428 quotes
Why does the formation of an infant take nine months,
Because God’s method is to work by slow degrees.
Not hurrying on like you, O raw one,
Who claim to be a Shaikh whilst yet only a child.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
T am a bird of the heavenly garden; I belong not to the earthly sphere,
They have made for two or three days a cage of my body.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When my bier moveth on the day of death,
Think not my heart is in this world,
Do not weep for me, and cry, ‘Woe! Woe!’
Thou wilt fall in the devil’s snare; that is woe.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Though the material sun is unique and single,
We can conceive similar suns like to it,
But the Sun of the soul beyond this firmament,
No like thereof is seen in concrete or abstract.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Nor gold nor silver seek I but above
All gifts, the heart, and buy it with my love,
Yea! one sad contrite heart which men despise,
More than my throne and fixed decree I prize.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
It is on account of their sweet voices
That choice parrots and nightingales are prisoned in cages;
Ugly owls and crows are never prisoned in cages,
Such a thing was never heard of in history.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
I will not shun thy blow, for very crude
Is the heart that ne’er burned in the fire of thine affliction,
To thy praise and praisers there is no end,
What atom but is reeling with thy praise?
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
O heart! weak follower of the weak,
That thou shouldst traverse land and sea,
In this far place that God to seek
Who long ago had come to thee!
Attributed Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient (1882)
Traditional knowledge when inspiration is available
Is like making ablutions with sand when water is near
Make yourself ignorant, be submissive, and then
You will obtain release from your ignorance.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Since you are properly a clod you will not rise into the air;
You will rise into the air if you break and become dust,
If you break not, He who moulded you will break you.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
O Brother, you are essentially thought,
All the rest of you is bone and sinew,
If your thoughts are rose-like, you are a rose-garden
If they are thorn-like, you are fuel for the furnace.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Alas for this life so light, beware of this slumber so heavy,
O soul seek the Beloved,
O friend seek the Friend
O watchman be wakeful; it behoves not a watchman to sleep.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
In man’s esteem the world is vast without an end
With Power Infinite compared, a grain of sand
The world’s around the soul a dismal prison den
Arise! Escape! Regain the fields at large! Be men!
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
As a stone which is changed into a pure ruby
Is filled with the bright light of the sun,
In that stone its own properties abide not
It is filled with the sun’s properties altogether.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The strange thing is, not that winged fowl
Fall into the deadly snare without seeing it,
But that they see the snare and the limed twig,
And yet fall into it, whether they will or no.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Ah, how many diverse roads are pointed out
And each followed by some sect for dear life,
If the right road were easily obtainable
Every Jew and Gueber would have hit on it.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Place a sword in his hand and remove his impotence
To see if he turns out a warrior or a robber;
Because freewill is that with which ‘We honour Adam,’
Half the swarm become bees, and half wasps.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
You are as a dry valley and I as the rain,
You are as a ruined city and I as the architect,
Except my service which is joy’s sunrise
Man has never felt and never will feel an impression of joy.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
God has enjoined this servitude upon us,
We say not this merely on our own authority;
We enjoy life on condition of doing His will;
If He bids us, we sow our seed upon the sand.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
He is like Pharaoh and his body like Moses,
He runs abroad crying ‘Where is my foe?’
While lust is in his house, which is his body,
He bites his finger in spite against strangers.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)