Foundations of the Spiritual Path
The foundations of our path are five:
- Taqwa – mindfulness of Allah, privately and publicly.
- Adherence to the Sunna in word and deed.
- Indifference to whether others accept or reject one.
- Contentment with Allah in times of both hardship and ease.
- Turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity.
— Uṣūl al-Ṭarīqa by Sīdī Aḥmad Zarrūq.
As the Arab racer needs not the whip,
So you will not need to fear
When on your journey you have started.
When purified are your soul and body,
You will not fear the fires of hell.
Throw pure gold into the fire;
If it contains no alloy, what is there to burn?
Mahmūd Shabistarī
Mine eyes have never seen but her:
To naught else can they testify.
All meanings in her are comprised.
Glory be to her Creator!
Ahmad al-Alawi
Sweet is the Folk’s drink. I tell of its flavour,
And I mean not wine nor mean I honey,
But an Ancient Draught beyond my power to describe,
For words ever fail Beauty’s describer.
Ahmad al-Alawi
What delight is there in life other than
companionship with the fuqara?
They are the sultans, lords, and princes.
— Abu Madyan
Sheikh Hamza Yusuf on the science of Tasawwuf.
An excerpt from his commentary on the book Tasfiyat al-Qulub by Imam Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi.
A gnostic once said: ‘A sufi is not a sufi unless, were everything that is in him to be exposed on a plate in the marketplace, he would not be ashamed of anything that came to light.’
Imam Haddad
