Sufi Wisdom

My beloved Qibla Pir o Mursheed Hazrat Mansur Kalimullah Muhammed Shah Makki (RA)

I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I:
We are two spirits dwelling in one body..
If thou seest me,thou seest Him,
And if thou seest Him, thou seest us both. (Husayan ibn Mansur al hallaj)

The noise of the lover is only up to
the time when he has not seen his Beloved.
Once he sees the Beloved, he becomes calm and quiet,
just as the rivers are boisterous before they join the ocean,
but when they do so, there are becalmed forever.  (Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti)

Love came and spread like blood in my veins and the skin of me,
It filled me with the Friend and completely emptied me.
The Friend has taken over all parts of my existence,
Only my name remains, as all is He. (Amir Khasru)

When my Beloved appears, With what eye do I see Him? With His eye, not with mine, For none sees Him except Himself. (Ibn al-Arabi)

The Lord is an ocean of oneness
in which lovers swim as they please, free of care.
In their own turn, they appear in the world
to dive deep into that ocean, to gather pearls.
Among the pearls is a gem –
unique in value, unmatched in luster –
that shines like the moon.
We are all in the employ of the Lord, O Bahu;
let us pay homage to him through our prayers. (Sultan Bahu)

Those who enshrine the Lord in their hearts, O Bahu,
have both the worlds at their command.
Lovers remain completely intoxicated
in the ecstasy of their love for the Beloved.
They offer their souls to the Beloved
while still living
and thus immortalize themselves
in this life and the hereafter. (Sultan Bahu)

Until you become an unbeliever in your own self,
you cannot become a believer in God. (Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir)

If you are seeking closeness to the Beloved,
love everyone.
Whether in their presence or absence,
see only their good.
If you want to be as clear and refreshing as
the breath of the morning breeze,
like the sun, have nothing but warmth and light
for everyone. (Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir)

Beloved, show me the way out of this prison.Make me needless of both worlds.Pray, erase from mind all that is not You.Have mercy Beloved, though I am nothing but forgetfulness, You are the essence of forgiveness. Make me needless of all but You. (Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir)

Piousness and the path of love are two different roads. Love is the fire that burns both belief and non-belief.Those who practice Love have neither religion nor caste. (Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir)

If you do not give up the crowds you won’t find your way to Oneness. If you do not drop yourself you won’t find your true worth.If you do not offer all you have to the Beloved, you will live this life free of that pain which makes it worth living. (Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir)

In love, nothing exists between heart and heart. Speech is born out of longing, True description from the real taste. The one who tastes, knows; the one who explains, lies.How can you describe the true form of Something In whose presence you are blotted out? And in whose being you still exist? And who lives as a sign for your journey?  (Rabia al-Adawiyya)

I have two ways of loving You:
A selfish one
And another way that is worthy of You.
In my selfish love, I remember You and You alone.
In that other love, You lift the veil
And let me feast my eyes on Your Living Face. (Rabia al-Adawiyya)

I have made You the Companion of my heart.
But my body is available to those who desire its company,
And my body is friendly toward its guest,
But the Beloved of my heart is the guest of my soul. (Rabia al-Adawiyya)

O Lord, If tomorrow on Judgment Day
You send me to Hell,
I will tell such a secret
That Hell will race from me
Until it is a thousand years away.

O Lord, Whatever share of this world
You could give to me,
Give it to Your enemies;
Whatever share of the next world 
You want to give to me,
Give it to Your friends.
You are enough for me.

O Lord, if I worship You
From fear of Hell, burn me in Hell.

O Lord, if I worship you
from hope of Paradise, bare me from its gates.

But if I worship you for Yourself alone
Then grace me forever the splendor of Your Face. (Rabia al-Adawiyya)

You who have departed from your own self,
and who have not yet reached the Friend:
do not be sad, (for) He is accompanying you in each of (your) breaths. (Sheikh Ansari)

Any eye filled with the vision of this world
cannot see the attributes of the Hereafter,
Any eye filled with the attributes of the Hereafter
would be deprived of the Beauty (Jamal) of (Divine) Oneness. (Sheikh Ansari)

The heart left, and the Friend is (also) gone.
I don’t know whether I should go after the Friend or after the heart!
A voice spoke to me:  “Go in pursuit of the Friend, because the lover needs a heart in order to find union with the Friend. If there was no Friend, what would (the lover) do with (his) heart?” (Sheikh Ansari)

Go sweep out the chamber of your heart. 
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved. 
When you depart out, He will enter it. 
In you, void of yourself, will He display His beauties. (Mahmud Shabistari)

What are “I” and “You”?
Just lattices.
In the niches of a lamp
Through which the One Light radiates.

“I” and “You” are the veil
Between heaven and earth;
Lift this veil and you will see 
How all sects and religions are one.

Lift this veil and you will ask—
When “I” and “You” do not exist
What is mosque?
What is synagogue?
What is fire temple?  (Mahmud Shabistari)

Don’t speak of your suffering — He is speaking.
Don’t look for Him everywhere — He’s looking for you.

An ant’s foot touches a leaf, He senses it;
A pebble shifts in a streambed, He knows it.

If there’s a worm hidden deep in a rock,
He’ll know its body, tinier than an atom,

The sound of its praise, its secret ecstasy –
All this He knows by divine knowing.

He has given the tiniest worm its food;
He has opened to you the Way of the Holy Ones. (Sanai)

O bird of the morning, learn love from the moth
because it burnt, lost its life, and found no voice.
These pretenders are ignorantly in search of Him,
Because he who obtained knowledge has not returned.(Sheikh Muslih-uddin Sa’di Shirazi)

Listen for the stream that tells you one thing.
Die on this bank. Begin in me
the way of rivers with the sea. (Jalaluddin Rumi)

You’ve no idea how hard I’ve looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.What’s the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient. It’s no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these. So- I’ve brought you a mirror. Look at yourself and remember me. (Jalaluddin Rumi)

Longing is the core of mystery.
Longing itself brings the cure.
The only rule is, Suffer the pain.

Your desire must be disciplined,
and what you want to happen
in time, sacrificed. (Jalaluddin Rumi)

Who is man?
The reflection of the Eternal Light.

What is the world?
A wave on the Everlasting Sea.

How could the reflection be cut off from the Light?

How could the wave be separated from the Sea?

Know that this reflection and this wave are that very Light and Sea. (Ahmad al-Jami)

Hidden behind the veil of mystery, Beauty is eternally free from the slightest stain of imperfection.  From the atoms of the world, He created a multitude of mirrors; into each one of them He cast the image of His Face; to the awakened eye, anything that appears beautiful is only a reflection of that Face.

 Now that you have seen the reflection, hurry to its Source; in that primordial Light the reflection vanishes completely.  Do not linger far from that primal Source; when the reflection fades, you will be lost in darkness.  The reflection is as transient as the smile of a rose; if you want permanence, turn towards the Source; if you want fidelity, look to the Mine of faithfulness.  Why tear your soul apart over something here one moment and gone the next?  (Ahmad al-Jami)

Whether your destiny is glory or disgrace, Purify yourself of hatred and love of self. Polish your mirror; and that sublime Beauty From the regions of mystery Will flame out in your heart As it did for the saints and prophets. Then, with your heart on fire with that Splendor, The secret of the Beloved will no longer be hidden. (Ahmad al-Jami)

So long as we do not die to ourselves, and so long as we identify with someone or something,
we shall never be free.The spiritual way is not for those wrapped up in exterior life. (Farid ud Din Attar)

Strive to discover the mystery before life is taken from you.
If while living you fail to find yourself, to know yourself,
how will you be able to understand
the secret of your existence when you die?  (Farid ud Din Attar)

Intoxicated by the Wine of Love.
From each a mystic silence Love demands.
What do all seek so earnestly? ‘Tis Love.
What do they whisper to each other? Love.
Love is the subject of their inmost thoughts.
In Love no longer ‘thou’ and ‘I’ exist,
For Self has passed away in the Beloved.
Now will I draw aside the veil from Love,
And in the temple of mine in most soul,
Behold the Friend; Incomparable Love.
He who would know the secret of both worlds,
Will find the secret of them both, is Love.  (Farid ud Din Attar)

In the dead of night, a Sufi began to weep.
He said, “This world is like a closed coffin, in which 
We are shut and in which, through our ignorance,
We spend our lives in folly and desolation.
When Death comes to open the lid of the coffin,
Each one who has wings will fly off to Eternity,
But those without will remain locked in the coffin.
So, my friends, before the lid of this coffin is taken off,
Do all you can to become a bird of the Way to God;
Do all you can to develop your wings and your feathers.”   (Farid ud Din Attar)

O, friend! Nobody veils you, but yourself.
In your path there is no thorn or weed, but yourself.
You asked:  shall I reach the beloved or not?
Between you and the beloved there is nobody, but yourself.  (Awhadoddin Kermani)

You do not have to struggle to reach God,but you do have to struggle to tear away the self-created veil that hides him from you. (Paramahansa Yogananda)

How long will you keep pounding on an open door begging for someone to open it? (Rabi’a  al-‘Adawiyya)

Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two my life flows. (Nisargadatta Maharaj)

Love for God is the expansion of the heart, and all actions that come from the lover of God are virtues; they cannot be otherwise.  (Hazrat Inayat Khan) 

The Prophet said that Truth has declared: “I am not hidden in what is high or low, Nor in the earth nor skies nor throne. This is certainty, O beloved: I am hidden in the heart of the faithful. If you seek me, seek in these hearts.”  (Jalaluddin Rumi)

In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?  (Rabia al-Adawiyya)

Until you become an unbeliever in your own self,
you cannot become a believer in God.  (Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir)

Fasting is a way to save on food. Vigil and prayer is a labor for old folks. Pilgrimage is an occasion for tourism. To distribute bread in alms is something for philanthropists. Fall in love: That is doing something!   (Sheikh Ansari)

A devoutly religious man, who was disciple of Bayazid, said to him one day: ‘I am surprised that anyone who accepts God should not attend the mosque for worship.’ Bayazid answered: ‘I, on the other hand, am surprised that anyone who knows God can worship him and not lose his senses, rendering his ritual prayer invalid.’- Among the Masters (The Way of the Sufi)

Silence for the ordinary people is with their tongues, silence for the mystics is with their hearts, and silence for the lovers is with restraining the stray thoughts that come to their innermost beings.  Traditional

There is an organ in the body that, if it is righteous, ensures that the whole system will be righteous; and if corrupt, the whole body will become corrupt. This organ is the heart. – Hadith

The question of divine knowledge is so deep that it is really known only to those who have it. A child has no real knowledge of the attainments of an adult. An ordinary adult cannot understand the attainments of a learned man. In the same way, an educated man cannot yet understand the experiences of enlightened saints or sufis.  (Imam Ghazali)

O bird of the morning, learn love from the moth
Because it burnt, lost its life, and found no voice.
These pretenders are ignorantly in search of Him,
Because he who obtained knowledge has not returned.   (Sheikh Muslih-uddin Sa’di Shirazi)

When you are with everyone but me,
you are with no one.
When you with no one but me,
you’re with everyone.
Instead of being so bound up with everyone,
be everyone.
When you become that many, you’re nothing.
Empty.  (Jalaluddin Rumi)

The Beauty of Oneness’

Any eye filled with the vision of this world
cannot see the attributes of the Hereafter,
Any eye filled with the attributes of the Hereafter
 would be deprived of the Beauty (Jamal) of (Divine) Oneness.  (Sheikh Ansari)

Ji Chahe To Sheesha Ban Ja, Ji Chahe Paimana Ban Ja
Sheesha Paimana Kya Ban Na, Mai Ban Ja, Maikhana Ban Ja
Mai Ban Kar, Maikhana Ban Kar, Masti Ka Afsana Ban Ja.

Masti Ka Afsana Ban Kar, Hasti Se Begana Ban Ja
Hasti Se Begana Hona, Masti Ka Afsana Ban Na
Is Hone Se, Is Ban Ne Sa, Accha Hai Deewana Ban Ja.

Deewana Ban Jane Se Bhi, Deewana Hona Accha Hai
Deewana Hone Se Accha, Khak-e-dar-e-jana Ban Ja
Khak-e-dar-e-jana Kya Hai, Ahle-dil Ki Ankh Ka Surma.

Shamma Ke Dil Ki Thandak Ban Ja, Noor-e Dil-e-parwana Ban Ja
Seekh Zahin Ki Dil Se Jal Na, Kahe Ko Har Shamma Pe Jal Na
Apni Aag Me Khud Jal Jaye, Tu Aisa Parwana Ban Ja.  (Zahin Shah)

Do not boast that you have no pride, because it is less visible than an ant’s foot on a black stone in a dark night. And do not think that bringing it out from within is easy, for it is easier to extract a mountain from the earth with a needle.  (Hakim Jami)

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