Spiritual Health Learning Community Center Exploring Life's Horizons   »   Compassion Menu Sufi Compassion - Articles, Essays, FAQs, and More Insights of The Saintly The world has no substantive reality. Rather, it exists as a shadowy play. - Shabistari The Truth, or al-Haqq, desired to see the essences of the most perfect and beautiful Divine Names - which are inexhaustible in number. God wished to see Divine essence manifested through a universal object which is endowed with existence by God and is given the capacity of recapitulating the entire Divine Order and, thereby, display the mystery of Divinity to Divinity. - Ibn ‘Arabi Do not commit foul deeds, for, you should understand that even our so-called "fair" deeds appear foul in the sight of our most beautiful Loved One. - Rumi The individual who looks toward creation fails, while the one who returns to the Truth prevails. - al-Hujwiri Close the doorway of your heart through which ‘otherness’ enters. Your heart is God's House of worship. Be vigilant with respect to the closing of the doorway of otherness, and remain in God's House until you meet Divinity. - Niffari No act finds greater favor with God than struggling against passion, for destroying a mountain with one’s fingernails is far easier than is resisting passion. - Junayd Do not wander idly from contingent event to contingent event, since such wandering is like the beast of burden of grinding mills. This being plods along and, yet, the destination sought by this animal is none other than the place from which it began. Instead, you should travel from creation to the Creator. - Ibn ’Ata’illah Death is a bridge which joins the lover to the Beloved. - ’Abd al-’Aziz ibn Sulayman Do not permit misfortune or poverty to cause you distress, for just as gold is purified and forged in the fire, so the believing seeker is immersed in trials. - ’Ali Most human beings are like those who are addicted to, and under the influence of, alcohol - completely unaware of their own condition. The wise are fully conscious, far removed from the somnolent state of the addicted. - Ansari The world is a field which belongs to Satan (Iblis), and people "of" the world are tillers in his field. - Isa (Jesus - Peace be upon him) The one who knows God has no interest in Divine gifts, but the one who neglects God and, therefore, is ignorant of God, this person is insatiable concerning Divine gifts. - Ahmad al- ’Alawi  Love the One Who, when you no longer exist, will continue to Be, so that you may become one with That which will never cease to be. - Abu Sa’id ibn Abi ’l-Khayr The individual of least spiritual capacity is the one who demonstrates the least capacity for self-correction. - ’Ali Oh my child, the entire mystical Path consists of spiritual sacrifice. If you are inclined to this, then this is good. If you are not so inclined, then do not pursue the difficulties of the Sufi Path. - Abu Muhammad Ruwaym An individual is spiritually perfect only when honor and humiliation, or bestowal and denial are considered alike by the heart. - Abu ’Uthman al-Hayri al-Nisaburi The people who are most separated from God are those knowers who are separated by their knowledge, and those devotees who are separated by their devotion, and those ascetics who are separated by their asceticism. Bayazid al-Bistami Aspire to withdraw all traces of self-interest from your transactions with God. For, as long as self-interest is present, sincerity or ikhlas cannot be achieved. Worship motivated by self-interest is like work done for wages, whereas worship motivated by sincerity is work done in the service of God without thought of return. Abu ’l-Qasim Bishr-I Yasin Each individual hears God speak in accordance with the degree to which the essential Realities have penetrated the individual, since God establishes each thing in its place. - Jili There are those for whom death is like a draught of pure water for the thirsty. - ibn al-’Arif Nothing impels one like illusion (al-wahm. - Ibn 'At'illah The whole of existence is nothing but imagination within imagination, while Being is God alone. - Ibn 'Arabi The veil between God and you is not a matter of heaven or the earth, nor is it a matter of the Throne or the Footstool. Rather, your illusions and sense of selfhood are the veil. When these are removed, then the curtain of separation will disappear. - Abu Sa'id ibn Abi 'l-Khayr Those whom Love draws near are the most severely tried. - 'Attar Place your sin beneath your feet, and place your virtue beneath your sin. - Niffari In truth, your fear of death is actually only your fear of yourself. You should clearly see that from which you are fleeing. - Rumi Restoring one dead heart to the eternal life is better than restoring life to a thousand dead bodies. - Pir Murad The alchemical process of spiritual transformation both begins and ends with fire. - Ibn Bishrun I did not arrive at Truth through either a series of proofs or sequence of steps in reasoning, but by means of a flash of light which God placed in my soul. - Al-Ghazali Since I have known God, neither truth nor falsehood has entered my heart. - Abu Hafs Haddad Do you not understand that the light of the sun is but the reflection of the Sun beyond the veil of our ignorance. - Rumi Your eye does not have enough strength To gaze at the burning sun’s light, But you can watch its brilliant might At length through the sun’s reflection, Which is mirrored in the water. So, too, can the reflection of Absolute Being be viewed In the mirror of non-being. For non-existence - being the Opposite of Reality, is Able to reflect an Image. - Shabistari All opposing truths are unified in the Truth which is One. - Jili You are but an atom, and God is the great Whole But, if , for a few days, you will mediate  With care on the Whole, you may become one with It. - Jami What is worship? To realize Reality! - Ansari Tawhid (unity) is the return of a human being to one’s origins so that the person will be as one was before coming into being. - Junayd Perhaps, God may open the door of obedience to you , yet the door of acceptance remains closed. Maybe, God ordains sin for you, yet this becomes a means to realization. - Ibn ’Ata’illah A single atom of God's love in one's heart is worth more than a hundred thousand paradises. - Bayazid al-Bistami The Double only appears to be, but the One is. Give yourself to self-annihilation, So that this false Two in that true One may live. - 'Attar Glory be to Him who veils Himself with manifestations of His Light and manifests Himself through drawing a veil over His Face. - Jami The one who sees by Illumination, sees Divinity first in all things. - Shabistari When one's eye is filled with love of the world, the vision of the heart is extinguished. - Ibrahim ibn Adman The understanding which leads to renunciation is rooted in a realization that relative to what is being received, what is being renounced is of small value. - Al-Ghazali The one who listens to slander becomes a slanderer by the act of listening. - 'Ali Compassion Menu Copyright © 2004 Interrogative Imperative Institute. All Rights Reserved.