Sufi Sayings

from Knowing How to Know, by Idries Shah
 (published posthumously in 1998):

Sufi Sayings and their Application
in Teaching Situations




1. "To whomever has sense, a sign is enough. For the heedless,
a thousand expositions are not enough."

--Haji Bektash


Sufi materials, experiences, explanations may be registered
in the mind on one level, and may have to wait for their full
understanding until 'heedlessness' is removed. The main source
of this is the 'Commanding Self.



2. "Those things which are apparently opposed may in reality
be working together."

--Jalaluddin Rumi


This has to be experienced. It is a sign of the shallow to cleave
to something obviously opposed to Sufi ideas and then invoke
this saying.



3. "The apparent is the bridge to the Real."


Again, superficial thinkers and emotionalists will choose
something apparent and decide that this is the bridge to the real.
Only certain parts of the apparent are such a bridge.



4. "Be in the world, but not of the world."


One must be able to detach from things of the world, without
having cut oneself off from it: which is a pathological condition.



5. "The Path is none other than service of the people."

--Saadi


Sufi service has to be the right kind of service; neither
servitude nor hypocrisy.



6. "None attains to the degree of truth until a thousand sincere
people have called him a heretic."

--Junaid


Sincere people include those who sincerely hold mistaken,
shallow or untrue ideas.



7. "Whoever knows God does not say 'God'".

--Bayazid


The meaning of 'God' in the hearts of superficialists is
someone or something to be bribed and asked for things. So
whoever knows more cannot use this term, which contains
unworthy elements such as those.



8. "If you split a single drop asunder
From it emerge a hundred pure oceans."

--Shabistari


A very tiny impulse from the Sufi reality will be able to unlock
great understanding. But people seek stimulation and noise.



9. "He who is the Completed Man is he who in his perfection
Does in his mastership the work of a slave."

--Shabistari


Think about it.



10. "A man concealed in a blanket is the world's ruler
A sword asleep in a scabbard is the guardian of the realm."

--Amir Khusru


Are things what they seem?



11. "Die before you die."


For contemplation.



12. "Pagoda and Kaaba are houses of servitude
Ringing bells are the melody of slavery
The (sacred) thread and the church,
and the cross and rosary
Truly, all of them are the mark of servitude."

--Khayyam


Attachment to externals, to ritual and symbols, automatism,
conditioning: these are what people too often mistake for faith
and religion.



13. "The touchstone it is which knows the real gold."

--Saadi


The Commanding Self, the subjective mind which is a
compound of instinct and training, of intellect and emotion: these
are the factors which stand between the 'gold' and the
'touchstone' in everyone.



14. "One pull from Truth is better than a thousand efforts."

--Rumi


People think that they can 'storm the gates of heaven'. In reality
it is a matter of 'time, place and people', so that the higher impulse
can act upon the suitably prepared individual.



15. "The bird which has no knowledge of pure water
Has its beak in salt water the whole year round."

-- Akhlaq-i-Muhsini


People are trained to think that certain things are useful,
sublime, real and true. Have they anything to compare these with?



16. "Tranquil the person who did not come into the world."

-- Khayyam


That is why the one who did is anything but tranquil . . .



17. "If the donkey that bore Jesus into Jerusalem went to Mecca."


Would it be less of an ass when it came back?



18. "You did not exist when your work was created;
You were created from a sea of work."

--Shabistari



19. "To be a Sufi is to maintain states in relation to
Objective Reality."

--Al Muqri, in Shabistari



In the Sufi state, the perception of Reality becomes possible.



20. "In cell and cloister, monastery and synagogue, one lies
In dread of hell; another dreams of paradise.
But none that know the divine secrets
Have sown their hearts with suchlike fantasies."

--Khayyam



21. "Gold needs bran to polish it ... But whoever makes
himself into bran will be eaten by cows."


Do you use it, or does it use you?



22. "The mind large enough for ultimate Truth
Cannot be narrowed to the world: do you understand,
listener?"

--Ibn el Arabi



23. "The Sufi is one who does not own and is not owned."

--Nuri



24. "A man has seen the mountain, he has not seen the mine
within it."

--Rumi



25. "Love is bestowed, not earned."

--Hujwiri



26. "Real love is neither diminished by unkindness nor increased
by kindness and bounty."

--Yahya ibn Mu'adh



27. "Unification is silence and, always, thought;
Discussion comes and unification goes.
Once, 'Thou' is said, duality is established;
Unification departs from the point where you take its name."

--Dara Shikoh



28. "Wealth reveals bad things previously concealed by poverty.
One places a seed in the earth
So that, on the day of distress, it shall give fruit."

--Saadi



29. "Whoever is without impressions and is made polished
Becomes a mirror for the impression of the Hidden."

--Rumi



30. "Do not twist the reins because of the difficulties of the
Path, O Heart;
For the Man of the Path does not concern himself with
ups and downs."

--Hafiz



31. "What freewill have you, O heedless man
A person who has a void, illusive essence?
Tell me where this freewill of yours comes from.
Someone whose essence is not of himself:
Has no good and bad in his essence."

--Shabistari



32. "Speak to people in accordance with their understanding."



33. "You yourself are under your own veil."

--Hafiz




--from Knowing How To Know, p. 216-220