The Sufis Quotes

“It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“Deep in the sea are riches beyond compare. But if you seek safety, it is on the shore.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“The sight of God in woman is the most perfect of all." Ibn Arabi.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That 'mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment' is a commonplace of Sufi literature”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“among roses, be a rose, among thorns, be a thorn”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“Sufism, the "secret tradition," is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“If you will not reprove yourself,’ Saadi says, ‘you will not welcome reproof from another.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“إن المتصوفة انتقلوا بالحضور الأنثوي للمرأة، روحيا وجسديا إلى الفضاء الجمالي، وأصبحت المرأة هي المجلى الأكمل للجمال الإلهي المطلق.”
― هالة أحمد فؤاد, The Sufis

“The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted, not to leave unaltered traces.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“It is axiomatic that the attempt to become a Sufi through a desire for personal power as normally understood will not succeed.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“Fettered feet in the presence of friends is better than living in a garden with strangers.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“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, The Sufis

“Practise your knowledge, for knowledge without practice is a body without life”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“All life is struggle, says the Sufi, but the struggle must be a coherent one. The average man is struggling against too many things all at once. If a confused and incomplete person makes money, or becomes a professional success, he still remains a confused and incomplete person.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“He who sleeps on the Road will lose either his hat or his head.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“Sufism, in one definition, "is" human life.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“The worst of sages is a visitor of princes; the best of princes is a visitor of sages.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“When you are still fragmentated, lacking certainty — what difference does it make what your decisions are?”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“It is necessary to note," says Rumi, "that opposite things work together, even though nominally opposed" (Fihi Ma Fihi).”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“Lo Aparente es el Puente hacia lo Real’.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“Man is the microcosm, creation the macrocosm — the unity. All comes from One.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“Sufism," according to the Sufi, "is an adventure in living, necessary adventure.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“I asked a child, walking with a candle, ‘From where comes that light?’ Instantly he blew it out. ‘Tell me where it is gone — then I will tell you where it came from.’ (Hasan of Basra)”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“The basic urge toward mysticism is never, in the unaltered man, clear enough to be recognized for what it is.”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“Take the wheat, not the measure in which it is contained”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“The practice of the Sufis is too sublime to have a formal beginning,”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis

“The Sufis say, "This is not a religion; it is religion”
― Idries Shah, The Sufis