Tabrizi Quotes & Sayings

The wave is ignorant of the true nature of the sea: how can the temporal comprehend the eternal? — Saib Tabrizi

Become placeless, for to change this place of water and clay is but to move from one prison to another. — Saib Tabrizi

Peace is in proportion to every pause: observe the difference between to run, to walk, to stand, to sit, to lie, to die. — Saib Tabrizi

When everyone is trying to be something, be nothing. Range with emptiness. Human should be like a pot. As the pot is hold by its emptiness inside, human is hold by the awareness of his nothingness. — Shams Tabrizi

Wherever you go, east, west, north or south, think of it as a journey into yourself! The one who travels into itself travels the world. — Shams Tabrizi

The real dirt is not outside, but inside, in our hearts.
We can wash all stains with water. The only one we can't remove is the grudge and the bad intentions sticking to our hearts. — Shams-i Tabrizi

In this market every head has a different fancy: everyone winds his turban in a different fashion. — Saib Tabrizi

Be sure that someday you'll praise and thank God for your unanswered prayers that once you had wept for them. — Shams Tabrizi

To quit this troubled world is better than to enter it: the rosebud enters the garden with straitened heart and departs smiling. — Saib Tabrizi

The weeping of the candle is not in mourning for the moth: the dawn is at hand, and it is thinking of its own dark night. — Saib Tabrizi

When poison becomes a habit, it ceases to injure: make your soul gradually acquainted with death. — Saib Tabrizi

To the seeker after pearls, silence is a speaking argument, for no breath comes forth from the diver of the sea. — Saib Tabrizi

Seek for the truth from the heart which is empty of thought. — Saib Tabrizi

Flowers and fruit are never combined in one place: it is impossible that teeth and delicacies should exist simultaneously. — Saib Tabrizi

It is easy to love perfection. The difficulty consists in loving the human with his good and bad. We mostly know as much as we love. Only loving God but not its creatures, you can never really know, neither really love. — Shams Tabrizi

If parts are always changing, the whole remains the same. A dead good man is replaced by a good man, a dead bad man is replaced by a bad man. While the whole remains the same, every day is different. — Shams Tabrizi

There may be one fault in a man that conceals a thousand qualities, or one excellence that conceals a thousand faults. The little indicates much. — Shams Tabrizi

A good man complains of no one; he does not look to faults. — Shams Tabrizi

We can only learn and advance with contradictions.
The faithful inside should meet the doubtful. The doubtful should meet the faithful. Human slowly advances and becomes mature when he accepts his contradictions. — Shams-i Tabrizi

Surrendering is not a weakness. At the contrary it is strength. The surrender stops living in boiling water and starts living in a secure place. — Shams Tabrizi

If the human being is a proud and honorable creature, he shouldn't forget to act that way, even if he falls, even if the whole world is against him, even if he ends as a slave. — Shams Tabrizi

The life of this transitory world is the expectation of death: to renounce life is to escape from the expectation of annihilation. — Saib Tabrizi

Alms in secret extinguish the wrath of the Lord means you are so immersed in sincerity and in preserving that sincerity that you have no pleasure in giving alms. — Shams Tabrizi

If a person claims that he really loves someone, evidence is asked from him. And that evidence is the giving away of possessions, the granting of favors. Just as when Mevlana claimed that he loved me, when I came he granted me thousands of favors and protected me. I regard these all as a grace from God. — Shams Tabrizi

Ten doors are opened if one door be shut: the finger is the interpreter of the dumb man's tongue. — Saib Tabrizi

Nothing kills the soul that commands to evil (Nafs al Ammarra) like seeing the beauty of the heart. — Shams Tabrizi

Being the companion of the folk of this world is fire. There must be an Abraham if the fire is not going to burn [you]. — Shams Tabrizi

You have to live with the people in hypocrisy for them to stay happy with you. — Shams Tabrizi

When a man becomes old, his greed becomes young: sleep grows heavy at the time of morning. — Saib Tabrizi

The past is a fog on our minds. The future? A complete dream. We can't neither guess the future, neither change the past. — Shams Tabrizi

You can be everything in life but the important thing is to be a good person. — Shams Tabrizi

If I am mad, then who on the face of the earth is sane? If you are sane, then there is no madman in the world. — Saib Tabrizi

There are more fake guides, teachers in the world than stars. The real guide is the one who makes you see your inner beauty, not the one who wants to be admired and followed. — Shams Tabrizi

The rosary in the hand, repentance on the lips, and the heart full of sinful longings-sin itself laughs at our repentance! — Saib Tabrizi

This world is like a mountain. Your echo depends on you. If you scream good things, the world will give it back. If you scream bad things, the world will give it back. Even if someone says badly about you, speak well about him. Change your heart to change the world. — Shams Tabrizi

You learn by reading but understand by LOVE. — Shams Tabrizi

The touchstone of false friends is the day of need: by way of proof, ask a loan from your friends. — Saib Tabrizi

To get closer to Truth and Right, we need a beautiful and soft heart. Every human learns one day or another to become softer. Some accidentally, some because of disease, some suffer from human loss, some other from material loss ... We all face these situations, but we can either see the good in it and open our hearts, or unfortunately see an another occasion to lock it forever. — Shams Tabrizi

Most of conflicts and tensions are due to language. Don't pay so much attention to the words. In love's country, language doesn't have its place. Love's mute. — Shams Tabrizi

The summary of the advice of all prophets is this;
Find yourself a mirror. — Shams Tabrizi

It is pointless trying to know where the way leads. Think only about your first step, the rest will come. — Shams Tabrizi

The salat can be made up for, but there is no making up for false show or outward worship without presence. — Shams Tabrizi

When a sincere woman begins to dance, the seven heavens, the earth, and all creatures begin to dance. — Shams Tabrizi

Instead of resisting to changes, surrender. Let life be with you, not against you. If you think 'My life will be upside down' don't worry. How do you know down is not better than upside? — Shams Tabrizi

The whole universe is sum up in the Human Being. Devil is not a monster waiting to trap us, He is a voice inside. Look for Your Devil in Yourself, not in the Others. Don't forget that the one who knows his Devil, knows his God. — Shams Tabrizi

Do not worry about tricks and cheaters. If some people are trying to trap and hurt you, Allah is also trapping them. Hole diggers will always fall in their holes. No bad remains unpunished, and no good remains without being awarded, so have faith in justice and let the rest be. — Shams Tabrizi

The roots of the aged palm tree exceed those of the young one; the old have a greater attachment to the world. — Saib Tabrizi

The words we use for the Creator are a reflect of ourselves. If we think of God as fear and shame, we are scared and have something to be ashamed of ... But if we see love, compassion and kindness, it is because we possess these qualities. — Shams Tabrizi

If you look around, you can find a face of God in each thing, because He is not hidden in a church, in a mosque, or a synagogue, but everywhere. As there is no one who lives after seeing him, there is also no one dying after seeing him. Who finds Him, stays forever with him. — Shams Tabrizi

The life we live is just a colourful and deposit toy.
Some of us take it so seriously and fight and cry for it.
Some of us break and throw it.
Either we give extreme importance, either not enough.
Better to stay far from extremes. — Shams Tabrizi

The universe is a complete unique entity. Everything and everyone is bound together with some invisible strings. Do not break anyone's heart; do not look down on weaker than you. One's sorrow at the other side of the world can make the entire world suffer; one's happiness can make the entire world smile. — Shams Tabrizi

Formerly, people used to grieve over the departed, but in our days they grieve over the survivors. — Saib Tabrizi

Remove all the walls and curtains so you can get closer and purely love. Have principles but do not use them to exclude or to judge the others. Stay far from idols, specially from those you made from your own principles. Have a powerful faith, but do not play the powerful. — Shams Tabrizi

Love is a travel. All travelers whether they want or not are changed. No one can travel into love and remain the same. — Shams Tabrizi

If you expect respect from others, show it first to yourself. You can't expect from others what you don't give to yourself. — Shams Tabrizi

The spirit is the mirror; the body is the rust.
(Divan-i-Shamsi Tabriz) — Idries Shah

Don't search for heaven and hell in the future. Both are now present. Whenever we manage to love without expectations, calculations, negotiations, we are indeed in heaven. Whenever we fight, hate, we are in hell. — Shams Tabrizi

Whoever lives as he sees fit will not die as he sees fit. — Shams Tabrizi

A life without love is a waste. "Should I look for spiritual love, or material, or physical love?", don't ask yourself this question. Discrimination leads to discrimination. Love doesn't need any name, category or definition. Love is a world itself. Either you are in, at the center ... either you are out, yearning. — Shams-i Tabrizi

The march of good fortune has backward slips: to retreat one or two paces gives wings to the jumper. — Saib Tabrizi

If you are insulted, if you are accused, if they gossip about you, don't say anything bad. Don't be the one who sees the shame, be the one who corrects it. — Shams Tabrizi

It is never late to ask yourself "Am I ready to change my life, am I ready to change myself?". However old we are, whatever we went through, it is always possible to reborn. If each day is a copy of the last one, what a pity! Every breath is a chance to reborn. But to reborn into a new life, you have to die before dying. — Shams Tabrizi

Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water. — Shams-i Tabrizi

What does it profit you that all the libraries of the world should be yours? Not knowledge but what one does with knowledge is your profit. — Saib Tabrizi

When you oppose the shaykh, it's like the slave who kills himself over a quarrel with his master. Hey, why are you killing yourself over a quarrel?He says, So my master will suffer loss. — Shams Tabrizi