World Philosophical Heritage

Wisdom and teachings of
Sufism

295 quote(s) | Page 10 / 12

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L ove makes us speak; love makes us moan; love makes us die; love brings us to life; love makes us drunk and bewildered; it sometimes makes one a king. Love and the lover have no rigid doctrine. Whichever direction the lover takes, he turns toward his beloved. Wherever he may be, he is with his beloved. Wherever he goes, he goes with his beloved. He cannot do anything, cannot survive for even one moment, without his beloved. He constantly recalls his beloved, as his beloved re members him. Lover and beloved, rememberer and remembered, are ever in each other's company, always together.

quote 2942 | Sheikh Muzaffer
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.117

L ove is to see what is good and beautiful in everything. It is to learn from everything, to see the gifts of God and the generosity of God in everything. It is to be thankful for all God's bounties.
This is the first step on the road to the love of God. This is just a seed of love. In time, the seed will grow and become a tree and bear fruit. Then, whoever tastes of that fruit will know what real love is. It will be difficult for those who have tasted to tell of it to those who have not.

quote 2941 | Sheikh Muzaffer
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.114

L eave everything and cleave to love! Turn your heart from all else; feel love in your whole being! Take love as your guide to the land of being so that you may reach the True Beloved, enter the Paradise of God's essence, behold the beauty of the Friend, gather the roses of the garden of Union. In the way of love, the lover sacrifices himself but finds the dear one. All the saints who have drunk of the wine of love have sacrificed themselves thus in the way of love.

quote 2940 | Sheikh Muzaffer
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.114

L overs converse with people only as much as they need to. For the most part, they prefer to be alone and by themselves. For they yearn for intimate communion with the Beloved. They are constantly in meditation. They do not enjoy excessive conversation and always prefer not to talk. They do not understand conversation about anything other than God.
When they encounter misfortune, they do not grumble and complain. They know that misfortune comes from the Friend, they see the benefits contained in seeming misfortune. Divine love has possessed them, and they have plunged lovingly into the fire of love. Going barefoot, bareheaded, and poorly clad does not worry them at all.
They hear no word but the words of God. They never cease from the remembrance of God. Everywhere they behold God's Beauty. Their aim is God alone, and their desire is God's good pleasure.

quote 2939 | Sheikh Muzaffer
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.98

F or my funeral: Call the drummers, timbal beaters, and tambourine players. March toward my grave dancing thus, Happy, gay, intoxicated; with hands clapping, So that people would know that the friends of God Go happy and smiling toward the place of meeting.

quote 2938 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.256

W hen you see my funeral, don't say, "What a separation!" It is time for me to visit and meet the Beloved. Since you have seen my descent, then do see my rising. Why complain about the setting of the moon and the sun? Which seed that went under the earth failed to grow up again?

quote 2937 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.256

F irst He pampered me with a hundred favors,
Then he melted me with the fires of sorrows.
After He sealed me with the seal of Love, I became Him.
Then, he threw my self out of me.

quote 2936 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.250

S omeone asked what there was that was superior to prayer. One answer is that "the soul" of prayer is better than prayer. The second answer is that faith is better than prayer.
Prayer consists of five-times-a-day performance, whereas faith is continuous. Prayer can be dropped for a valid excuse and may be postponed by license; faith cannot be dropped for any excuse and may not be postponed by license. Again, faith without prayer is beneficial, whereas prayer without faith confers no benefit.

quote 2935 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.152

W hoever travels without a guide needs two hundred years for a two-day journey.

quote 2934 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.144

T he True teacher knocks down the idol that the student makes of him.

quote 2933 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.128

B y love, bitter things are made sweet and copper turns to go .
By love, the sediment becomes clear and torment is removed.
By love, the dead are made to live.
By love, the sovereign is made a slave.
This love is the fruit of knowledge. When did folly sit on a throne like this?
The faith of love is separated from all religion. For lovers the faith and the religion is God. 0 spirit, in striving and seeking become like running water. 0 reason, at all times be ready to give up mortality for the sake of immortality.
Remember God always, that self may be forgotten, so that your self may be effaced in the One to Whom you pray, without care for who is praying, or the prayer.

quote 2932 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.117

T here is no salvation for the soul
But to fall in Love.
It has to creep and crawl
Among the Lovers first.

Only Lovers can escape
From these two worlds.
This was written in creation.

Only from the Heart
Can you reach the sky. The rose of Glory
Can only be raised in the Heart.

quote 2931 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.115

I 've given up on my brain.
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.

If you're not completely naked,
wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you,

and sleep.

quote 2930 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.116

T his Love is beyond the study of theology,
that old trickery and hypocrisy.
If you want to improve your mind that way,

sleep on.

quote 2929 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.116

T he eight duties of a teacher are
1 . To be sympathetic to students and treat them as his or her own children. The teacher must care about the students' welfare as mothers and fathers care for their own children.
2. To refuse any remuneration for his or her services and accept neither reward nor thanks.
3. Not to withhold any advice from the student or allow the student to work at any level unless qualified for it.
4. To use sympathetic and indirect suggestions in dissuading students from bad habits, rather than open, harsh criticism. Open criticism incites defiance and stubbornness.
5. When teaching a given discipline, not to belittle the value of other disciplines or teachers.
6. To limit the students to what they can understand and not require of them anything that is beyond their intellectual capacity.
7. To give backward students only such things as are dear and suitable to their limited understanding. Everyone believes him- or herself capable of mastering every discipline, no matter how complex, and the most simple and foolish are usually most pleased with their intellect.
8. To do what one teaches and not allow one's actions to contradict one's words.

quote 2928 | Ghazzali
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.136

A t a court banquet, everyone was sitting according to their rank, waiting for the king to appear. A simply dressed man came in and took a seat above everyone else. The prime minister demanded that he identify himself.
"Are you the adviser of a great king?
'No, I rank above a royal adviser."
"Are you a prime minister?"
"No, I outrank a prime minister."
"Are you a king in disguise?"
'No, I am above that rank as well.'
"Then you must be God,' the prime minister said sarcastically.
'No, I am above that.'
"There is nothing above God!" shouted the prime minister.
The stranger replied calmly, "Now you know me. That nothing is me.'

quote 2927 | Others Sufis Teaching
Traditional, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.250

F or thirty years I sought God. But when I looked carefully I found that in reality God was the seeker and I the sought.

quote 2925 | Bistami
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.96

I died from minerality and became vegetable; And from vegetativeness I died and became animal. I died from animality and became human. Then why fear disappearance through death? Next time I shall die Bring forth wings and feathers like angels; After that, soaring higher than angels. What you cannot imagine I shall be that.

quote 2924 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.96

O my Lord, if I worship You from fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and if I worship You from hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your own sake, do not withhold from me Your Eternal Beauty.

quote 2910 | Rabia al-Adawiyya
Rabia, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.86

O ne day, Rabia was seen running, carrying fire in one hand and water in the other. They asked her the meaning of her action and where she was going. She replied, I am going to light a fire in Paradise and pour water on Hell, so that both veils (hindrances to the true vision of God) completely disappear."

quote 2909 | Rabia al-Adawiyya
Rabia, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.86

W isdom is like the rain. Its source is unlimited, but it comes down according to the season. Grocers put sugar in a bag, but their supply of sugar is not the amount in the bag. When you come to a grocer, he has sugar in abundance. But he sees how much money you have brought and gives accordingly.
Your currency on this Path is resolution and faith, and you are taught according to your resolution and faith. When you come seeking sugar, they examine your bag to see what its capacity is; then they measure out accordingly.

quote 2908 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.85

S eek the company of the wise, who know. Agree with what they say, for one understands only that with which one agrees. Be sincere in what you say- a single tongue should not speak two different words. No deceit or fraud should enter into your thoughts. Do not belittle anyone or anything, for everyone and everything in its inner being wishes for the same thing.
"Do not touch anything that is not yours. Avoid crowded places; even in such places, try to be with yourself, for that is the place where the truth is manifested. That is where the truth is.

quote 2906 | Ibn 'Arabi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.84

A li asked the Prophet, "What action can I take that is not totally lost and worthless?"
The Prophet answered, "Seek truth. You will find it in yourself, therefore, know yourself.

quote 2905 | Ibn 'Arabi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.84

H e who is intimate with worldly wealth will find his intellect destroyed; he who is intimate with people will become lonely; he who is intimate with work will be preoccupied; and he who is intimate with God will attain union.

quote 2904 | Others Sufis Teaching
Shibli, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.83

O nce Ibrahim Adhem saw a stone on which was written, "Turn me over and read. 'On the other side he read, "You do not practice what you know. Why, then, do you seek what you know not?"

quote 2903 | Hujwiri
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.82

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