340 quotes
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)
Can eye now behold Thee as truly Thou art?
Can heart Thy love picture and smiles e’en in part?
The heart that’s a slave to a love or a smile
Can never be worthy to see thee awhile.
Engrossed he that’s now with pleasure and pain
Can he by these accidents live o’er again?
Green pastures of love in their infinitude
More fruits yield than care and than beatitude.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Our every motion every moment testifies
For it proves the presence of the everlasting God,
So the revolution of the millstone so violent
Testifies to the existence of a stream of water.
O Thou who art above our conception and descriptions,
Dust be upon our heads and upon our similitudes of Thee.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
In presence of Joseph no coquetries use
But humble thyself; soft entreaties infuse;
From Jesus a breath then may blow upon thee,
Transform thee to what he was, what thou mayest be:
A stone will not blossom because it is spring,
As earth make thyself; flowers around thee may cling.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The day of judgment is the day of the great review,
Whoso is fair and enlightened longs for that review;
Whoso like a Hindoo is black with sin,
The day of review will sound the knell of his disgrace,
If his thorn puts not forth a single rose-bud
The spring in disclosing him is his foe.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Pity keep for Jesus, pity not the ass (i.e., the body),
Let not fleshly impulse intellect surpass;
If an ass could somewhat catch of Jesus’ mind,
Ranked among the sages he his place would find,
Though because of Jesus you may walk in woe,
Still from Him comes healing; never let Him go.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Our breathings are lifted up in fear of God,
Offerings from us to the throne of Eternity,
Then come down to us rewards for our praises
The double thereof yea mercies from the king of glory,
Therefore are we constrained to utter these praises
That slaves may attain the height of God’s gifts,
And so this rising and descent go on evermore,
And cease not for ever and aye.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Hearken to the reed-flute, how it discourses
When complaining of the pains of separation;
'Ever since they tore me from my osier-bed,
My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears.
I burst my breast striving to give vent to sighs,
And to express the pangs of yearning for my home;
He who abides far away from his home,
Is ever longing for the day he shall return.'
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
O Thou, who art my soul’s comfort in the season of sorrow,
O Thou, who art my spirit’s treasure in the bitterness of dearth,
That which the imagination has not conceived, that which the understanding has not seen,
Visiteth my soul from thee; hence in worship I turn towards Thee.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
He said ‘O friends, God has given me inspiration
Oftentimes strong counsel is suggested to the weak.
The wit taught by God to the bee
Is withheld from the lion and the wild ass.
It fills its cells with liquid sweets,
For God opens the door of this knowledge to it.
The skill taught by God to the silkworm
Is a learning beyond the reach of the elephant.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
I am ever in concord with this father of ours,
And earth ever appears to me as a Paradise;
Each moment a fresh form, a new beauty,
So that weariness vanishes at these ever-fresh sights;
I see the world filled with blessings,
Fresh waters ever welling up from new fountains.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The million spears of Pharaoh vaunting in his might,
By Moses’ wand were broken in the appointed night:
And many sons of skill, for healing science famed
By Jesu’s curing halt, lame, blind, deaf, mad, were shamed;
How many poets, orators, great men of note,
By word of the Illiterate One were shown to dote.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The Sufi is as it were, the ‘son of the season’
But the pure is exalted above season and state,
Religious raptures depend on feelings and will
But the pure one is regenerated by the breath of Jesus,
You are a lover of your own raptures, not of me,
You turn to me only in hope of experiencing raptures.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
I still am dark compared to the sun
Though I am light compared to the dark souls of men,
Therefore is my light weak that you may bear it,
For you are not strong enough to bear the dazzling sun,
I have, as it were, mixed honey with vinegar,
To succour the sweetness of your hearts.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Men are as demons and lust of wealth their chain,
Which drags them forth to toil in shop and field;
This chain is made of their fears and anxieties,
Deem not that these men have no chains upon them.
It causes them to engage in labour and the chase,
It forces them to toil in mines and on the sea.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Our wakefulness fetters our spirits,
Then our souls are a prey to various whims,
Thoughts of loss and gain and fears of misery.
They retain not purity nor dignity nor lustre,
Nor aspiration to soar heavenwards.
That one is really sleeping who hankers after each whim
And holds parley with each fancy.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Let others grow pale from fear of misfortune,
Do thou smile like the rose at loss and gain.
For the rose, though its petals be torn asunder
Still smiles on, and it is never cast down.
It says ‘Why should I fall into grief in disgrace?
I gather beauty even from the thorn of disgrace.’
What is Sufism? ’Tis to find joy in the heart
Whensoever distress and care assail it.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Impossibities are possible to Him,
The stubbornest is docile when His will curbs whim,
The blind from birth, the leper, e’en the dead arise
Whole, sound, whene’er the Omnipotent ‘Come forth!’ but cries.
His smallest daily toil, a work-like pleasure still,
Is to send forth three armies, bound to work His will.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Love and mistress are both veiled and hidden
Impute it not as a fault if I call Him ‘Bride.’
I would have kept silence from fear of my Beloved
If He had granted me but a moment’s respite.
But He said, ‘Speak on, ’tis no fault,
’Tis naught but the necessary result of the hidden decree
’Tis a fault only to him who only sees faults
How can the Pure Hidden Spirit notice faults.’
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)