“Yes, the world is an illusion. But Truth is always being shown there.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufis deny the absolute reality of time, space and physical form. These things are both relative and local. They only appear to… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is your duty to do your best. It is not, however, your birth-right to prevail.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Q: What is a fundamental mistake of man's? A: To think that he is alive, when he has merely fallen asleep in… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The teacher works in accordance with the prospects of his students and the possibility of maintaining the community of Sufis.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Inner Knowledge -- You want to become wise in one lesson: First become a real human being.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you will not reprove yourself,’ Saadi says, ‘you will not welcome reproof from another.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Whoever might perfume a scorpion Will not thereby escape its sting. Bahaudin Naqshband” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufism is experiential. Capacities, even those for learning beyond a certain point, are provoked by Sufis, by one's own efforts and what… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Remembering and Forgetting You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget. But people can forget to forget. That is… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Before the antidote arrives from Iraq The man with snake-bite will be dead.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you seek small things to do, and do them well, great things will seek you, and demand to be performed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufism is therefore not 'Do as I say and not as I do', or even 'Do as I do', but 'Experience and… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufism, the "secret tradition," is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“There can be no spirituality, according to the Sufi masters, without psychology, psychological insight and sociological balance.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The institution of teachership is there for this reason, that the learner must learn how to learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“I longed to teach, but I had to wait until the desire had left me before I could really do so.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“When prayer, rituals and ascetic life are just a means of self-indulgence, they are harmful rather than beneficial.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you want special illumination, look upon the human face: See clearly within laughter the Essence of Ultimate Truth.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“SAYING OF SHEIKH ZIAUDIN: Self-justification is worse than the original offence.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
He that is purified by love is pure; and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and hath abandoned all else is… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The automatism of man is overcome, in the words of Dhun'Nun, by aiming for 'being as you were, where you were, before… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The selection and following of a spiritual guide is the most important duty of a Sufi.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“HE is a Master who may teach without it being totally labelled teaching; HE is a student who can learn without being… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Voice in the night A voice whispered to me last night: 'There is no such thing as a voice whispering in the… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“You can perceive a person's aspiration if it is genuine, because this creates a change in the emanations from such a person.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Remedy Your medicine is in you, and you do not observe it. Your ailment is from yourself, and you do not register… — 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
