Quotes from Idries Shah, The Sufis

The sight of God in woman is the most perfect of all." Ibn Arabi.

Sufism is the essence of all religions.

The Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.

Sufism is known by means of itself.

Sufism, " according to the Sufi, "is an adventure in living, necessary adventure.

Religion, for instance, cannot be accepted or rejected out of hand, until the student knows exactly what religion means.

Take the wheat, not the measure in which it is contained

among roses, be a rose, among thorns, be a thorn

A Sufi school comes into being in order to flourish and disappear, not to leave traces in mechanical ritual, or anthropologically survivals.

The practice of the Sufis is too sublime to have a formal beginning,

Sufism is transmitted by means of the human exemplar, the teacher.

It is necessary to note, " says Rumi, "that opposite things work together, even though nominally opposed" (Fihi Ma Fihi).

The totality of life cannot be understood, so runs Sufi teaching, if it is studied only through the methods which we use in everyday living.

Practise your knowledge, for knowledge without practice is a body without life

The secret protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work.

Before garden, vine or grape was in the world, " writes one, "our soul was drunken with immortal wine.

Sufism, in one definition, "is" human life.