428 quotes
Imitate the water-wheel that groans and weeps;
By prayers and groans and tears a man his heart pure keeps;
Wouldst thou shed tears? Feel pity when thou meetest woe,
Wouldst mercy find? Show mercy, when men bow them low.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Should envy fill thy breast ’gainst one that envies not
Foul stains ensue; thy heart’s impure; all good’s forgot
Prostrate thyself then at the feet of holy men,
Cast dust upon thy head, God’s pardon to obtain.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
How blessed are the eyes that smart with sorrow’s brine,
How blessed is the heart inflamed with love divine!
Contrition’s tears are ever hallowed by heaven’s smile,
The latter end of all things man should scan awhile.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The motion of every atom is towards its origin
A man comes to be the thing on which he is bent;
By the attraction of yearning and fondness the soul and the heart
Assume the qualities of the Beloved and the soul of souls.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Then love the saints; their love plant deeply in thy heart,
The pure of mind alone deserve a pure love’s part,
Court not despair; hope ever springs in human breast,
Seek not the dark; the sun of light shines full confest.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The ant of lust becomes by habit like a snake,
Slay first of all the snake of your lust,
Else this snake of yours will become a dragon;
But every one regards his own snake as an ant,
Go inquire of your true state from a man of heart.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Form is born of that which is without form,
Wherefore to thee every moment comes death and ‘return,’
Mustafa saith ‘The world endureth only a moment,’
So thought is an arrow shot by God into the air,
How can it stay in the air? It returns to God.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
One said ‘The world would be a pleasant place,
If death never set foot within it’;
Another answered ‘If there were no death,
The complicated world would not be worth a jot.
It would be a crop raised in the desert
Left neglected and never threshed out.’
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Society with saints no doubt’s of great avail
To piety it leads; ‘God’s fear shall never fail.’
Thou wast a very rock, a worthless pebble-stone,
By saints’ communion fined, a pearl of price thou’st shone.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When thou seest in the pathway a severed head,
Which is rolling toward our field,
Ask of it, ask of it the secrets of the heart,
For of it thou wilt learn our hidden mystery.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The ice that remains in the shade is frozen
It saw not the brilliance of my glowing sun.
All ice that has seen the smile of the sun’s face
Grows itself again, and says ‘I am the water of life.’
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
God sent the prophets for this purpose
Namely to sever infidelity from faith,
Infidel and faithful, Mussalman and Jew,
Before the prophets came, seemed all as one.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Ah! O crow, give up this life and live anew!
In view of God’s changes cast away your life!
Choose the new, give up the old,
For each single present year is better than three past.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The base coin says to me with pride every moment,
‘O pure gold, how am I inferior to you?’
The gold replies, ‘Even so, O comrade;
But the touchstone is at hand; be ready to meet it!’
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
I once saw in an office a plaque that suggested that before we open our mouths to speak, we should make our words pass through three gates: Is it true, is it kind, and is it necessary?
Misattributed
For this cause, O son, the Prince of men declared
'The majority of those in Paradise are the foolish'.
Cleverness is as a wind raising storms of pride
Be foolish, so that your heart may he at peace.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The lover is a monarch; two worlds lie at his feet;
The king pays no heed to what lies at his feet;
'Tis love and the lover that live to all eternity
Set not thy heart on aught else; 'tis only borrowed.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When thou endurest not the pains of abstinence,
And fulfillest not the terms, thou gainest no reward;
How easy those terms! how abundant that reward!
A reward that enchants the heart and charms the soul.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Makers of base coin hate the daylight
Coins of pure gold love the daylight,
Because daylight is the mirror that reflects them
So that they see their own perfect beauty.
God has named the resurrection ‘that day,’
Day shows off the beauty of red and yellow.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Lo! a besotted fool like thee to scorn,
The votaries of love! God’s wine has drowned
Thy wits and bidden thee wrestle with thy Lord,
As when a bird his airy flight resumes
Exultingly, nor dreads the distant lure,
Fate to his bosom speeds the shaft of woe.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)