ship (kapal) whose keel is like the Law, whose planks are like the Way, whose content or merchandise is like the Truth and whose gain is like the spiritual gain of Gnosis.”
― Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, The Origin of the Malay Sha'ir

“In the entire vista of Malay literature—including even the Indonesian literatures—he was unique. None rivalled him in originality and poetic genius; in Malay Sufi literature none excelled the clarity and flowing simplicity of his prose which, nevertheless, reveals profound metaphysical insight in the Sufi doctrines; none exceeded him in poetry, whether it be in terms of literary output or in terms of intellectual content. He was, as I have earlier shown, the first man to set forth in systematic writing the essential aspects of the Şufi doctrines in Malay, and he not only impressed his influence upon certain historiographically important literary usages in Malay literature, but introduced as well new technical terminologies and concepts into the Malay language in general, and into Malay Sufi literature in particular, having do with theology, metaphysics and philosophy.”
― Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, The Origin of the Malay Sha'ir

“Sufism is a personal experience of God within, a journey towards the throne of God through the faculty of sense. Witnessing god's splendour and beauty.”
― Aiyaz Uddin