RULE 5

While everyone in this world strives to get somewhere and become someone, only to leave it all behind after death, you aim for the supreme stage of nothingness. Live this life as light and empty as the number zero.

We are no diff...

Submission does not mean being weak or passive. It leads to neither fatalism nor capitulation. Just the opposite. True power resides in submission a power that comes within. Those who submit to the divine essence of life will live in unp...

This world is erected upon the principle of reciprocity. Neither a drop of kindness nor a speck of evil will remain unreciprocated. For not the plots, deceptions, or tricks of other people.

If somebody is setting a trap, remember, so is God. He is the biggest plotter. Not even a leaf stirs ...

The path to the Truth is a labour of the heart, not of the head.

Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind.

Meet, challenge and ultimately prevail over your nafs with your heart. Kn...

Life is a temporary loan and this world is nothing but a sketchy imitation of Reality. Only children would mistake a toy for the real thing. And yet human beings either become infatuated with the toy or disrespectfully break it and throw it aside.

The human being has a unique place among God’s creation. “I breathed into him of My Spirit,” God says. Each and every one of us without exception is designed to be God’s delegate on earth. Ask yourself, just how often do you behave like a delegate, if you ever do so?

The true Sufi is such that even when he is unjustly accused, attacked and condemned from all sides, he patiently endures, uttering not a single bad word about any of his critics. A Sufi never apportions blame.

How can there be op...

It is never too late to ask yourself, “Am I ready to change the life I am living? Am I ready to change within?” Even if a single day in your life is the same as the day before, it surely is a pity.

At every moment and with each n...

A life without love is of no account. Don’t ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, Eastern or Western. Divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love ...

You can study God through everything and everyone in the universe, because God is not confined in a mosque, synagogue or church.

But if you are still in need of knowing where exactly His abode is, there is only one place to look ...

Intellect and love are made of different materials.

Intellect ties people in knots and risks nothing, but love dissolves all tangles and risks everything.

Intellect is always cautious and a...

How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves.

If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us.

If we see God as full...

Real faith is the one inside. The rest simply washes off. There is only one type of dirt that cannot be cleansed with pure water, and that is the stain of hatred and bigotry contaminating the soul. You can purify your body through abstinence and fasting, but only love ...

The whole universe is contained within a single human being-you. Everything that you see around, including the things that you might not be fond of and even the people you despise or abhor, is present within you in varying degrees.

If you want to change the ways others treat you, you should first change the way you treat yourself, fully and sincerely, there is no way you can be loved.

Once you achieve that stage, however, be thankful for every thorn that ot...

Each and every reader comprehends the Holy Qur’an on a different level of tandem with the depth of his understanding. There are four levels of insight.

The first level is the outer meaning and it is the one that the majority of t...

Whatever you speak, good or evil, will somehow come back to you. Therefore, if there is someone who harbours ill thoughts about you, saying similarly bad things about him will only make matters worse. You will be locked in a vicious circle of malevolent energy.

Destiny doesn’t mean that your life has been strictly predetermined. Therefore, to live everything to the fate and to not actively contribute to the music of the universe is a sign of sheer ignorance. The music of the universe is all pervading and it is composed on 40 ...

While the part change, the whole always remains the same. For every thief who departs this world, a new one is born. And every descent person who passes away is replaced by a new one. In this way not only does nothing remain the same but also nothing ever really change...

Try not to resist the changes, which come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down.

How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?

The quest for love changes a person. There is no seeker among those who search for love who has not matured on the way. The moment you start looking for love, you start to change within.

Fret not where the road will take you. Instead concentrate on the first step. That is the hardest part and that is what you are responsible for.

Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will f...

Hell is in the here and now. So is heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as they are both present inside this very moment.

Every time we fall in love, we ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy or fight so...

In this world, it is not similarities or regularities that take us a step forward, but blunt opposites. And all the opposites in the universe are present within each and every one of us. Therefore the believer needs to meet the unbeliever residing within. And the nonbe...

Loneliness and solitude are two different things.

When you are lonely, it is easy to delude yourself into believing that you are on the right path. Solitude is better for us, as it means being alone without feeling lonely.

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

Be thankful!

Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to look at the end of a process.

What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn.

East, west, south, or north makes little difference. No matter what your destination, just be sure to make every journey a journey within.

If you travel within, you’ll travel the whole wide world and beyond.

The midwife knows that when there is no pain, the way for the baby cannot be opened and the mother cannot give birth.

Likewise, for a new self to be born, hardship is necessary.

Just as cla...

There are more fake gurus and false teachers in this world than the number of stars in the visible universe. Don’t confuse power-driven, self-centered people with true mentors.

A genuine spiritual master will not direct your atte...

We were all created in His image, and yet we were each created different and unique. No two people are alike. No hearts beat to the same rhythm. If God had wanted everyone to be the same, He would have made it so. Therefore, disrespecting differences and imposing your ...

When a true lover of God goes into a tavern, the tavern becomes his chamber of prayer, but when a wine bibber goes into the same chamber, it becomes his tavern.

In everything we do, it is our hearts that make the difference, not ...

The past is an interpretation. The future is on illusion. The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but...

If you want to strengthen your faith, you will need to soften inside. For your faith to be rock solid, your heart needs to be as soft as a feather. Through an illness, accident, loss or fright, one way or another, we are all faced with incidents that teach us how to be...

Nothing should stand between you and God. No imams, priests, rabbis or any other custodians of moral or religious leadership. Not spiritual masters and not even your faith.

Believe in your values and your rules, but never lord th...

God is a meticulous maker. So precise is His order that everything on earth happens in its own time. Neither a minute late nor a minute early. And for everyone without exception, the clock works accurately. For each there is a time to love and a time to die.

God is busy with the completion of your work, both outwardly and inwardly. He is fully occupied with you. Every human being is a work in progress that is slowly but inexorably moving toward perfection. We are each an unfinished work of art both waiting and striving to ...

It’s easy to love a perfect God, unblemished and infallible that He is. What is far more difficult is to love fellow human being with all their imperfections and defects.

Remember, one can only know what one is capable of loving....