21 Quotes by William C. Chittick

Certainly many if not most of Sufi love poems can be read as if they were addressed to a woman. In fact, without doubt a certain number of them were inspired by a woman‘s beautiful features, but this did not prevent the poet from viewing her loveliness as the mirror of God‘s Beauty. (p. 287)

Already in this world the perfect Sufis live with God. They journey into the Infinite, listening to the music of God’s creative command. At each moment God says “Be” and a new selfdisclosure, more glorious and perfect than the preceding, delights the eye. In the words of Iraqi, The song will never cease, nor the dance come to an end, for all eternity, because the Beloved is infinite.

The temporal cannot know the Eternal, so to the extent that the Sufi contemplates God in his heart, God Himself is the contemplator: Ultimately, the Witness, the Witnesser, and the Witnessing are all one. (p. 288)

There are no „others“. What appears to be „other than God“ is in fact foam upon the Ocean, forms manifesting meanings, the Hidden Treasure displaying itself outwardly, sunlight upon a wall. All multiplicity is the manifestation of Unity. (p. 304)

Whoever enters the Way without a guide will take a hundred years to travel a two-day journey. . . . – Rumi (p. 123)

The Sufi‘s book is not composed of ink and letters: It is naught but a heart white as snow. The scholar‘s provisions are the marks of the pen. What are the Sufi‘s provisions? The footprints of the saints. – Rumi (p. 131)

The fall of man is the result of the blinding of the ‘eye of the heart’ (chashm-i dil or ‘ayn al-qalb), which alone sees with the vision of gnosis.

The just Witness is the Beloved‘s Eye. (p. 292)

به طور کلی، صوفیان خود را مسلمانانی می‌دانند که دعوت خداوند را به درک حضور او در عالم و در درون خود جدی می‌گیرند. صوفیان بر باطن بیش از ظاهر، بر نظر بیش از عمل، بر تحول روحی بیش از شریعت‌معابی، و بر پرورش روح بیش از تعامل اجتماعی تاکید دارند. از منظر الاهیات، صوفیان از رحمت، مهربانی و جمال پروردگار به مراتب بیشتر از غضب و قهر و جلال او سخن می‌گویند.