
It was being written in the East that '
Sufism was formerly a reality without a name: now it is a name without a reality'. —
Idries Shah

The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work. —
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

The fruit of timidity is neither gain nor loss. —
Idries Shah

Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore. —
Idries Shah

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

The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted, not to leave unaltered traces. —
Idries Shah

One lie will keep out forty truths. —
Idries Shah

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

Better to be safe than to be sorry' is a remark of value only when these are the actual alternatives. —
Idries Shah

To bind one free man with love is better than to release a thousand slaves. —
Idries Shah

Sufi secrets are perceived, not understood by words. —
Idries Shah
Sufism is the doing in this lifetime what any fool will be doing in then thousand years' time. —
Idries Shah

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

Wisdom is when you understand what, previously, at best you only knew. —
Idries Shah

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'. —
Idries Shah

But the Sufis work IN the world, and therefore WITH 'things of the world'. —
Idries Shah

How many friends would you have if you went from one to another asking them to conceal a dead body? —
Idries Shah

When the mind is full of established biases, it will not be able to graft
Sufism on top of them. —
Idries Shah
Sufism is the essence of all religions. —
Idries Shah

The existence of relative truth does not prove the non-existence of universal truth. —
Idries Shah

Words, they say, are the food of minds. But, like other foods, they can do little by themselves. —
Idries Shah

I reject any path which rejects life, but I can't help loving
Sufism because it sounds so beautiful. It gives relief in the midst of battle. —
Naguib Mahfouz

Saying of the Prophet
Sleep
Sleep is the brother of death. —
Idries Shah

Because sugar is not arsenic, many graves are full. —
Idries Shah

Forms are vehicles and instruments, and vehicles and instruments cannot be called good or bad without context. —
Idries Shah

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

Saying of the Prophet
Women
Women are the twin-halves of men. —
Idries Shah

When you feel least interested in following the Way which you have entered, this may be the time when it is most appropriate for you. —
Idries Shah

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

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

For every Pharoah there is a Moses. —
Idries Shah

Politics is the application of
Sufism to earthlife ... To refuse to act politically is to starve your children, destroy civilization. —
Shamcher Bryn Beorse

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

Helping others
I order you to assist any oppressed person, whether he is a Moslem or not. —
Idries Shah

No practice exists in isolation. —
Idries Shah

You must improve yourself on a higher level if you are to be able to help people, and not just weep over them. —
Idries Shah

Be a dog, but don't be a younger brother.
Proverb. —
Idries Shah

The great poet Hafiz says that you should dye your prayer-carpet with wine if your teacher tells you to do so. —
Idries Shah

Brave is the thief who carries a lamp in his hand. —
Idries Shah

Assume that you are part-hypocrite and part heedless, and you will not be far wrong. —
Idries Shah

What you are pleased to call
Sufism is merely the record of past method. —
Idries Shah

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

One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one. —
Idries Shah

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

You will never reach Mecca, I fear: for you are on the road to Turkestan. —
Idries Shah

What do I sing, and what does my tambourine sing? —
Idries Shah

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. —
Idries Shah

Unbelief and belief are both marching on His road, while both are saying, 'He is one and He has no associates'. —
Idries Shah

Most systems end up by making imagined humility into a form of vanity, so they end up with vanity just the same. —
Idries Shah

Our thoughts have prepared for us the
happiness or unhappiness we experience. —
Hazrat Inayat Khan

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

Take the straight path, even if it is long: marry no widow, even if she is a houri. —
Idries Shah
Sufism is transmitted by means of the human exemplar, the teacher. —
Idries Shah

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

A stolen kiss is not easily returned. —
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

No colour comes after black. —
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

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

The practice of
Sufism is the intention to move toward truth by means of love and devotion. —
Javad Nurbakhsh

SENTENCES OF THE KHAJAGAN
RUDBARI : Heart to heart is an essential means of passing on the secrets of the Path. —
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 had found riches beyond worldly imagination. He had found the never ending well of love. —
Soroosh Shahrivar

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

Better to quarrel with a friend than to support enemies. —
Idries Shah

To Him who has sense, a sign is enough
For the heedless, however, a thousand expositions are not enough. —
Idries Shah

Saying of the Prophet
Envy
Envy devours good deeds, as a fire devours fuel. —
Idries Shah

The Sufis have said: 'The importance of something is in inverse proportion to its attractiveness. —
Idries Shah

Whoever is to be wise despises himself. Only the ignorant trust their own judgement. —
Idries Shah

The degree of necessity determines the development of organs in man ... therefore increase your necessity. —
Idries Shah

Form is useful, but it is secondary. —
Idries Shah

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

I am an idol worshipper; for I understand what idol worship means, and the idolater does not. —
Idries Shah

A MOTTO OF THE HUMAN RACE
Tell me what to do; but it must be what I want you to tell me. —
Idries Shah

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

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

Progress comes through capacity to learn, and is irresistible. —
Idries Shah

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

Remember that greed includes greed for being not greedy. —
Idries Shah
Sufism is, in fact, not a mystical system, not a religion, but a body of knowledge. —
Idries Shah

Definitions from Mulla Do-Piaza
Bribe
Substitute for law, which is a substitute for justice. —
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

Saying of the Prophet
Distribution
God it is who gives: I am only a distributor. —
Idries Shah