Sufism Quotes

“Falling in love is the rise of life.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mücadele Muhabbet: Gospel of An Unarmed Soldier

“Tawhid, Unity in its deepest sense, is the first principle of Religion, which impels the Sufis to claim that all, everything, is He. This is true not merely at that spiritual stage of Intuition in which the seer and Seen are said to be one, but even at the beginning of the Path. For the aspirant himself is said to be the very object of aspiration. Like a thief who mingles unseen with the crowd that pursues him, the obiect of our search is "closer to us than our jugular vein" (L, 16). As Ahmad Ghazali put it, "We drown in an endless ocean, yet our lips are parched with thirst.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry

“Quotes from the Book:

“The main characteristic of the approaches of the Hour is escalating disorder and confusion and that there shall be such turbulence affecting both the world of ideas and that of events that, as other hadiths say, even stable intelligent people will be in danger of losing their bearings.

Only those will be able to find their way that have armed themselves with the knowledge of how to understand these times and guard themselves against their dangers.

When as Muslims we speak of dangers, it must be understood that the gravest of all as far as we are concerned is disbelief, not physical danger. Next to disbelief comes moral confusion leading to corruption of such magnitude as to lead, even in the presence of faith, to punishment in Hell.

This is why the Prophet—may God’s blessings and peace be upon him—warned of this worst kind of danger, saying: ‘Seditions will occur, when a man shall awaken in the morning a believer, becoming a disbeliever by nightfall, save he whom God has given life to by means of knowledge.’
[Ibn Maja, Sunan, Kitab (36) al-Fitan, Bab (9) Mā yakūn min al-fitan, 3954].

*

This then is how to approach the subject: first one should familiarize oneself with the details, meditate on them at length, while applying the knowledge to the surrounding phenomena and events, then strive to extract and grasp the patterns, after which one may move on to deduce the principles, which are the all-inclusive cosmic laws involved. Principles, precisely because of their all-inclusive nature, are few, but need effort and time to be adequately comprehended. Having understood these, one is under obligation to transmit this knowledge and discuss it frequently with one’s children, relatives, friends, and as far as possible transmit it to the entire upcoming generation.”
― Mostafa al-Badawi, Twilight of a World: The Signs of the Times at the Approaches of the Hour According to Islam

“Among the sufis, one attains purity not by ritual ablution, not by faith and worship, not by deed or merit, but by direct knowledge, experience, certainty, the drunkenness of ecstatic realization. Only this intoxication truly purifies the soul, because with this "wine" one becomes lost, and finds oneself, within the heart. One loses all separative delusions, the dirt of a muffled consciousness, and attains the One. This is to wander nude in the bazaar, like a naked Qalandar. But if the bazaar is shocked, then scandal belongs to the bazaar, not the dervish. Like a drunkard, the suf loses his reputation in the world because the world has lost its reputation with him. The petty bazaar stands accused of hypocrisy; the naked man stands before God.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Scandal: Essays in Islamic Heresy

“And Our freedom depends on other people's freedom, for our fates are inextricably interwoven with others', especially with those we love.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam

“Why should anyone care about [esoteric wisdom]? Because it challenges our understanding of God, and dares us to transform ourselves. It shatters childish theological images, and discovers a God called Infinity-God as infinity, transforms Gender and Personality."- Daniel Matt, a scholar of Kabbalah and Professor at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley”
― Serena Jade

“The people of the world are astonished by technology, inventions, innovations, and development but are ignorant of the powerful ability of the mind to visualize, comprehend and manifest. We always wondered about things outside of us but not what is within ourselves.”
― Aiyaz Uddin, The Inward Journey

“Ever since I have found you,
Left everything and I flocked around you,
Ever since I have seen you,
Forgotten everything every time I saw you,
Ever since I have listened to you,
Stopped listening to anything other than you,
Ever since I have met you,
The world around me vanished except you!”
― Aiyaz Uddin, The Inward Journey

“A heart measurable is no heart at all.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Making Britain Civilized: How to Gain Readmission to The Human Race

“In love everybody is servant, everybody is king.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Making Britain Civilized: How to Gain Readmission to The Human Race

“My friend, shut your eyelids and look at what you see. If you
tell me: I see nothing—you are mistaken. You can see very well,
but unfortunately the darkness of your nature is so close to you
that it obstructs your inner sight, to the point that you do not
discern what is to be seen. If you want to discern it and to see it in
front of you even with your eyes closed, begin by diminishing or
by putting away from you something of your nature. But the path
leading to that end is spiritual warfare. And the meaning of
spiritual warfare is putting everything to work so as to repel the
enemies or to kill them. The enemies in this case are nature, the
lower soul, and the devil.”
― Henry Corbin, The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism

“The day when you get command over your physical vehicle (body) is the day you learn that your vehicle is not just flesh and bones but rather it is an assembly of the physical and metaphysical planes of elements from the cosmos. A human is just not the abode of the soul but also an antenna, channel, and medium to higher dimensions and consciousness.”
― Aiyaz Uddin, The Inward Journey

“Shared with Public
Your adoration soothes the hearts
Oh Beloved, Your light flows from my wounds while I taste the isolation in a sip of wine
Sip after sip I leave the shadow of your creation towards the Absolute Consciousness”
― Yahia El Haroui

“Your adoration soothes the hearts
Oh Beloved, Your light flows from my wounds while I taste the isolation in a sip of wine
Sip after sip I leave the shadow of your creation towards the Absolute Consciousness”
― Yahia El Haroui

“There are Wise and there are the Vice...”
― Qhavi Hussain

“Ye Khaaki Kaar-E-Ashiyaane me masroof hogaya,

Ye mai ke is jaal me mashghool hogaya;

Jab khuli nazar dekh apne aap ko hairat me rehgaya,

Ye Fikr-E-Haal-E-Dil aur Khudi se mehroom rehgaya;”
― Qhavi Hussain

“My most soulful words come from me as a sufi (muslim) poet, my most righteous words come from me as a humanitarian scientist, my most passionate words come from me as a latin lover, and my most humane words come from me as an advaitin (nondualist). The entire world is contained in my chest. Vilify a single culture, and you vilify me.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Her Insan Ailem: Everyone is Family, Everywhere is Home

“Divinity in Its Transcendence, the Absolute before any Self-manifestation, cannot be contemplated, for contemplation implies a subject and an object, and the Absolute is beyond all duality, all "place" and all knowing. It is the Mystery, the utterly inscrutable secret in the deepest part of Being, veiled behind all the inmost veils, yet somehow luring and teasing the lover. And the lover waits outside the door, ready to surrender his life at a sign.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry

“The drop of rain knows who and what it is as long as it remains a drop. When it falls back into the sea, its origin, it can no longer know.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry

“Quando o amor me subjuga o coração, meu canto é como o suspiroso mar.”
― Attar of Nishapur, The Conference of the Birds

“Yes, I am a muslim poet (sufi), I am also humankind's pinnacle of peace and reason. I have done more for integration and humanitarianism than most writers, scholars, and philosophers in history. Now tell me - what were you saying about, all muslims are terrorists!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World

“Metaphysical truth is scandalous; that is, it violates all the accepted modes of perception, all the ordinary, epistemologically neutral expectations of the sleeping soul. It tears open a curtain and reveals the occult; it unveils a beauty which is "forbidden" only because we ignore it in our stupor.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Scandal: Essays in Islamic Heresy

“As for me, I admire above all Noble Drew's aesthetic, his unique and special blend of Afro-American, Native-American, High Magical, and Oriental symbolism and imagery - as well as his courage, his martyrdom, and his revolutionary stance against "Pharaoh." By Americanizing the prophetic spirit he injected our culture with a kind of folk Sufism. On the esoteric level, anyone who loves Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom, and Justice is a member of the "Asiatic race" and the Lost/Found Moorish Nation of North America.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam

“Our freedom depends on other people's freedom, for our fates are inextricably interwoven with others', especially with those we love.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam

“To be a '"free lord" in secret is better than being a public slave”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Scandal: Essays in Islamic Heresy

“Art has little to do with made things, but rather concerns a state of mind, a way of being, a gesture that cannot be betrayed, a life.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Scandal: Essays in Islamic Heresy

“Art has little to do with made things, but rather concerns a state of mind, a way of being, a gesture that cannot be betrayed, a life”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam

“When you say the name of Khezr (or Khadir) in company you should always add the greeting "Salaam aliekum!" since he may be there - immortal and anonymous, engaged on some mysterious karmic errand. Perhaps he'll hint of his identity by wearing green, or by revealing knowledge of the occult and hidden. But he's something of a spy, and if you have no need to know he's unlikely to tell you. Still, one of his functions is to convince skeptics of the existence of the marvelous, to rescue those who are lost in deserts of doubt and dryness. So he's needed now more than ever, and surely still moves among us playing his great game.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam

“If modern dervishes are no more than
"traditional hippies," still I feel that the world has a secret but absolute need for the presence of such wild free spirits, just as it needs the presence of some wilderness, unplanned, unmanaged, apparently profitless, chaotic as God first made it. (And both of these needs seem to fall under the patronage of the master traveler, Khezr himself).”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam

“For the Sufi Traveler, every journey is the haji, every tajalli is the Kaaba. Every path, if it be properly understood, is the Path; every way, however fraught with difficulty, can be experienced as a "straight" path to realization.”
― Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam