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You will not be a Muslim until you are like the earth – both the
righteous and the sinner tread upon it. You will not be a mystic
until you are like the clouds - they share all things. You will not
be a mystic until you are like the rain – It waters all things
whether it loves them or not.
Sufis are those who have preferred Allah to every thing so that
Allah has preferred them to every thing.
Any one can learn the outer forms of prayer and worship. You
should seek to develop a heart that can pray.
Keep your hands busy with your duties in this world and your
heart busy with Allah.
You can not see the back of your own head, no matter how
intently you stare into a mirror or how quickly you turn around.
Even the most clear sighted have blind spots. These places to
which we ourselves are blind are often astonishingly visible to
others.
First is the Shariah, which is the basic foundation for the next
three stages. Trying to follow Sufism without following the
shariah is like trying to build a house on a foundation of sand.
Without an ordered life built on solid moral and ethical
principles, Sufism can not flourish. Shariah means road, a clear
track, a well traveled route that any one can follow.
What is lawful at one level may not be lawful at the other level
of understanding. For example, the outer practice of fasting is
required by religious law, but according to Marifah, one of the
essential reasons for fasting is to develop self discipline and to
control the insatiable ego.
If a person is proud of fasting, the fast is technically lawful, but
in terms of Marifah, the fast is a failure.
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The roots of conduct have four aspects.
Conduct with Allah.
Conduct with Self.
Conduct with People
Conduct with World
Those who have gone before have left signposts, teachings and
writings that instruct us in ways that awaken, that train the
capacity to remember, that enable us to hold ourselves
correctly as we move toward the light.
The sight of some one eating will not appease your hunger
similarly; the spiritual experiences of others can not satisfy
your yearning. Look to what you do for that is what you are
worth. True labor means neither fasting nor prayer.
If you want to live freely, borrow less. Avoid greed, for greed in
itself is poverty.
The most ignorant among you is the one who does not learn
from the changes in the world. The richest among you is the
one who is not entrapped with greed.
Two believers that lend to support to each other are like a pair
of hands that wash each other clean.
Value the worth of five things before they are replaced by the
other five conditions.
Value your youthfulness before your old age arrives
Value health before sickness strikes
Value your wealth before you become needy
Value peacefulness before hardship comes
Value life before death arrives
All wisdom is already with in us, All Love is already with in us,
all joy is already with in us. Yet, they are hidden with in us until
the heart opens.
Life in this world is like a dream and our true life starts in the
next world. Life does not end with death.