Quotes from Idries Shah

It is no accident that Sufis find that they can connect most constructively with people who are well integrated into the world, as well as having higher aims, and that those who adopt a sensible attitude towards society and life as generally known can usually absorb Sufi teachings very well indeed

Salute to the Thief. Junaid of Baghdad was passing the scene of a public hanging, where a thief was on the scaffold. Junaid bowed towards the criminal. Someone asked him: 'What did you do that?' Junaid said: 'I was bowing before his single-mindedness. For his aim, that man has given his life.

The main problem is that most commentators are accustomed to thinking of spiritual schools as 'systems', which are more or less alike, and which depend upon dogma and ritual: and especially upon repetition and the application of continual and standardised pressures upon their followers. The Sufi way, except in degenerate forms which are not to be classified as Sufic, is entirely different from this.

I have heard all that you have had to say to me on your problems. You ask me what to do about them. It is my view that your real problem is that you are a member of the human race. Face that one first.

At His door, what is the difference between Moslem and Christian, virtuous and guilty? At his door all are seekers and He the sought.

Saying of the Prophet Some behaviour I am like a man who has lighted a fire, and all the creeping things have rushed to burn themselves in it.

Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?

Who is the wrong person to criticise? You

Sufis aim to refine human consciousness. This is Sufi mysticism: not mystification or magic, but a specific Path.

Man thinks many things. He thinks he is One. He is usually several. Until he becomes One, he cannot have a fair idea of what he is at all.

Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.

People are always trying to understand. There is only one way to do that. It is to discover < + i + >why< + i + > you want to understand.

Laziness - The laziness of adolescence is a rehearsal for the incapacity of old age.

Sufis deny the absolute reality of time, space and physical form. These things are both relative and local. They only appear to be absolute.

Brave is the thief who carries a lamp in his hand.

The Path is not to be found anywhere except in human service

THE HEAVENS To the mallet of the Highest Mind The heavens are the smallest possible ball. (Akhlaq-i-Mohsini)

If you seek small things to do, and do them well, great things will seek you, and demand to be performed.

People think that they think things, and they also think that they know things. They could usefully give some attention to the question of whether they know what they think and know what they think they know.

Saying of the Prophet Envy Envy devours good deeds, as a fire devours fuel.

Treat this world as I do, like a wayfarer; like a horseman who stops in the shade of a tree for a time, and then moves on.

No duty is ignoble. What can be ignoble is the sight of people trying not to be ignoble.

It has truly been said that 'Humility is not so much a virtue as a necessity, in order to learn.

The Book of Wisdom. Simab said: 'I shall sell the Book of Wisdom for a hundred gold pieces, and some people will say that it is cheap.' Yunus Marmar said to him: 'And I shall give away the key to understanding it, and almost none shall take it, even free of charge.