340 quotes
When the sun goeth up, where stayeth night?
When the joy of bounty came, where lagged affliction?
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Weave no more with soot, like the spider, a web of care,
Wherein both woof and warp are rotten.
While thou art silent, His speech is thy speech,
While thou weavest not, God is the weaver.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
When the discourse touched on the matter of love,
Pen was broken and paper torn;
None but the sun can display the sun.
If you would see it displayed, turn not away from it.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
This world which is only a dream
Seems to the sleeper as a thing enduring for ever
But when the morn of the last day shall dawn,
The sleeper will escape from the cloud of illusion.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
Men are moved by God’s decree and fixed ordinance,
As sharp-set teeth are caused by heat of belly,
'Tis Primal Soul that dominates the Second Soul.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
What need were there of stars, O humble one,
To one who was guided by the light of the sun,
Neither moon nor planets would be needed,
By one who saw directly the sun of the truth.
Attributed A Dictionary of Oriental Quotations (1911)
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)
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)