“The door of illumination is open to those for whom other doors are closed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Most people, whatever their opinions and protestations, do not want to learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Service I will not serve God like a labourer, in expectation of my wages. Rabia el-Adawia.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from preconceptions; and not to try to avoid what is your… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“One of the great Sufis said: 'A saint is a saint unless he knows that he is one.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Our heads are filled with ‘knowledge’, a knowledge that in some areas pre-empts our seeing anything at all.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“When people believe that the form is more important than the Truth, they will not find truth, but will stay with form.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel.… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Forms are vehicles and instruments, and vehicles and instruments cannot be called good or bad without context.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Dramatic. A well developed sense of the dramatic has values beyond what people usually imagine. One of these is to realise the… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Salute to the Thief. Junaid of Baghdad was passing the scene of a public hanging, where a thief was on the scaffold.… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is no accident that Sufis find that they can connect most constructively with people who are well integrated into the world,… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Good. Show me a man who thinks that he knows what 'good' is, and I will probably be able to show you… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Stages First I thought that a Teacher must be right in all things. Then I imagined that my teacher was wrong in… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“You can learn more in half an hour's direct contact with a source of knowledge (no matter the apparent reason for the… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Self-mortification, far from producing liberation from material things, is far more likely to cause either an unhinged mind, delusions or a masochistic… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Wisdom Sufian said: 'The wisdom which is invisible but which sustains is a hundred times better than the appearance of wisdom, for… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Seeking of the Master. Musa Najib was asked why he charged a fee from those who came to his sessions; and… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. As Prince Dara Shikoh says, in a Persian poem:… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is a Sufi contention that truth is not discovered or maintained by the mere repetition of teachings. It can only be… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Counsels of Bahaudin You want to be filled. But something which is full has first to be emptied. Empty yourself so that… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The would-be students wish to transcend books. But, ask yourselves: if someone says that books do not contain wisdom, and yet he… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Ali, Son of the Father of the Seeker Ali said: 'None may arrive at the Truth until he is able to think… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines,… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
If a pot can multiply. One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbour, who was giving a feast. The neighbour… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The phenomenal is the channel to the Truth. Al mujazu qantarat al Haqiqa.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from preconceptions; and not to try to avoid what is your lot.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right… — Idries Shah Copy Share
A king who feared wasps once decreed that they were abolished. As it happened, they did him no harm. But he was eventually stung… — Idries Shah Copy Share
“Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to entrust secrets.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
“Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day. — Idries Shah Copy Share
“You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel. (Gulistan)” — Idries Shah Copy Share
“People are always trying to understand. There is only one way to do that. It is to discover < + i + >why< +… — Idries Shah Copy Share
We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art or science… — Idries Shah Copy Share
