Collect as precious pearls the words of the wise and virtuous.

Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz said I have never known Allah May He be exalted except through the coincidence in Him of the opposites. 'He is the First and the Last, the Apparent and the Hidden.'

Paraphrased: Among the degrees of the universal Manifestation, each sentient creature typically experiences an illusory sense of autonomy. At the same time, with or without the creature's awareness, the creature subsists eternally as an immutable prototype in the divine Knowledge.

The pleasure and the love of God for His creatures constitute the original state. His pleasure and love are the means by which He has brought His creatures into existence and are the cause of that bringing into existence. He who knows that he possesses neither being nor act rediscovers himself in that original state of pleasure and divine love.

O my people, I disavow all that you associate [with God]. I orient my face with an exclusive orientation towards Him, who created the heavens and the earth and I am not one of the associators.

Some men, like spaniels, will only fawn the more when repulsed, but will pay little heed to a friendly caress.

The absolutely Non-Manifested cannot be designated by any expression which could limit It, Separate It, or include It. In spite of this, every allusion alludes only to Him, every designation designates Him, and He is at the same time the Non-Manifested and the Manifested.

Death is a black camel, which kneels at the gates of all.

The other world is as to this like the east to the west. We cannot approach the one without turning away from the other.

It is with a word as with an arrow--once let it loose and it does not return.

The diurnal sun sets at night, but the sun of the heart never disappears.

Fear that man who fears not God.

By reason of his elegance, he resembles an image painted in a palace, though he is as majestic as the palace itself.

When God wanted to create the horse, he said to the South Wind, I want to make a creature of you. Condense. And the Wind condensed.