Book Quote by Idries Shah

The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.

— Idries Shah

“The Sufis,' runs the saying, 'understand with their hearts what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds”

— Idries Shah

Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary…

— Idries Shah

“Sufism, the "secret tradition," is not available on the basis of assumptions which belong to another world, the world of intellect.”

— Idries Shah

“People talk of the Sufi way. Wrong. If there is a way, it’s not Sufism.”

— Art Hochberg

“Definition of a Sufi To learn, people must give up a great deal, and this includes ritual as something from which they imagine they…

— Idries Shah

The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.

— Idries Shah

“The Sufis are unanimous that a Guide (Sheikh) is absolutely essential, though never available on demand: 'the Sufis are not merchants'.”

— Idries Shah

The main problem is that most commentators are accustomed to thinking of spiritual schools as 'systems', which are more or less alike, and which…

— Idries Shah

“The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk. As Prince Dara Shikoh says, in a Persian poem: Do you…

— Idries Shah

“The would-be students wish to transcend books. But, ask yourselves: if someone says that books do not contain wisdom, and yet he writes books;…

— Idries Shah

“Sufism is experiential. Capacities, even those for learning beyond a certain point, are provoked by Sufis, by one's own efforts and what results from…

— Idries Shah