Al Ghazzali

A man of piety was following Christ.  A thief seeing this though to himself, "If I sit in the company of the pious one, perhaps God may for his sake forgive me."  Pronpted by humility in his heart, the thief started condeming himself for the unpious life he had led.  He considered himself unfit to sit by the side of such a saint.  On the other hand, the pious man, seing the thief seated by his side, reprimanded him lest his shadow corrupt him.  Immediately, Christ heard the Divine Voice say, "Tell the pious one and the thief that I have washed clean the scrolls of both.  The virtues of the pious and the sins of the thief are washed clean.  Mow they must start life again.  The virtues of the pious are washed away because of his pride, and the sins of the thief are washed away because of his humility and repentance."

Ahmad Hatif

Let the eye of your heart be opened that you may see the spirit and behold invisible things.

If you set your face to toward the region where Love reigns, you will see the whole universe laid out as a rose garden.  What you see, your heart will wish to have, and what your heart seeks to posess, you will see.  If you penetrate to the middle of each mote in the sunbeams, you will find a sun within.

Give all that you posses to Love.  If your spirit is dissolved in the flames of Love, you will see that love is the alchemy for the spirit.

You will journey beyond the narrow limitations of time and place and will pass into the infinite spaces of the Divine World.  What ear has not heard, that you will hear, and what no eye has seen, you shall behold.  Finally, you shall be brought to that high Abode, where you will see One only, beyond the world and all worldly creatures.  To that One, you shall devote the love of both heart and sould until, with one eye which knows no doubt, you will see plainly that "One is and there is nothing save God alone."

Rabia

One day, Rabia asked, "Who shall lead us to our beloved?" And her servant answered, "Our beloved is with us, but this world cuts us off from Him."

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Rabia was asked, "Do you love God?"

She answered, "Yes."

"Do you hate the devil?"

She answered, "No, my love of God leaves me no time to hate the devil."

Rumi

Those who don't feel this Love

pulling them like a river,

those who don't drink dawn

like a cup of spring water

or take in sunset like supper,

those who don't want to change

Let them sleep.

This Love is beyond the study of theology,

that old trickery and hypocrisy.

If you want to improve your mind that way

Sleep on.

I've given up on my brain.

I've torn the cloth to shreds and thrown it away.

If you're not completely naked,

Wrap your beautiful robe of words around you,

And sleep.

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Since I have heard of the world of Love,

I have spent my life, my heart

And my eyes this way.

I used to think that love 

And Beloved are different.

I know they are the same.

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The secret of madness is the source of reason.

A mature man is insane for Love.

The one who has his Heart together

Is a thousand times stranger to himself.

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There is no salvation for the soul 

But to fall in love.

It has to creep and crawl

Among the Lovers first.

Only Lovers can escape

From these two worlds.

This was written in creation.

Only from the Heart

Can you reach the sky.

The rose of Glory

Can only be raised in the Heart.

al-Kattani

Sufism is good character, so anyone who improves you character has improved your Sufism also.

Bahlul, the wise fool

Bahlul, the wise fool, happened to meed the caliph Harun al-Rashid.  "Where are you coming from Bahlul?" the ruler asked him.

"From Hell." was the prompt reply.

"What were you doing there?"

Bahlul explained, "Fire was needed, Sire, so I thought of going to Hell to ask if they could spare a little.  But the fellow in charge there said, "We have no fire here."  Of course I asked him, "How come, isn't Hell a place of fire?"  He answered, "I tell you there really is no fire down here.  Everybody brings their own fire when they come."

Hadith by Muhammed (pbuh)

The cure of ignorance is the ask and learn.

The old are our bounty, and whoever is not compassionate toward our elders and our youth, and whoever does not honor them does not belong to my people.

Worship God as if you see Her, and remember that even if you see Her not, She still sees you.

Avoid stubbornness, for it begins in ignorance and ends in regret.

The person who repents is like the one who has never sinned.

God exaults the humble and humbles the proud.

True wealth is not abundance in property, but a generous heart.

Heaven lies under the feet of mothers.

None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.

The believer is a mirror to the believer.

Happy are those whose own faults preoccupy them too much to think of the faults of others.

God will not show mercy to him who does not show mercy to others.

An hour of contemplation is better than a year of prayer.

There are as many ways to God as there are created souls.

God is beautiful and loves beauty.

Wealth does not reside in the amount of one's property, but rather in one's own needlessness.

One who suffers oppression and forgives the oppressor is the most favored for aid from God.

The follower of Christ and the Thief by Al-Ghazzali

A man of piety was following Christ.  A thief seeing this thought to himself, "If I sit in the company of the pious one, perhaps God may for his sake forgive me."  Prompted by humility in his heart, the thief started condemning himself for the impious life he had led.  He considered himself unfit to sit by the side of such a saint.  On the other hand, the pious man, seeing the thief seated by his side, repreimanded him lest his shadow corrupt him.  Immediately Christ heard the divine voice say, "Tell the pious one and the thief that I have washed clean the scrolls of both.  The virtues of the pious one and the sins of the thief are washed clean.  They must both start life again.  The virtues of the pious are washed away because of his pride, and the sins of the thief are washed away because of this humility and repentance."

The Lower Self

If you treat your lower self with affection, you will never be saved from it.

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Those who are dead to their lower selves are alive with God.

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Those who are controlled by the lower self must serve it; those who control their lower self serve others.

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One way to train the lower self is the resist its desires.  However, if you wish to resist, we know that we must not resist by opposing or suppressing it; for when we do, it will rear up somewhere else, seeking gratification of its desires.

Sheikh Muzaffer

A person often remembers the object of his love.  One who is a lover of God also remembers Her, always and everywhere.  On the bough of the beloved's rosebush, love's nightengale sings its love incessantly.

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Whatever you taste of love, in whatever manner, in whatever degree - it is a tiny part of divine love.  Love between men and women is also a part of divine love.  But sometimes the beloved becomes a curtain between love and the realization of true love.  One day that curtain will lift and then the real Beloved, the real goal will appear in all Divine glory.

What is important is the have this feeling of love in your heart, in whatever form and shape.  It is also important that you be loved.  It is easier to love than to be the beloved.  If you have been in love, you will certainly reach the Beloved one day.

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Love is a special, pleasurable pain.  Whoever has this in the heart will know the secret.  They will see that everything is Truth, and the everything leads to Truth.  There is nothing but Truth.  In the realization of that, they will be overcome.  They will sink into a sea of Truth.

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Leave everything and cleave to love!  Turn your heart from all else; feel love in your whole being!  Take love as your guide to the land of being so that you may reach the true beloved, enter the Paradise of God's Essence, behold the beauty of the Friend, gather the roses of the garden of Union.  In the way of love, the loever sacrifices himslef but finds the dear one. All the saints who have drunk the wine of love have sacrificed themselves thus in the way of love.

Jami

The heart that is free of love sickness isn't a heart at all.  The body deprived of the pangs of love is nothing but clay and water.

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Sight is not the only way that love enters the heart; it often happens that love is born of the spoken word.  The echo of beauty entering the ear may rob heart and soul of peace and reason.

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If love manifests itself within you, it has its origins in beauty.  You are nothing but a mirror in which beauty is reflected.  Because beauty and its reflection are both from the one source, it is both treasure and treasure house.

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All the atoms of the universe became so many mirrors, each reflecting an aspect of the eternal splendor.  A portion fell on the rose, which drove the nightengale mad with love.  Its ardor inflamed the candle's cheek, and hundreds of moths came from every side and burned themselves on it.  It set the sun ablaze, and made the water lily loom up from the depths.

The Donkey

There was a man in Turkey who was travelling with his favourite donkey, a faithful companion for years and an animal very close to his heart. At the end of a hard day on the road he came to an inn and decided to rest there for the night. No sooner than he had taken off the saddle bags than a youth working for the inn came out to greet him. 

“Salaam Aleikum, sir, welcome to our humble shelter! Please, come inside and get some warm soup and sit beside the fire.”

“Of course, I’d love to but first I must make sure my donkey is well cared for.” The man said, patting his donkey on the back. The youth smiled generously.

“Please, sir, allow me to attend to such details, you are an honoured guest here.”

“But it’s just that he’s an old donkey and needs a nice bed of hay to lie in.”

“Sir, we guarantee you the best care possible.”

“But you will sweep the floor first to make sure there are no stones? He gets in a terrible mood if he doesn’t sleep well.”

“Please, sir, just trust me, we are professionals here.”

“But you will add some water to his straw – his teeth are getting shakey and he likes just a little fresh grass to begin with.”

“Sir, you are embarrassing me!

“And you will give him a little rubdown along the spine – he goes crazy for that!”

“Sir, please just leave everything to me.”

So finally the man gave in and entered the establishment to enjoy a fine dinner by the fire and a comfortable bed. Meanwhile the youth rolled his eyes and… then went out to play cards in a nearby den.

The man could not sleep somehow, despite the silk sheets, as he kept having nightmares of his donkey chained up without water or food, lying on the cold stone. The vision wouldn’t leave him and so he got up in his dressing gown, walked down the steps to the stable and there! His donkey was in exactly the condition he’d imagined – cold, hungry and dying of thirst.

The Songbird

There was once a successful businessman who had everything – a beautiful wife, adorable children and a big house in which they all lived happily. The pride of his life though was his exotic songbird which he kept in a cage and fed delicious titbits when it entertained his guests. 

One day the man had to go on a journey far to the south and he asked his wife and children what presents they would like from abroad – they asked for fine silks, honeycomb and clockwork toys. Finally he asked his songbird if he would like him to bring anything back.

“I wish only for one small favour.” The songbird replied.

“Anything!” his master declared.

“Just this – when you see my cousins in the trees in the place you’re going to, please tell them about my conditions here.”

“Are you sure? I could bring you back a fine jewel-encrusted mirror or dried tropical fruit?”

“No, just this, thank you.” The songbird replied and the man went away feeling a little disconcerted but resolved to carry out his pet’s wishes.

The man made his trip safely and carried out his business to satisfaction and spent his remaining time there buying the presents his family had requested. Finally, he went to a park and saw some birds in the trees that bore a remarkable resemblance to his own songbird. He called up to one of them and told them about how his own bird lived in cage and sang for him.

But no sooner had he finished speaking than one of these exotic birds trembled on its perch and tumbled to the ground and ceased to move. The man held his head in grief and the incident quite spoiled his trip.

He returned home and greeted his wife and family who were delighted at their presents but he couldn’t share their pleasure as long as the forthcoming encounter with his songbird remained on his conscience. Finally he found the courage to go down to the garden.

“Well?” his songbird asked and, hesitantly, the man told him exactly what had happened. The song bird listened intently, then trembled on his perch and fell to the bottom of his cage, dead.

The man was now beside himself with grief and confusion. Weeping openly, he opened the door of the cage and carried out his beloved songbird in his hands. No sooner had he done so, however, the songbird returned to life and flew up to the branches of the nearest tree and let out a shrill of joy at finding its freedom.

The man scratched his head in wonder and eventually asked:

“Okay, you win. But tell me please, what was in the message that contained this trick?”

The songbird looked down at him with pity and said:

“My cousin in Africa showed me that it was my beauty that kept me in the cage. Were it not for the delight of my singing voice you would have lost interest long ago. I had to give up that life in order to become free.”

Trust God, but tie up your camel.

There was once a man who was on his way back home from market with his camel and, as he’d had a good day, he decided to stop at a mosque along the road and offer his thanks to God. 

He left his camel outside and went in with his prayer mat and spent several hours offering thanks to Allah, praying and promising that he’d be a good Muslim in the future, help the poor and be an upstanding pillar of his community. 

When he emerged it was already dark and lo and behold – his camel was gone! 
He immediately flew into a violent temper and shook his fist at the sky, yelling: 

“You traitor, Allah! How could you do this to me? I put all my trust in you and then you go and stab me in the back like this!” 

A passing sufi dervish heard the man yelling and chuckled to himself. 

“Listen,” he said, “Trust God but, you know, tie up your camel.”

Nasrudin gives advice

One day Nasruddin was taking a walk in his village, when several of his
neighbors approached him.

"Nasruddin Hoja!" they said to him, "you are so wise and holy! Please take
us as your pupils to teach us how we should live our lives, and what we
should do!"

Nasruddin paused, then said "Alright; I will teach you the first lesson 
right now. The most important thing is to take very good care of your 
feet and sandals; you must keep them clean and neat at all times."

The neighbors listened attentively until they glanced down at his feet, 
which were in fact quite dirty and shod in old sandals that seemed about
to fall apart.

"But Nasruddin Hoja," said one of them, "your feet are terribly dirty, and 
your sandals are a mess! How do you expect us to follow your teachings if 
you don't carry them out yourself?"

"Well," replied Nasruddin, "I don't go around asking people how I should
live my life either, do I?"

Saadi of Shiraz's Story

A thief entered the house of a Sufi, and found nothing there.
 As he was leaving, the dervish perceived his disappointment 
 and threw him the blanket in which he was sleeping, so that
 he should not go away empty-handed.

Nasrudin sowing seeds

 Mullah Nasrudin was sowing seed in his garden. His wife noticed 
that the further he went, the faster he sowed.
 "Mullah," she called out to him, "why are you scattering the 
seed so fast? It would be better to sow it more slowly and carefully."
 "I can’t," Nasrudin called back as he rushed by. "There isn’t 
much seed left and I want to get the job finished before it runs out."

Nasrudin and shoes

One day, as Nasrudin was getting dressed, his wife said to him, 
"Mullah, you always put on your right shoe first. Why is that?"
 Nasrudin answered, "Wouldn’t it be foolish to put on the wrong 
shoe first?"

Nasrudin at the granary

Nasrudin got a job at a busy granary, loading sacks onto trucks 
to be taken to market. The foreman, who was keeping an eye on the 
workers, soon came over to speak to him.
 "Why is it that you carry only one sack at a time while the other 
workers all carry two?" asked the foreman.
 Nasrudin looked around and said, "I suppose that they are too 
lazy to make two trips the way I do."