Sufi Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about Sufi

Sufi Quotes & Sayings

Happy to read and share the best inspirational Sufi quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.

There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life. — Rumi

A Sufi has a right to be served, but he has no right to demand. Maruf Karkhi of Khorasan — Idries Shah

To say "yes" to the Sufi way is to say "no" to imagined escapes. — Idries Shah

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

If you are 'humble', it may help you in ordinary life. If you are not, you will get nowhere in higher things. — Idries Shah

There are two parts to the equation: feel good + take action. The ancient Sufi proverb says; Trust in Allah, but first tie your camel to a post. — Andrew Matthews

Ignorance is the Mother of Opposition — Idries Shah

Saying of the Prophet
Monkishness
No monkery in Islam. — Idries Shah

The selection and following of a spiritual guide is the most important duty of a Sufi. — Idries Shah

Pick up a bee from kindness, and learn the limitations of kindness. — Idries Shah

The period before the dawn of knowledge is called the age of darkness. — Wasif Ali Wasif

Sleep is the boundary between being/existence and not-being/non-existence. — Wasif Ali Wasif

You will always have doubts, but only discover them at a useful time for your weakness to point them out. — Idries Shah

It is axiomatic that the attempt to become a Sufi through a desire for personal power as normally understood will not succeed. — Idries Shah

Miracles, to the Sufi, are not evidential, they are instrumental. — Idries Shah

Most of the supposedly Sufi organizations, exercises and "orders" are in fact only of archaeological interest. — Idries Shah

It is necessary to note," says Rumi, "that opposite things work together, even though nominally opposed" (Fihi Ma Fihi). — Idries Shah

The Sufis,' runs the saying, 'understand with their hearts what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds — Idries Shah

With enough information, it is almost impossible "not" to predict people's action. — Idries Shah

We are highly susceptible to self destruction when we aren't doing what we really want with our lives. — James Dillehay

I was you
and never knew it. — Rumi

Ultimately though, we are not responsible for another's happiness. The unhappy person almost always suffers from self-inflicted pain. — James Dillehay

Sufi poetry is, in a sense, self-help poetry about how to live a decent life, how to deal with your mortality. — Mohsin Hamid

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. — Idries Shah

A Sufi school comes into being in order to flourish and disappear, not to leave traces in mechanical ritual, or anthropologically survivals. — Idries Shah

If you don't know how to take care of your own needs, when you try to give to others, you are giving from a bankrupt account. — James Dillehay

Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions. — Idries Shah

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

Sleep is a mirror of life in which can be seen the reflection of death. — Wasif Ali Wasif

In your beauty, how to make poems. — Rumi

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

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

They say: 'Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom. — Idries Shah

People talk of the Sufi way. Wrong. If there is a way, it's not Sufism. — Art Hochberg

As with any other specialisation, teaching is a vocation, open only to those who are truly capable of discharging its functions. — Idries Shah

Death is the protector of life and life is the process of death. — Wasif Ali Wasif

If behaviors become equivalent it is possible for knowledge to become equivalent (for any two individuals). — Wasif Ali Wasif

I am not a Sufi, but I follow the Sufi. — Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

My friend, the sufi is the friend of the present moment. To say tomorrow is not our way. — Rumi

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

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

Please, not again what you studied, how long you spent at it, how many books you wrote, what people thought of you - but: what did you learn? — Idries Shah

This life is but a dream. A state of sleep but how unfortunate that man's eyes open only when they are about to be closed (forever). — Wasif Ali Wasif

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

They will become Godly when they will have God in their hearts. — Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi

Do not destroy anybody's peace. You will find peace. — Wasif Ali Wasif

Do not try to be humble: learn humility. — Idries Shah

Nothing can defile the Sufi, and he in fact purifies everything." Abu-Turab al-Nakhsabi. — Idries Shah

I ask about the sky, but the answer is about a rope. — Idries Shah

In love, there is no distinction between success and failure. If love remains then even separation is union otherwise even union is separation. — Wasif Ali Wasif

Give up a drop, become an ocean
- Sufi saint Rumi. — Kashmira J. Gohil

In order to spend out our time (life) we sell some of this time. We work for someone, we labour. In freedom we do slavery. — Wasif Ali Wasif

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

Deteriorated science is a cult, so is imitative or deteriorated Sufism. — Idries Shah

But one may say something and yet not be able to do it. Try, for instance, lifting yourself up by the bootstraps. — Idries Shah

If you cannot laugh frequently and genuinely, you have no soul. — Idries Shah

It is experience which teaches, not controversy based on supposed logic and assumptions of what is likely to be true. — Idries Shah

He who knows himself, knows his Lord' means, among other things, that self-deception prevents knowledge. — Idries Shah

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

The man who knows must discharge a function. The one who does not, cannot arrogate one to himself; he can only try to do so. — Idries Shah

In reality, every reality is a veil over reality. — Wasif Ali Wasif

No one is born beneath this dance. This dance gives birth to you. — Holly Lynn Payne

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

My house was a guest house of many Jaina saints, Hindu monks, Sufi mystics, because my grandfather was interested in all of these people. — Rajneesh

The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete. — Idries Shah

No practice exists in isolation. — Idries Shah

Each flies with its own kind: pigeon with pigeon, hawk with hawk. — Idries Shah

He had found riches beyond worldly imagination. He had found the never ending well of love. — Soroosh Shahrivar

The door of illumination is open to those for whom other doors are closed. — Idries Shah

When the child is ill, the mother will know how to pray. — Wasif Ali Wasif

Life abides between life as if it were an island amidst its own ocean — Wasif Ali Wasif

Investigation after declaration of submission leads astray. — Wasif Ali Wasif

Sufis aim to refine human consciousness. This is Sufi mysticism: not mystification or magic, but a specific Path. — Idries Shah

Sufi secrets are perceived, not understood by words. — Idries Shah

The Sufi must be able to alternate his thought between the relative and the Absolute, the approximate and the Real. — Idries Shah

Satisfaction is a treasure which does not decay.
Proverb — Idries Shah

Remedy
Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register it.
Hazrat Ali — Idries Shah

Ibn El-Arabi wrote, 'The Teacher is he who hears you, then unveils you to yourself — Idries Shah

The pathways into Sufic thinking are, it is traditionally said, almost as varied as the number of Sufis in existence. — Idries Shah

In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones. - Sufi proverb — Margaret Atwood

Be kind to the hawk and harm the sparrow. — Idries Shah

Many Sufis are not guides. — Idries Shah

The would-be Sufi needs guidance precisely because books, texts, while telling you what is needed, do not tell you when. — Idries Shah

Do not be frightened, friend. Let us dance our way to God. — Kamand Kojouri

On the Sufi path, first you discover the art of being alone amid the crowd. Next you discover the crowd within your solitude - the voices inside you. — Elif Shafak

Much travel is needed before the raw man is ripened. — Idries Shah

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

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

A yellow dog is brother to the jackal. — Idries Shah

A Sufi is one who is not bound by anything nor does he bind anything — Idries Shah

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

He who has no light in his heart, what will he gain from the festival of lamps. — Wasif Ali Wasif

The person that you feel yourself to be, according to the Sufis, is a false person, which has no true reality. — Idries Shah

An old fool is worse than a young one: For the young may always grow wise. (Zohair) — Idries Shah

Those who say 'I am ready to learn', or 'I am not ready to learn' are as often mistaken as they are correct in their surmise. — Idries Shah

Study institutions may become visible when the head is more emptied of imaginings. — Idries Shah

What you seek is seeking you. — Jalaluddin Rumi

Do not dwell upon whether you will put yourself into the hands of a teacher. You are always in his hands. — Idries Shah

We wish to become one thing or another, rather we wish to become everything and in this pursuit of becoming everything we only end up becoming idiots. — Wasif Ali Wasif

Words have to die if humans are to live. — Idries Shah