Sufi Knowledge Quotes & Sayings

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

I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so. — Idries Shah

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

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

Hang on to hope in any hardship. — Lailah Gifty Akita

I like working in both movies and television. Television is faster, not very much rehearsal and a lot of material is shot in a day. Big budget movies are luxurious in terms of the schedule. Independent films often shoot fast as well. — Juliet Landau

He means to marry you?" "He tells me so." She surveyed my whole person: in her eyes I read that they had there found no charm powerful enough to solve the enigma. — Charlotte Bronte

I read, read enormously on all different fields of Islamic thought, from philosophy to Islamic literature, poetry, exegeses, knowledge of the Hadith, the teachings of the prophet. That's how I trained myself. And then I was appointed imam by a Sufi master from Istanbul, Turkey. — Feisal Abdul Rauf

The Sufi recognizes the knowledge of self as the essence of all religions; he traces it in every religion, he sees the same truth in each, and therefore he regards all as one. Hence he can realize the saying of Jesus; 'I and my Father are one.' The difference between creature and Creator remains on his lips, not in his soul. — Hazrat Inayat Khan

The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. — Idries Shah

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

Do not think that your magic ring will work if you are not yourself Solomon. — Idries Shah

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

Careful preparation is necessary before people can perceive something which is there all the time. — Idries Shah

You see, people don't really listen anymore, no... they just sit around waiting for everyone else to shut up, waiting until it's finally their turn to talk. Back and forth, an endless cycle that gets us nowhere, because nobody really gives a shit about what's being said. — J.M. Darhower

I've had happy moments in my life, but I don't think that happiness
being happy
is a perpetual state that anyone can be in. Life isn't that way. — Grace Kelly

Sufism is education, in that it has a body of knowledge which it transmits to those who have not got it. — Idries Shah

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

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

Sad the holidays are over?
Hardly, said Victor. — V.E Schwab

None but the Creator has knowledge of the future; If anyone says he knows it, do not believe him! - Baba Musafir (d. 1714), a Naqshbandi Sufi saint, speaking about the war of succession among Aurangzeb's sons — Audrey Truschke

Practise your knowledge, for knowledge without practice is a body without life — Idries Shah

The Orwellian vision was about state-sponsored surveillance. Now it's not just the state, it's your nosy neighbor, your ex-spouse and people who want to spam you. — Howard Rheingold

All the director wants is their idea of the movie to be believed in. — Mark Romanek

It is no accident that Sufis find that they can connect most constructively with people who are well integrated into the world, as well as having higher aims, and that those who adopt a sensible attitude towards society and life as generally known can usually absorb Sufi teachings very well indeed — Idries Shah

Landsman and Bina were married to each other for twelve years and together for five before that. Each was the other's first lover, first betrayer, first refuge, first roommate, first audience, first person to turn to when something
even the marriage itself
went wrong. For half their lives they tangled their histories, bodies, phobias, theories, recipes, libraries, record collections. They mounted spectacular arguments, nose-to-nose, hands flying, spittle flying, throwing things, kicking things, breaking things, rolling around on the ground grabbing up fistfuls of each other's hair. The next day he would bear the red moons of Bina's nails in his cheeks and on the meat of his chest, and she wore his purple fingerprints like an armlet. — Michael Chabon

Poets must be grounded in the education of the arts, drama, history, mysticism, esotericism, and philosophy. To gain knowledge and become learned of the above is easy - read. Poets should apply this knowledge to their work, so a poet will advance to the next level, to their next phase of their emotional, psychological and spiritual development, growing in years in a short space of time, in hours or months if he or she is an avid reader. This knowledge will birth work that is not meretricious but of noble parentage. — Abigail George

The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'. — Idries Shah

Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning. — Idries Shah

It may do good; pride hath no other glass To show itself but pride, for supple knees Feed arrogance and are the proud man's fees. — William Shakespeare

Telling the truth is like exposing the underside of our wings. We only see that part when we fly. — Sabrina Ward Harrison

Sufism," according to the Sufi, "is an adventure in living, necessary adventure. — Idries Shah

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

Intellect is the knowledge obtained by experience of names and forms; wisdom is the knowledge which manifests only from the inner being; to acquire intellect one must delve into studies, but to obtain wisdom, nothing but the flow of divine mercy is needed; it is as natural as the instinct of swimming to the fish, or of flying to the bird. Intellect is the sight which enables one to see through the external world, but the light of wisdom enables one to see through the external into the internal world. — Hazrat Inayat Khan

The most complete gift of God is a life based on knowledge. — Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib

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

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. — Idries Shah