Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr

"What sweeter than this in the world! Friend met friend and the lover joined his Beloved. That was all sorrow, this is all joy Those were all words, this is all reality."

"Love came and flew as blood in my veins Emptied me of myself and filled me with beloved. Each part of my being she conquered Now a mere name is left to me and the rest is she."

"The first step in Sufism is the breaking of inkpot and the tearing-up of books and the forgetting of all kinds of intellectual knowledge."

"Freedom from lower qualities is an essential qualification required for spiritual progress."

"If you wish that God should dwell in your heart, purify your heart from all save Him for the king will not enter a house filled with stores and furniture. He will only enter a heart which is empty of all save Himself."

"Take one step out of yourself that you may arrive at God."

"Hell is where you are and Paradise where you are not."

"Evil is thou', and the worst evil is thou', which thou knowest it not."

"There is nothing inside this coat except Allah."

"When I was a lion, panther was my prey; I caught everything which I hunted. When I came to embrace tightly love for you, A lame fox drove me from den."

"Through love we're slain, the world's our slaughter house We've no food nor sleep, the world's our cookhouse. We've no desire for paradise, because Our hell's a hundred times loftier than that."

"If you don not come to repent your existence, You'll never approach the circle of gnostics and drunkards Unless in other's eyes you become an infidel, In the creed of lovers, you'll never be Muslim."