369 quotes
O man of double vision, hearken with attention,
Seek a cure for your defective sight by listening
Many are the holy words that find no entrance
Into blind hearts but they enter hearts full of light.
But the deceits of Satan enter crooked hearts
Even as crooked shoes fit crooked feet.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The noise of clapping of hands is never heard
From one of thy hands unaided by the other hand
The man athirst cries, ‘Where is delicious water?’
Water too cries ‘Where is the water-drinker?’
This thirst in my soul is the attraction of the water
I am the water’s and the water is mine.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Every moment the world and we are renewed
Yet we are ignorant of this renewing for ever and aye.
Life like a stream of water is renewed and renewed
Though it wears the appearance of continuity in form,
That seeming continuity arises from its swift renewal
As when a single spark of fire is whirled round swiftly.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Opposites can only he know by opposites,
Only through a wound is a caress understood;
Certainly this world first comes into view,
That we may understand the value of that eternal world;
When you are released from this, you go to that;
In that eternal home of delight, you are grateful.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
If a saint handles earth, it becomes gold
If a sinner handles gold, it turns to dust,
Whereas the saint is well-pleasing to God,
In his actions his hand is the hand of God.
But the sinner’s hand is the hand of Satan and demons,
Because he is ensnared in falsity and fraud.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Thy business is changing things and bestowing favours,
My business is mistakes and forgetfulness and error,
Change my mistakes and forgetlulness to knowledge
I am altogether vile; make me temperate and meek.
O thou that convertest salt earth into bread
And bread again into the life of men,
Thou makest some earth-born men as heaven
And multipliest heaven-born saints on earth.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Read the text ‘I have not created Jinns and men but to worship me,’
The only object of the world is to worship God.
Though the object of a book is to teach an art,
If you make a pillow of it, it serves that purpose too,
Yet its main object is not to serve as a pillow
But to impart knowledge and useful instruction.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
O Moses! the lovers of fair rites are one class,
They whose hearts and souls burn with love are another,
If they speak amiss, call them not sinners,
If a martyr be stained with blood, wash it not away,
Blood is better than water for martyrs,
This fault is better than a thousand correct forms.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The nearness of the voice proves to such an one
That the voice proceeds from a friend who is near,
The sweetness of the kinsman’s voice too, O beloved,
Proves the veracity of that kinsman,
To the wise whose hearts are enlightened
The mere sound of that voice proves its truth.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Day and night you are eagerly asking for news,
Whilst every member of your body is telling you news,
Since each member of your body issued from Not-being,
How much pleasure has it seen and how much pain?
For no member grows and flourishes without pleasure,
And each member is weakened by every pain.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
I journeyed years and months for love of that moon,
Heedless of the way, absorbed in God,
With bare feet I trod upon thorns and flints,
Seeing I was bewildered, and beside myself and senseless;
What knows the heart of road and stages,
What of distant and near, while it is drunk with love.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When the day dawns from heaven, night flees away
What then can its darkness know of the nature of light?
The gnat scuds away before the blast of the winds,
What then knows the gnat of the savour of the winds?
When the Eternal appears, the transitory is annulled,
What then knows the transitory of the Eternal?
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Our life’s our quiver. When our years are vainly spent
In chasing phantoms, grief one day will have its vent.
Let God’s protection mercifully on us rest,
All fancies and all phantoms stand at once confessed,
God’s servants are His shadows here below on earth
To this world dead, but living in a second birth.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
O chosen cup-bearer, O apple of mine eyes, the like of thee,
Ne’er appeared in Persia, nor in Arabia have I found it;
Pour out wine till I become a wanderer from myself,
For in self-hood and existence I have felt only fatigue.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When thou seest my hearse, cry not, ‘parted! parted!’
Union and meeting are mine in that hour.
If thou commit to the grave, say not ‘farewell! farewell!’
For the grave is a curtain hiding the communion of Paradise.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The blast of the last trump will be God’s command
To every atom to lift its head from the earth,
The souls also of each will return to their bodies,
Even as sense returns to bodies awaking from sleep,
On that morn each soul will recognise its own body
And return to its own ruin like hidden treasure.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The root of hatred is hell and that hate of yours
Is a part of that whole and is the foe of your religion
Since you are a part of hell, beware!
For the part ever tends towards its whole
But if you are a portion of heaven, O renowned one,
Your joy will be as lasting as heaven itself.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
O Thou, Who art exempt from ‘us’ and ‘we’
Who pervadest the spirits of all men and women;
When man and woman become one, thou art that one.
When their union is dissolved, lo Thou abidest.
Thou hast made these ‘us’ and ‘we’ for that purpose
To wit, to play chess with them by thyself.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
You say 'Although the fear of loss is before me,
Yet I feel greater fear in remaining idle.
I have a better hope through exerting myself
My fear is increased by remaining idle.'
Why then, O faint-hearted one in the matter of religion,
Are you paralysed by the fear of loss?
See you not how the traders in this market of ours
Make large profits, both apostles and saints?
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Love exalts our earthly bodies to heaven,
And makes the very hills to dance with joy!
O Lover, ’twas love that gave life to Mount Sinai
When it quaked and Moses fell down in a swoon.
Did my Beloved only touch me with his lips
I too, like the flute would burst out in melody.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)