Idries Shah Quotes

THE HEAVENSTo the mallet of the Highest MindThe heavens are the smallest possible ball.(Akhlaq-i-Mohsini)

THE BIRD AND THE WATERA bird which has not heard of fresh waterDips his beak in salt-water year after year.(Anwar-i-Suhaili)

Three ThingsThree things cannot be retrieved:The arrow once sped from the bowThe word spoken in hasteThe missed opportunity.(Ali the Lion, Caliph of Islam, son-in-law of Mohammed the Prophet),

Saying of the Mulla Nasrudin. If I survive this life without dying, I'll be surprised.

You are still adrift while you still think that a means is an end.

I have heard all that you have had to say to me on your problems.You ask me what to do about them.It is my view that your real problem is that you are a member of the human race.Face that one first.

Sufis deny the absolute reality of time, space and physical form. These things are both relative and local. They only appear to be absolute.

Correct teaching brings out human excellence.

Man thinks many things. He thinks he is One. He is usually several. Until he becomes One, he cannot have a fair idea of what he is at all.

Who is the wrong person to criticise?You

Greed harms you: generosity helps you. This is why is has been said: 'Greed is the mother of incapacity'.

Water shrinks wool, urgency shrinks time.Shrinkage may be an advantage or the reverse, according to expectation.

A great deal of thought is only a substitute for the thoughts that the individual would really find useful at the time.

If you assume that it is there, you will generally not be far off the truth.

The stupidest man I ever met had a favourite saying.It was:'What do you think I am, stupid, or something?

What is sometimes thought to be clever is, significantly often, merely an advanced form of foolishness.

Is your division of Understanding into Greater and Lesser common to all Sufis? Nothing which is put into words is common to all Sufis.

Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?'.

The clothes may vary, but the person is the same.

The teaching must, of course, work with the best part of the individual, must be directed to his or her real capacity.

Definitions from Mulla Do-PiazaFlattery:One of the most promising of businesses: always brisk.

Sufis (the name for the realised individual, not the learner or follower) are reunited with objective Reality and Unity.

Knowledge gives nothing to a man until he gives everything to it.

People cannot handle prejudice because they try to deal with the symptom. Prejudice is the symptom, wrong assumptions are the cause.'Prejudice is the daughter of assumption.

Banality is like boredom: bored people are boring people, people who think that things are banal are themselves banal.Interesting people can find something interesting in all things.

A motto of the human race: Let me do as I like, and give me approval as well.

Knowledge cannot be attained except through humility.

Religion, for instance, cannot be accepted or rejected out of hand, until the student knows exactly what religion means.

People used to play with toys.Now the toys play with them.

Sufism, " according to the Sufi, "is an adventure in living, necessary adventure.

Knowledge is something which you can use.Belief is something which uses you.

The Sufis regard systems which treat everyone alike as mechanical and degenerate.

In a village where everyone has only one leg, the biped will hop about more lamely than anyone else, if he knows what is good for him.

One day we will all wear a garment which has no pockets...

Wisdom is when you understand what, previously, at best you only knew.

SAYING OF SHEIKH ZIAUDIN:Self-justification is worse than the original offence.

It is not Sufism if it does not perform its function for you. A cloak is no longer a cloak if it does not keep a man warm.

If wine is the enemy of religion, I shall devour the enemy of religion.

The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted, not to leave unaltered traces.

Haste is from the Devil.

Fettered feet in the presence of friends is better than living in a garden with strangers.

If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the method.

Most people, whatever their opinions and protestations, do not want to learn.

One of the basic Sufi needs is to enable people to see themselves as they really are.

The Sufi teacher’s mission is to be in the service of those who can learn.

The teacher works in accordance with the prospects of his students and the possibility of maintaining the community of Sufis.

ScrapsThe scraps from the meal of the Emir are larger than the gifts of halwa from the merchant. Timur Fazil

A man must be a Salomon before his magical ring will work. (Hafiz)

Imagination blocks you like a bolt on a door. Burn that bar. (Rumi)

Our objective is to achieve, by the understanding of the Origin, the Knowledge which comes through experience.