Quotessence
Home / Topics / Sufi Quotes Quotes

Sufi Quotes Quotes

Browse 98 quotes about Sufi Quotes.

Sufi Quotes Quotes

“there you go again;
with that non sense saying i was raised in flowers and gardens. don't you know better? i was raised from the dirt,
since birth, no sense in the universe. fail to see the good in sincerity veil removed, i know see reality nail and tooth, my heart is in agony; hell with the love you preach; it's a fallacy”

“The lover drinks and the cup-bearer pours. The lover thinks but the cup-bearer knows: love begets love. Since this wine is love, then this cup is love, then this tavern is love, then this life is love.”

“You are veiled behind the scriptures, You are veiled behind the verses, You are veiled behind the meaning, You are veiled behind the alphabet, You are veiled behind the numbers, You are veiled behind the alif, You are veiled behind the dot, You are veiled behind the prophets, You are veiled behind the messengers, You are veiled behind the awliya, You are veiled behind the sufiya, You are veiled behind the nafs, You are veiled behind the universe, You are veiled behind the body!”

“The human being was created for something more than just living and dying by our egos and desires. Like granite, our egos are transformed and purified by the heat of worldly trials and friction into the precious ruby of the spirit. We were not sent to this Earth to achieve something, but rather to become what we have always been—a mirror for the divine qualities of Allah. We were created to know, love and worship Allah through purifying our hearts and becoming representatives of Allah’s mercy upon all of creation without discrimination.”

“As Rumi says, “Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” As Muslims we are called to guide one another, advise one another and to celebrate one another. The Qur’an’s command toward “enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong” (Qur’an 3:104) is not an excuse for judging and shaming each other. As my teacher once said, “If you can’t counsel someone from love, then don’t counsel them because if you advise others from a place of judgment then you are fostering the quality of arrogance within you.”

“As Muslims we can advise one another from love, but the role of the Divine Judge, Al-Hakam, is purely reserved for Allah alone. As Muslims we can’t be harsh with the creation and expect the Creator of that creation to be soft with us. In fact, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم tells us, “The merciful will be shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will have mercy upon you.”

“As the thirteenth-century mystic Ibn Ata’ Allah Al- Iskandari says, “Don’t think you are veiled from Allah by something that is not Allah. There is nothing besides Allah. You are veiled from Him by the illusion that there is something other than Allah.”

“A shopkeeper had an assistant whose eyes were crossed and thus saw everything double. One day, the shopkeeper asked his assistant to grab a one-of-a-kind, expensive jar of rose water from the storeroom for a special customer. The assistant ran to the storeroom, only to return moments later and ask, “I see two jars, which one would you like me to bring?” The shopkeeper impatiently sighed, as he had grown accustomed to such questions. The shopkeeper decided to try a new tactic with his assistant so he said, “Break one of the jars and bring me the one that’s left!” The assistant apprehensively followed the shopkeeper’s orders and broke one of the jars, which of course caused “the other” jar to break too.”

“As an anonymous writer once said, “The light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion, the tunnel is.” The declaration of la illaha illa Allah is a reminder that all shapes and forms are like a mirage before the face of God. Allah is the only Truth, Al- Haqq. As the mystics say, “The World is not Allah but there is nothing else but Allah.” Nothing moves without Him. Nothing lives and exists without Him. Allah’s spirit or ruh, was blown into the dead earth of humankind to give us life. We live because of Al-Hayy, The All-Living. We see because of Al-Basir, The All-Seeing. We hear because of As-Sami,’ The All-Hearing. Everything we are mirrors the beauty of our Lord. We are because He is.”

“When Allah makes us aware of a sin we committed, He is not punishing us, but rather inviting us toward His presence. In this way, the moment we are drawn to sincere repentance, we are in effect unveiling the forgiveness that Allah has already written for us to experience. Someone asked the great eighth-century mystic Rabia Al-Adawiyya, “I have sinned much; if I repent, will Allah forgive me?” She profoundly replied, “It is the opposite; if Allah forgives you, you are capable of repentance.”

“The principles of Islam teach us to be messengers of peace—to be like water, gentle enough to wash away tears and strong enough to drown hatred. To be Muslim is to protect the weak, the orphan, the beggar, the disabled of all races and cultures. To be Muslim is not to be color-blind, but to see the differences between people and to celebrate that diversity as a product of the free will that God chose to give us. As the Qur’an says, “And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed, in that are signs for those of knowledge” (30:22)”

“The worst thing we can do is think that something we’re feeling is so wrong and horrible that we isolate ourselves from God, thinking we’re not worthy of being in His presence. We must remember that Allah doesn’t expect us to be perfect; after all, our sense of self-worth is not dependent on us, but on God. When we bring our poverty, our neediness, and our nothingness to God, He meets us with His generosity (Al-Karim), His ability to satisfy all needs (As-Samad), and His richness (Al-Ghaniy). Just as if you want light in your room you must open the blinds, if you want the shadows and dark places in your being to dissolve, you have to open your heart to the light of Allah. In essence, all of existence is just a reflection of the light of God’s grace manifesting into different forms.”

“As long as your heart is beating, you have a purpose. God is intentional, so He does not keep anyone on Earth that doesn’t have to be here; if we are blessed with more life, it is because someone in the world needs us. If we are alive, it means that what we were sent to this Earth to create has not yet been accomplished.”

“In Arabic, the word fitna, meaning “hardship,” stems from the word fatanah, which means “to test gold, burn with fire.” Just as gold is heated to extract valuable elements from the useless surrounding material, it is through the fire of our trials that our golden essence is unearthed.”

“In my early twenties, I was traveling through a small town in Turkey called Cappadocia, when the divine spark of faith reignited within me like lightning. All it took was my eyes to fall upon a woman who was drowned in her worship of God. I watched her pray in an old seventeenth-century animal barn, as if nothing in the world existed but her divine Lover. She did not robotically repeat words of prayer like a formula; rather, every word she uttered came with a silent “I love you, my beloved Lord.” Her words were like synchronized dancers swimming in unison in the ocean of love that poured out of her. She was the first person I had ever seen in my life that not only prayed but she herself became the prayer.”

“Just as it takes a baby nine months in the belly of its mother to develop, the moon many nights to become full, and a caterpillar weeks in a cocoon to become a butterfly, through entering the womb of Ramadan and fasting the entire month, our faith transforms.”

“Death begs us to anchor our happiness not on what is fleeting, but rather on Allah, whose love is eternal and unchanging. Death reminds us that the only thing that is real and unchanging is God. Everything else in existence, whether it be good or bad, will eventually perish. As the great Tibetan master Jetsun Milarepa poetically said, “The sound of thunder, although deafening, is harmless; the rainbow, despite its brilliant colors does not last; this world, though it appears pleasant, is like a dream; the pleasures of the senses, though agreeable, ultimately lead to disillusionment.”

“Just as clouds cannot affect the presence and power of the sun’s light, but can alter our experience of the intensity of the light, sin can veil our perception of our inner goodness, but it cannot change it.”