428 quotes
Before they (the prophets) came, we were all alike,
No one knew whether he was right or wrong,
Genuine coin and base coin were current alike,
The world was a night and we travellers in the dark,
Till the sun of the prophets arose and cried
‘Begone, O slumber! welcome, O pure light!’
Now the eye sees how to distinguish colours,
It sees the difference between rubies and pebbles.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Both sorts of bee (i.e. bee and wasp) draw nourishment from one place but from this comes the sting and from that other the honey.
Both sort of deer feed on the same grass and water; by this only dung is produced, by that pure musk.
Both reeds (the common reed and the sugar-cane) are fed from one source; this one is hollow, while that one is full of sugar.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Let us seek refuge with Allah from Satan;
Alas! we are perishing from his insolence.
The dog is one yet he enters a thousand forms;
Whatever he enters, straight becomes himself;
Whatever makes you shiver, know he is in it,
The Devil is hidden beneath its outward form.
When he finds no form at hand, he enters your thoughts
To cause them to draw you into sin.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
O lovers, O lovers, it is time to abandon the world,
The drum of departure reaches my spiritual ear from heaven
Behold, the driver has risen and made ready the files of camels
And begged us to acquit him of blame; why, O travellers are you asleep?
These sounds before and behind are the din of departure and of the camel-bells;
With each moment a soul and a spirit is setting off into the void.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
No favour was left which that winsome beauty did not bestow,
What fault of ours if he failed in bounty towards you?
Thou art reviling because that charmer wrought tyranny,
Whoever saw in the two worlds a fair one that played not the tyrant?
When the spirit became lost in contemplation, it said this
‘None but God has contemplated the beauty of God;’
This eye and that lamp are two lights, each individual,
When they came together, no-one distinguished them.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
An ant who saw a pen writing on paper
Delivered himself to another ant in this way:
‘That pen is making very wonderful figures
Like hyacinths and lillies and roses,’
The other said ‘The finger is the real worker,
The pen is only the instrument of its working;’
A third ant said, ‘No! the action proceeds from the arm,
The weak finger writes with the arm’s might;’
So it went on upwards, till at last
A prince of the ants who had some wit
Said, ‘Ye regard only the outward form of this marvel,
It is only from reason and mind that these figures proceed.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
I am a painter, a maker of pictures; every moment I shape a beauteous form,
And then in thy presence I melt them all away.
I call up a hundred phantoms and endue them with a spirit
When I behold thy phantom, I cast them in the fire,
Art thou the vintner’s cup-bearer or the enemy of him who is sober,
Or is it thou who mak’st a ruin of every house I build?
In thee the soul is dissolved, with thee it is mingled,
So I will cherish the soul, because it has a perfume of thee.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
If wheat were not valued as sweet and good for food,
The cheat who shows wheat and sells barley would make no profit.
Say not then that all these creeds are false
The false ones ensnare hearts by the scent of truth.
Say not that they are all erroneous fancies
There is no fancy in the universe without some truth.
In the crowd of rag-wearers there is one faqir,
Search well and find out that true one.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
I regard not the outside and the words,
I regard the inside and the state of heart;
I look at the heart if it be humble,
Though the words may be the reverse of humble;
Because the heart is substance and words accidents,
Accidents are only a means, substance is the final cause,
How long wilt thou dwell on words and superficialities,
A burning heart is what I want; consort with burning.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
How many sparks of fire from flint and steel have flown
How many hearts like tinder, make those sparks their own.
But in the dark some thief his finger presses there
And every train puts out that has been lighted here.
Extinguished if those sparks were not, a flame would rise
A burning light be kindled, flashing beyond the skies
A thousand snares are laid to catch our tripping feet
But Lord, if thou us shield, harm never shall us meet.
If but Thy grace will guide us, lead us on our way,
No thief can steal our peace of mind, our light of day.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
He was not chaff which flew on the wind,
He was not water which froze in winter,
He was not a comb which was broken with a hair,
He was not a seed with the earth crushed,
He was a treasure of gold in this dust-pit,
For he valued the two worlds at a barley corn,
The earthly frame he flung to the earth,
Soul and intellect he bore to heaven,
The pure elixir mingled with the wine-dregs,
Came to the jar’s surface, and the lees settled apart.
The second soul, which the vulgar know not,
I protest by God that he surrendered to the Beloved.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Through ignorance, sloth and folly,
Though He stands by us, we are shut off from Him,
The noise of thunder makes the head of the thirsty ache,
When he knows not that it unlocks the blessed showers,
His eyes are fixed on the running stream
Unwitting of the sweetness of the rain from heaven;
He urges the steed of his desire towards the caused,
And perforce remains shut off from the causer.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
This world of illusions, fancies, desires and fears
Is a mighty obstacle in the traveller's path.
Thus when these forms of delusive imaginations
Misled Abraham, who was a very mountain of wisdom.
He said of the star 'This is my Lord'.
Having fallen into the midst of the world of illusion
Seeing then that this world of eye-fascinating illusion
Seduced from the right path such a mountain as Abraham.
So that he said of the star 'This is my Lord',
What will not its illusions effect on a stupid ass?
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When rises the sun and chases the night,
What need have we then of the lamp for a light?
When the friend all beloved appears to the eye,
What want dost thou feel that the post bring him nigh?
But when the rose-time is past, and the rose-bloom gone by,
Then gladly the eye seeks the water of roses to spy.
Is the Master within to thy soul not revealed?
Well then may’st thou turn to the Volume of message unsealed.
Attributed Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient (1882)
Rabia, sick upon her bed,
By two saints was visited,
Holy Malik, Hassan wise,—
Men of mark in Moslem eyes.
Hassan says, "Whose prayer is pure
Will God's chastisements endure."
Malik, from a deeper sense,
Uttered his experience:
"He who hears his Master's voice
Will in chastisement rejoice."
Rabia saw some selfish will
In their maxims lingering still,
And replied, "O men of grace!
He who sees his Master's face,
Will not in his prayer recall
That he is chastised at all."
Attributed Pebbles, Pearls and Gems of the Orient (1882)
Whence did this breath come to thee, O my soul;
Whence this throbbing, O my heart?
O bird, speak the language of birds
I can understand thy hidden meaning.
The soul answered ‘I was in the divine factory
While the house of water-and-clay was a-baking
I was flying away from the material workshop
While the workshop was being created
When I could resist no more, they dragged me
To mould me into shape like a ball.’
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
The Prophet said to Ali ‘O Ali
Thou art the Lion of God, a hero most valiant;
Yet confide not in thy lion-like valour
But seek refuge under the palm-trees of the truth
Come under the shadow of the Man of Reason,
Thou canst not find it in the road of the traditionists.
His shadow on earth is as that of Mount Qaf,
His spirit is as a Simurgh soaring on high.
Were I to tell his praises till the last day
My words would not be too many nor admit of curtailment;
That sun is hidden in the form of a man
Understand me. Allah knows the truth.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
On the resurrection day all secrets will be disclosed,
Yea, every guilty one will be convicted by himself,
Hand and foot will bear testimony openly
Before the Almighty concerning their owner’s sins.
Hand will say, ‘I stole such and such things,’
Lip will say, ‘I asked for such and such things,’
Foot will say, ‘I went after my own desires,’
Arm will say, ‘I embraced the harlot,’
Eye will say, ‘I looked after forbidden things,’
Ear will say, ‘I listened to evil talk.’
Thus the man will be shown to be a liar from head to foot
Since his own members will prove him to be a liar.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When you have seen the millstone turning round,
Then, prithee, go and see the stream that turns it.
When you have seen the dust rising up into the air,
Go and mark the air in the midst of the dust.
You see the kettles of thought boiling over,
Look with intelligence at the fire beneath them.
God said to Job "Out of my clemency
I have given a grain of patience to every hair of thine"
Look not then, so much at your own patience,
After seeing patience, look to the giver of patience.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
I have endowed everyone with a temperament of his own, given everyone an idiom of his own; so that what is praise for him is blame for thee, what is honey for him is poison for thee, what is light for him is fire for thee, what is rose for him is thorn for thee, what is good for him is evil for thee, what is beautiful for him is ugly for thee. In the people of Hindustan the idiom of Hindustan is praiseworthy; in the people of Sind, the idiom of Sind is praiseworthy. I do not see the outward and the speech; I see the inward and the state [of feeling]. For the heart is the substance and speech an accident. So, the accident is subservient, the substance is the [real] object. The religion of love stands apart from all religions. For lovers the [only] religion and creed is God.
Attributed