165+ Sufi Quotes From The Spiritual Islamic Practice

Luca Demetriou
Dec 12, 2023 By Luca Demetriou
Originally Published on Feb 15, 2021
Edited by Luca Demetriou
Man Pray for god blessing to wishing have a better life.
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Read time: 22.4 Min

We are here with a collection of the best Sufi quotes from the Islamic spiritual practice for you to read, enjoy, and get inspired.

The practitioners of Sufism are regarded as ‘Sufis’ and practice, focus, and believe in the soul’s purification by renouncing worldly things and mystical contemplation to help experience and establish a union with God through prayer. Sufis are known to celebrate the beauty of both life and death.

Physical beauty is an external property but spiritual beauty is  something that is ageless. Whether you draw joy from dance or from helping others, spirituality can be the driving force for you.

Sufism inspires its followers to not worry about life or death and establish a relationship with Allah through love, prayers, and chanting. So, without further wait, let’s take a look at some of the best Sufi quotes for you to read and get motivated about the culture, traditions, and sayings of famous Sufis.

If you like this article, you may also like spiritual awakening quotes and worship quotes from our collection.

Best Sufi Wisdom Quotes And Words

Sufism, also known as 'Tasawwuf' and ‘Islamic Mysticism,’ is an inward dimension of Islam known for its spiritual practices, values, and doctrines from ancient Islamic history. Sufis are someone who are believed to get close to God by seeking a spiritual learning method known as tariqa.

So, let’s take a look at some of the best Sufi quotes that will make you dance with joy.

Soft focus on a hand of woman while praying

1. “The death of the heart is ignorance and life of the heart is knowledge.”

- Imam Ghazali.

2. “Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighborhood of despair. Even when all doors remain closed, God wil open up a new path only for you.

Be thankful! It is easy to be thankful when all is well. A Sufi is thankful not only for what he has been given but also for all that has been denied.”

- Elif Shafak.

3. “Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.”

- Rumi.

4. “If u make a frequent practice of invoking blessing and peace on him, perhaps you will attain the station of witnessing him.”

- Imam Al-Sha’rani.

5. “My Beloved is always with me.”

- Rabia al-Basri.

6. “Experience shows that the spirit is nothing but awareness. Whoever has greater awareness has greater spirit…When the spirit becomes greater and passes beyond all bounds, the spirits of all things become obedient to it.”

- Rumi.

7. “Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”

- Rumi.

8. “Whatever you have in your mind - forget it;

Whatever you have in your hand - give it;

Whatever is to be your fate - face it!”

- Abu Sa’id.

9. “Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”

- Rumi.

10. “These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”

- Rumi.

11. “Be sure that someday you’ll praise and thank God for your unanswered prayers that once you had wept for them.”

- Shams Tabrez.

12. “From each, love demands a mystic silence.”

- Attar Of Nishapur.

13. “You have no choice. You must leave your ego on the doorstep before you enter love.”

- Kamand Kojouri.

14. “If someone remarks: “What an excellent man you are!” and this pleases you more than his saying, “What a bad man you are!” know that you are still a bad man.”

- Sufyan Al Thawri.

15. “When in the eyes of the beloved riches count not, gold and dust are as one to thee.”

- Saadi Shirazi.

16. “I know you re tired but come, this is the way.”

- Rumi.

17. “Sufism is not a religion or a philosophy, it is neither deism nor atheism, nor is it a moral, nor a special kind of mysticism, being free from the usual religious sectarianism. If ever it could be called a religion, it would only be as a religion of love, harmony, and beauty.”

- Hazrat Inayat Khan.

18. “Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.”

- Rumi.

19. “Hide not behind the veil, my love, I long to have a glimpse of you.”

- Bulleh Shah.

20. “The Sufi is a lover of God, and like any other lover, he proves his love by constant remembrance of his Beloved. This constant attention to God has two effects: one outward and the other inward.”

- Dr. Javad Nurbankhsh.

21. “Only that amount from your possessions are for you alone which you have sent ahead of you to the Hereafter the balance of that wealth which you have left, in this World belongs to your heirs.”

- Maula Ali.

22. “Close your eyes, fall in Love, stay there.”

- Rumi.

23. “If light is in your heart, you will find your way home”

- Rumi.

24. “You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.”

- Idries Shah.

25. “If you have never trodden the path of love, go away and fall in love; then come back and see us.”

- Jami.

26. “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”

- Rumi.

27. “Let go of thought and bring it not into your heart, for you are naked and thought is an icy wind. You think in order to escape from torment and suffering, but your thinking is torment’s fountainhead. Know that the bazaar of God’s Making is outside of thought…”

- Rumi.

28. “Only from the heart can you touch the sky.”

- Rumi.

29. “As long as any speech is locked away in the mouth, then you are its owner. When it leaves your mouth then from that point onwards it owns you.”

- Maula Ali.

30. “Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes.”

- Rumi.

31. “If I told you about a land of love, friend, would you follow me and come?”

- Yunus Emre.

32. “If anybody asks what Sufism is, what kind of religion is it, the answer is that Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which the thing of primary importance is to seek God in the heart of mankind.”

- Hazrat Inayat Khan.

33. “The true man attaches his heart to none but God.”

- Bayazid Bastami.

34. “Know that the World of Unity lies in the other direction from the senses. If you want Oneness, go in that direction!”

- Rumi.

35. “Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.”

- Rumi.

36. “When no one is looking,

I swallow deserts and clouds

and chew on mountains

knowing they are sweet bones!

When no one is looking

and I want to kiss God,

I just lift my own hand to my mouth.”

- Khwaja Shamsuddin Mohammad.

37. “There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground; there are a thousand ways to go home again.”

- Rumi.

38. “Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.”

- Rumi.

39. “The remedy against want is to moderate your desires.”

- Sheikh Sa’adi.

Spiritual Sufi Quotes On Life

Sufi practitioners or the followers of Sufism seek to find divine love and knowledge through their Beloved’s personal experiences and help its followers deepen their spiritual practice to elevate it to a new level.

Let’s take a look at some of the best spiritual Sufi quotes for you to learn and experience the superior feeling of joy and zest to live.

40. “For good health control your diet, for good soul control your sins, and for good faith send blessing upon Prophet Muhammad”

- Imam Ghazali.

41. “It is a way to the heart of hearts, to the utmost direct intense experience of one’s sacred identity.”

- Rumi.

42. “Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom.”

- Rumi.

43. “The moment you accept what troubles you’ve been given, the door will open.”

- Rumi.

44. “Learn from Ali, the sincerity of actions. The Lion of Allah is free from deception.”

- Mevlana Rumi.

45. “This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.”

- Rumi.

46. “Lovers are killed by those they love so well; No voices from the slain return.”

- Saadi Shirazi.

47. “I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God.”

- Hafiz.

48. “Forget your voice, sing!

Forget your feet, dance!

Forget your life, live!

Forget yourself and be!”

- Kamand Kojouri.

49. “All creatures, day and night, make manifestation of God. Some of them know what they are doing and are aware of their manifesting, while others are unaware. However it may be, God’s manifestation is confirmed.”

- Rumi.

50. “Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.”

- Rumi.

51. “The sea will be the Sea

Whatever the drop’s philosophy.”

- Attar Of Nishapur.

52. “Don’t search for heaven and hell in the future. Both are now present. Whenever we manage to love without expectations, calculations, negotiations, we are indeed in heaven. Whenever we fight, hate, we are in hell.”

- Shams Tabrez.

53. “The sufis believe that they can experience something more complete.”

- Idries Shah.

54. “The lover of God will cry and weep until he finds rest in the Beloved’s embrace.”

- Rabia al-Basri.

55. “How could the rays of God’s light fit into the heart? Yet when you search you will find it there, not from the point of view of containment such that it could be said that the light is in that place. You will find it through that place …”

- Rumi.

56. “Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”

- Rumi.

57. “‎Dancing is not just getting up painlessly, like a leaf blown on the wind; dancing is when you tear your heart out and rise out of your body to hang suspended between the worlds.”

- Rumi.

58. “If I repent now will God forgive me?

No, but if God forgives you, you will repent.”

- Rabia Basri.

59. “There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled.

There is a void in your Soul, ready to be filled.

You feel it, don’t you?”

- Rumi.

60. “Yes, yes; you’ve read thousands of books but you’ve never tried to read your own self; you rush into your temples, into your mosques, but you have never tried to enter your own heart; futile are all your battles with the devil for you have never tried to fight your own desires.”

- Bulleh Shah.

61. “From each, love demands a mystic silence.”

- Attar of Nishapur.

62. “The sun never says to the earth,

‘You owe me.’

Look what happens with a love like that.

It lights up the whole sky.”

- Hafiz.

63. “The Prophets accept all agony and trust it. For the water has never feared the fire.”

- Rumi.

64. “The beloved does not drink a single drop of water without seeing His Face in the cup.”

- Mansur Al-Hallaj.

65. “True Sufism is resistance: spiritual, intellectual, social, cultural, political and economic resistance. It cannot be, for sure, supporting dictators.”

- Tariq Ramadan.

66. “Love is and should always be unconditional.”

- Zain Hashmi.

67. “His ego falls like a battered wall. He unites with God, alive, but emptied of Nasuh (i.e. himself).”

- Rumi.

68. “Why do you stay in prison, when the door is so wide open?”

- Rumi.

69. “The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all’.”

- Idries Shah.

70. “No amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future. Go easy on yourself for the outcome of all affairs is determined by Allah’s Decree. If something is meant to go elsewhere, it will never come on your way, but if it is yours by destiny, from you it cannot flee.”

- Umar ibn al-Khattab.

71. “The thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.”

- Bayazid Bastami.

72. “Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.”

- Rumi.

73. “My friend, the sufi is the friend of the present moment. To say tomorrow is not our way.”

- Rumi.

74. “Keep silent, because the world of silence is a vast fullness.”

- Rumi.

75. “Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it to others.”

- Idries Shah.

76. “So behead your selfhood, oh warrior! Become selfless and annihilated, like a dervish!”

- Rumi.

Famous Sufi Love Quotes

Sufism is considered an ecstatic, deeply devotional, and difficult path, but ultimately rewarding to Sufi believers or practitioners. It is regarded as a path to connect to God through emotions and spirituality and believes in celebrating the follower’s relationship with God.

Let’s take a look at some of the most famous Sufi quotes on love that will give you a new zest to live by getting rid of sorrow.

77. “Man is like a bow held in the hand of God’s Power. God employs him in various tasks. In reality, the agent is God, not the bow.

The bow is an instrument and a means. But for the sake of the maintenance of the world it is unaware and heedless of God. Tremendous indeed is the bow that becomes aware of the Bowman’s hand!”

- Rumi.

78. “Take every effort of guard you tongue as it is the strongest cause of your destruction in this life and the next.”

- Imam Ghazali.

79. “Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and Soul there is no such thing as separation.”

- Rumi.

80. “Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise.”

- Rumi.

81. “Successful people enjoy the journeys they embark on, irrespective of whether they reach their destination or not.”

- Zain Hashmi.

82. “Take every effort to guard your tongue as it is the strongest cause for your destruction in this life and the next.”

- Imam Al-Ghazali.

83. “To Thee Thou hast drawn my love, O Fakir… Kabîr says,Thou hast united Thy heart to my heart, O Fakir!”

- Kabir.

84. “God calls, … Come out of your selves quickly, or else every instant will be a shackle, every two paces snares and traps. Come out of ourselves? But to where? To selflessness! Selflessness is meaning, meaning! Self-consciousness is names, names!”

- Rumi.

85. “Without Sufism, Islam would not have spread into two thirds of what we call the Islamic world.”

- Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

86. “If words come out of the heart, they will enter the heart, but if they come from the tongue, they will not pass beyond the ears.”

- Al-Suhrawardi.

87. “When will you begin that long journey into yourself?”

- Rumi.

88. “Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

- Rumi.

89. “If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me. For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens.”

- Rumi.

90. “The desires of this world are like sea water. The more you drink of them, the more you thirst.”

- Ibn Arabi.

91. “For a day, just for one day, Talk about that which disturbs no one And bring some peace into your Beautiful eyes.”

- Hafez.

92. “Oh Khusrau, the river of love

Runs in strange directions.

One who jumps into it drowns,

And one who drowns, gets across.”

- Amir Khusrau.

93. “This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”

- Rumi.

94. “My God

how gentle you are with me

in spite of my great ignorance

and how merciful You are with me

in spite of my ugly deeds.”

- Ibn Ata Allah.

95. “Food is like a seed which takes root in the land of salik’s stomach and grows tree of actions [Aamal] if the food is lawful the tree of good action grows; and if it is unlawful, the tree of disobedience and sin grows; if it is doubtful the tree of vicious ideas and negligence in prayer grows.”

- Sayyid Makhdoom Ashraf Jahangir Simnani.

96. “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.”

- Rumi.

97. “What have I to do with the window? When I am before you, I close my eyes to everything else. I have not come to stare about.”

- Bayazid Bastami.

98. “Only the word “I” divides me from God.”

- Yunus Emre.

99. “What is it to know something of God? Burn inside that presence. Burn up.”

- Rumi.

100. “Bring anger and pride under your feet, turn them into a ladder and climb higher.”

- Mevlana Rumi.

101. “We seek the fire of the spark that is already within us.”

- Kamand Kojouri.

102. “The wound is the place where the light enters you.”

- Rumi.

103. “If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”

- Rumi.

104. “You that turns stones to gold, change me…”

- Mevlana Rumi.

105. “Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.”

- Rumi.

106. “Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.”

- Rumi.

107. “The thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.”

- Bayazid Bistami.

108. “The lover of God will cry and weep until he finds rest in the Beloved’s embrace.”

- Rabia Al-Basri.

Best Sufi Quotes From Rumi And Others

Rumi is a famous 13th-century Persian poet who had a massive influence on Islamic writings and culture. He is one of the best selling poets and an inspirational idol for thousands of Sufism followers.

So, let’s take a look at some of the best collections of wise, powerful, inspirational, and enlightening quotes by Rumi and other Sufi philosophers that will help you be rid of your sorrow and focus better on your work.

109. “The very center of your heart is where life begins – the most beautiful place on earth.”

- Rumi.

110. “My friend, the sufi is the friend of the present moment. To say tomorrow is not our way.”

- Rumi.

111. “Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be.”

- Rumi.

112. “When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep. Praise God for those two insomnias! And the difference between them.”

- Rumi.

113. “Be certain that in the religion of love there are no believers and unbelievers. Love embraces all.”

- Rumi.

114. “His Name is the Spirit of spirits, His invocation the ruby of the mines. His love is in the Soul, He is both our refuge and our hope. When I mention His Name, good fortune arrives; then the Name becomes the Named -- without duality, without hesitation.”

- Rumi.

115. “Bring anger and pride under your feet, turn them into a ladder and climb higher.”

- Rumi.

116. “What you seek is seeking you.?”

- Rumi.

117. “It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.”

- Rumi.

118. “I am not this hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within.”

- Rumi.

119. “My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”

- Rumi.

120. “For I have learned that every heart will get, what it prays for most.”

- Hafez.

121. “Pain is a treasure, for it contains mercies.”

- Mevlana Rumi.

122. “Remember. The way you make love is the way God will be with you.”

- Rumi.

123. “For those who realize that everything is from God, everything is the same.”

- Rumi.

124. “They will become Godly when they will have God in their hearts.”

- Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi.

125. “Happy are those who find fault with themselves instead of finding fault with others.”

- Muhammad.

126. “What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle.”

- Rumi.

127. “We make plans, unaware of what is being planned, and what we plan cannot withstand what God Plans.”

- Rumi.

128. “Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought.”

- Rumi.

129. “Gamble everything for love, if you’re a true human being.”

- Rumi.

130. “I reject any path which rejects life, but I can’t help loving Sufism because it sounds so beautiful. It gives relief in the midst of battle.”

- Naguib Mahfouz.

131. “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

- Rumi.

132. “Patience is the key to happiness.”

- Rumi.

133. “You show your worth by what you seek.”

- Mevlana Rumi.

134. “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

- Rumi.

135. “Ignore those that make you fearful and sad, that degrade you back towards disease and death.”

- Rumi.

136. “Now is the time to unite the Soul and the world. Now is the time to see the sunlight dancing as one with the shadows.”

- Rumi.

137. “I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.”

- Rumi.

138. “Concern yourself not with the thief-like ego and its business. Whatever is not God’s work is nothing, nothing!”

- Rumi.

139. “Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

- Rumi.

Awakening Sufi Quotes

Sufism is known for its values, chanting, and traditions done through the practice of Dikhr and help in the remembrance of God through the repeated recitation of names and attributes of God. Let’s take a look at some of the most awakening and motivational Sufi quotes for you to read.

140. “The desires of this world are like sea water, the more you drink of them the more you thirst.”

- Ibn Arabi.

141. “The real work is in the Heart:

Wake up your Heart! Because when the heart is completely awake,

Then it needs no Friend.”

- Rabia Basri.

142. “Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being.”

- Rumi.

143. “At the end of my life, with just one breath left, if you come, I’ll sit up and sing”.

- Mevlana Rumi.

144. “Take someone who doesn’t keep score, who’s not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing, who has not the slightest interest even in his own personality: he’s free.”

- Rumi.

145. “So then where is the kingdom of God in man? It is in the heart...That is heaven...That is God...The heart is the station of God. All that matters is there...This is where God, the Soul, and the light of wisdom exist.

This is a temple of God which is formed as an atom within an atom, heart within the heart, the qalb within the qalb. It is within what is within...It cannot be destroyed by the five elements. You must understand this. It can never be destroyed...”

- M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.

146. “Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition.”

- Rumi.

147. “O soul of mine! Pass on quickly through this world; and leave it, for indeed life lies ahead of it”.

- Imam Shafi’i.

148. “Silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation.”

- Rumi.

149. “The practice of Sufism is the intention to move toward truth by means of love and devotion.”

- Javad Nurbakhsh.

150. “Whatever we perceive in the world around us tends to reflect who we are and what we care about most deeply, as in the old saying, When a thief sees a saint, all he sees are his pockets.”

- Robert Frager.

151. “Very little grows on jagged rock. Be ground. Be crumbled, so wild flowers will come up where you are.”

- Rumi.

152. “When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray.”

- Rumi.

153. “Desires make slaves out of kings, and patience makes kings out of slaves”.

- Hazrat Imam Al-Ghazali.

154. “Inside this robe there is only God.”

- Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir.

155. “Seek the spirit, forget the form.”

- Bulleh Shah.

156. “It is certain that an atom of goodness on the path of faith is never lost.”

- Rumi.

157. “Achieve some perfection yourself, so that you may not fall into sorrow by seeing the perfection in others.”

- Rumi.

158. “Be full of sorrow, that you may become hill of joy; weep, that you may break into laughter.”

- Rumi.

159. “The period of waiting patiently for release from suffering is an act of worship”.

- Hazrat Imam Al-Ghazali.

160. “Enlightenment must come little by little-otherwise it would overwhelm.”

- Idries Shah.

161. “Sufism has always had the function of purifying Islamic ethics and that fasting and tazkiya is like lighting a lamp.”

- Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

162. “Woman is the radiance of God; she is not your beloved. She is the Creator—you could say that she is not created.”

- Rumi.

163. “If you want dervishhood, spiritual poverty, and emptiness, you must be friends with a sheikh. Talking about it, reading books, and doing practices don’t help. Soul receives from Soul that knowing.”

- Rumi.

164. “The moment you shine the light, the darkness vanishes. Darkness exists only before there is light.”

- M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.

165. “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

- Rumi.

166. “The sincere Sufi fell poor when he has wealth, is humble when he has power, and is hidden when he has fame.”

- Imam Abul Qasim.

167. “When life is good and you are comfortable, bear with gratitude the burdens of the weak”.

- Shaykh Saadi.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 165+ Sufi quotes from the spiritual Islamic practice, then why not take a look at spiritual growth quotes, or [faith in God quotes].

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Written by Luca Demetriou

Bachelor of Arts specializing in English and Drama, Master of Arts specializing in Performance: Design and Practice

Luca Demetriou picture

Luca DemetriouBachelor of Arts specializing in English and Drama, Master of Arts specializing in Performance: Design and Practice

Experienced in writing and sub-editing, Luca holds a Bachelor's in English Literature and Drama from the University of Birmingham, where he served as the culture editor at Redbrick Paper. He is currently pursuing a Master's in Performance: Design and Practice at the University of the Arts in London, showcasing his passion for the arts, performance, and history. With a keen interest in traveling, Luca enjoys exploring new cultures and experiencing diverse perspectives.

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