"Thou wert first and last thou shalt be, Make my last better than my first, When Thou art hidden, I am of the infidels, When Thou art manifest, I am of the faithful."

"Thou hast come to draw men to union with Me, Not to drive them far away from Me, So far as possible, engage not in dissevering; ‘The thing most repugnant to Me is divorce.’"

"If you have not gone to the Kaaba, fortune will draw you thither, Do not flee, O babbler, for you have no refuge from God."

"On the day that you entered upon existence You were first fire, or earth, or air, If you had continued in that your original state, How could you have arrived at this dignity of humanity."

"Our life’s our quiver. When our years are vainly spent In chasing phantoms, grief one day will have its vent. Let God’s protection mercifully on us rest, All fancies and all phantoms stand at once confessed, God’s servants are His shadows here below on earth To this world dead, but living in a second birth."

"Place a sword in his hand and remove his impotence To see if he turns out a warrior or a robber; Because freewill is that with which ‘We honour Adam,’ Half the swarm become bees, and half wasps."

"Better to arm a drunken negro than To lavish learning on a wicked man."

"So long as a babe cannot grasp or run, It takes its father’s back for its carriage, But when it becomes independent and uses its hands It falls into grievous troubles and disgrace."

"Through ignorance, sloth and folly, Though He stands by us, we are shut off from Him, The noise of thunder makes the head of the thirsty ache, When he knows not that it unlocks the blessed showers, His eyes are fixed on the running stream Unwitting of the sweetness of the rain from heaven; He urges the steed of his desire towards the caused, And perforce remains shut off from the causer."

"Beats there a heart within that breast of thine, Then compass rev’rently its sacred shrine; For the true spiritual K‘aba is the heart And no proud pile of perishable art, When God ordained the pilgrim rite, that sign Was meant to lead thy heart to things divine, A thousand times he treads that round in vain, Who e’en one human heart would idly pain."

"Our breathings are lifted up in fear of God, Offerings from us to the throne of Eternity, Then come down to us rewards for our praises The double thereof yea mercies from the king of glory, Therefore are we constrained to utter these praises That slaves may attain the height of God’s gifts, And so this rising and descent go on evermore, And cease not for ever and aye."

"Body is not veiled from soul, neither soul from body, Yet no man hath ever seen a soul."

"Till the corn be ground with the mill, how can our table be furnished with bread?"

"The lamp of the heart that is a timid trader Acquires neither loss nor gain by its ventures, Nay it acquires loss, for it is precluded from gain, ’Tis the lamp that takes fire that acquires light."

"I am a painter, a maker of pictures; every moment I shape a beauteous form, And then in thy presence I melt them all away. I call up a hundred phantoms and endue them with a spirit When I behold thy phantom, I cast them in the fire, Art thou the vintner’s cup-bearer or the enemy of him who is sober, Or is it thou who mak’st a ruin of every house I build? In thee the soul is dissolved, with thee it is mingled, So I will cherish the soul, because it has a perfume of thee."

"Form is born of that which is without form, Wherefore to thee every moment comes death and ‘return,’ Mustafa saith ‘The world endureth only a moment,’ So thought is an arrow shot by God into the air, How can it stay in the air? It returns to God."

"The life of this world is a truce between opposites."

"The Sufi is as it were, the ‘son of the season’ But the pure is exalted above season and state, Religious raptures depend on feelings and will But the pure one is regenerated by the breath of Jesus, You are a lover of your own raptures, not of me, You turn to me only in hope of experiencing raptures."

"O base one, behold a hundred thousand souls Dancing towards the deadly sword of his love, Behold water in a pitcher; pour it out; Will that water run away from the stream? When that water joins the water of the stream It is lost therein and becomes itself the stream."

"Nor gold nor silver seek I but above All gifts, the heart, and buy it with my love, Yea! one sad contrite heart which men despise, More than my throne and fixed decree I prize."

"Look to your hearts! I whatever betide, O Moslems, Am so mingled with Him, that no heart is mingled with me, I was born of His love at the first, I gave Him my love at the last, When the fruit springs from the bough, on that bough it hangs."

"Giving thanks for blessing increases blessings But fatalism snatches those blessings from your hands, Your fatalism is to sleep on the road; sleep not Till ye behold the gate of the king’s palace."

"The wine of God’s grace hath no brim, If it appear to have a brim, ’tis the fault of the cup."

"Though the material sun is unique and single, We can conceive similar suns like to it, But the Sun of the soul beyond this firmament, No like thereof is seen in concrete or abstract."

"When the day dawns from heaven, night flees away What then can its darkness know of the nature of light? The gnat scuds away before the blast of the winds, What then knows the gnat of the savour of the winds? When the Eternal appears, the transitory is annulled, What then knows the transitory of the Eternal?"

"The head whose reason has fled is a tail."

"I journeyed years and months for love of that moon, Heedless of the way, absorbed in God, With bare feet I trod upon thorns and flints, Seeing I was bewildered, and beside myself and senseless; What knows the heart of road and stages, What of distant and near, while it is drunk with love."

"The Word is become foul with mingled earth, The water is become muddy; close the mouth of the well, Till God makes it again pure and sweet, Yea, till He purifies what He has made foul; Patience will accomplish thy desire, not haste, Be patient, God knows what is best."

"The million spears of Pharaoh vaunting in his might, By Moses’ wand were broken in the appointed night: And many sons of skill, for healing science famed By Jesu’s curing halt, lame, blind, deaf, mad, were shamed; How many poets, orators, great men of note, By word of the Illiterate One were shown to dote."

"O God there are hundreds of snares and baits And we are even as greedy and foolish birds; Every moment our feet are caught in a fresh snare, Yea, each one of us though he be a falcon or Simurgh, Thou dost release us every moment and straightway We again fly into the snare, O Almighty one."

"Though the mere imitator quotes a hundred proofs, They are all based on opinion, not on conviction, He is only scented with musk, he is not himself musk, He smells of musk but is really naught but dung."

"Day and night you are eagerly asking for news, Whilst every member of your body is telling you news, Since each member of your body issued from Not-being, How much pleasure has it seen and how much pain? For no member grows and flourishes without pleasure, And each member is weakened by every pain."

"On the resurrection day all secrets will be disclosed, Yea, every guilty one will be convicted by himself, Hand and foot will bear testimony openly Before the Almighty concerning their owner’s sins. Hand will say, ‘I stole such and such things,’ Lip will say, ‘I asked for such and such things,’ Foot will say, ‘I went after my own desires,’ Arm will say, ‘I embraced the harlot,’ Eye will say, ‘I looked after forbidden things,’ Ear will say, ‘I listened to evil talk.’ Thus the man will be shown to be a liar from head to foot Since his own members will prove him to be a liar."

"When my bier moveth on the day of death, Think not my heart is in this world, Do not weep for me, and cry, ‘Woe! Woe!’ Thou wilt fall in the devil’s snare; that is woe."

"One day I was filled with longing To behold in human form the splendours of the Friend, To witness the ocean gathered up into a drop, The sun compressed into a single atom."

"With muffled heads you cannot see, You’ve wrapped your cloaks in folds about your heads and eyes, Your sense of sight cannot see what before you lies. The world’s eye man is; all the rest’s mere skin and shell, A real eye’s he who strives his Friend to see right well."

"Spirit is very subtle and love is very jealous, What room for form, if the felt is hundredfold?"

"'Twere better that the spirit which wears not true love as a garment Had not been; its being is but shame."

"When the spirit lovingly embraces Thee, In Thy presence all images become spirit."

"The thread and the needle are related to one another; but a camel is not fitted to pass through the eye of a needle; how should the body of a camel become slender except by abstinence and exertion?"

"Mysteries are not communicable save to those who know, Mystery in the ear of infidels is no mystery."