header pic header text

Sayings of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

TALAS
(Rhythmic expressions of ideas)

There is One Individual hidden behind many individuals; there is One Person shining through all personalities.

Loveless is lifeless; loving is living.

One breathes the air of heaven, another goes through the fire of hell;
yet both walk on the same earth, both live under the same sun.

There are some who walk, some who creep, some who run, and some who fly; and yet all men are said to be alike.

It is unjust to be rich when others are poor, and it is fatal to be poor when others are rich.

Humility in love is the humility of the master, and humility in surrender is the humility of the slave.

A great person will stretch your mind to the breadth of his own heart,
and a small person will narrow it to the size of his own outlook.

There is a right side to every wrong, and a wrong side to every right.

The mind is its question, and it is itself its answer.

All the lack that we find in life is the lack of will, and all the blessing that comes to us comes by the power of will.

The fearing welldoer is worse than a fearless sinner. If belief is a thing, faith is a living being.

Thoughts have words, feelings have voice, words have forms, voice has soul.

There are some, the closer destiny brings together, the further are their hearts thrown apart;
and there are others, the further destiny throws apart, the closer are their hearts brought together.

Sound is the life of life; time is the death of death.

The one who is lost on the path of love is lost forever;
the one who has won on the battlefield of love has won for all eternity.

There is no greater source of pride than a clear conscience;
and there is no greater means of humiliation than a guilty conscience.

Sacrifice and renunciation are two things;
sacrifice is made by love, renunciation is caused by indifference.

To live means to hope, and to hope means to live.

It takes years to make an ideal, and it takes but a moment to break it.

To love is one thing, and to own is another thing.

The wealth-seeker has no regard for father or brother;
the pleasure-seeker considers no honor nor respect;
the sorrowful has no comfort nor sleep;
the hungry distinguishes not between ripe and unripe.

Do I pass through life? No, it is life that passes by me.

By loving, one melts one's own heart; by possessing, one loads the heart of another.

Possession is self-assertion; loving is self-abnegation.
The possessor must lose, sooner or later, the one he possesses;
the lover gains in the end, if not the beloved, love itself.

The one who covers his grief under a smile is sincere; the one who covers his laughter under grief is a hypocrite.

Love that depends on being answered by the beloved is lame; it does not stand on its own feet.
Love that tries to possess the beloved is without arms; it can never hold.
Love that does not regard the pleasure and displeasure of the beloved is blind.
Love that is exacting and self-assertive is dead.

The secret of woman's charm is her modesty; the mystery of man's power is his pride.

The lover is blind to the faults of the one he loves, and the hater is blind to the merits of the one he hates.

Wisdom existed before the wise; life existed before the living; love existed before the lover.

The desert can be changed into fertile soil;
the land can be changed into the sea;
even hell can be changed into heaven;
but the mind that is once fixed, cannot be changed.

Words are valuable, but silence is precious.

That which fools can say rudely, the clever cover under a veil; and the wise say the same without saying it.

The day you feel you do not know, you will begin to know.

What is once given is given; what is once done is done; what is once lost is lost; what is once won is won.

Nothing can bind one to another except the thread of sympathy,
and nothing can separate one from another except the cutting of that thread.

As eagerly as man is inclined to free himself from a situation, so is he willingly inclined to fall into it.

Nothing is as old as the truth and nothing is as new as the truth.

Make of them big things, if you wish to do small things; and make of them small things, if you wish to do big things.

We speak when we understand the language of one another, and we keep silent when our hearts speak.

Sound is the voice of life; time is the word of death.

There are many sins, small and great; but to recognize sin is the greatest sin.

To step forward is going forward in the path of friendship, and to step backward is going backward.

He who retorts pays the one who insults him, but he who takes silently stands above every insult.

There are two different times in life when the danger of falling awaits man: the time of prosperity and the time of adversity.

All things become wrong when they are not in their right time or when they are not in their proper place.

In order to arrive at spiritual attainment two gulfs must be crossed: the sea of attachment and the ocean of detachment.

There is nothing more subtle or simpler than truth.

Food is the nourishment of the body;
thought is a refreshment to the mind;
love is the subsistence for the heart;
truth is the sustenance of the soul.

Man's ideal shows the height of his heart;
man's understanding shows the depth of his heart;
man's perception shows the length of his heart;
man's sympathy shows the breadth of his heart;
but the fourth dimension of man's heart is seen by all that it contains within itself.

Wisdom is different from justice:
while justice is expressed in fairness, wisdom is shown by tact.

There are two sorts of persons who show child-like simplicity in their lives:
the foolish one, who shows childish traits,
and the wise one, who shows the innocence of a child.

There are some who make the dead alive, and there are others who make the living dead.

Two persons are silent on the question of religion: the most foolish and the most wise.

Above law is love; above love is the Beloved.

The power of the word is indeed great, but the power of silence is still greater.

He who speaks much and says little is foolish; he who speaks little and says much is wise.

In the drop, the sea is as small as the drop; in the sea, a drop is as large as the sea.

If it is true, it is true as false; if it is false, it is as false as true.

He stands above the situation who controls it;
he falls beneath the situation who becomes involved in it.

One who looks at life with horror is in the underworld;
one who takes life seriously to heart is in the world;
the one who smiles at life with a happy smile is above the world.

It is the foolishly selfish who is selfish; the wisely selfish proves to be unselfish.

Before one becomes sharp and the other blunt,
Before one is hot and the other cold,
Before one doubts and the other suspects,
Before one gives up his confidence and the other his trust,
It is time that they left one another.

Before one closes his eyes and the other his ears,
Before one turns his head and the other his back,
Before one talks and the other disputes,
Before one is in wrath and the other in rage,
It is time that they left one another.

Friendship, relationship, familiarity, intimacy, all have their limits; if you go past the limit you certainly violate the forbidden soil.

There are those who enjoy taking, and there are those who enjoy giving.

If you can say something without saying, you had better not say;
if you can do something without doing, you had better not do.

Many live to die, and many die to live.

Even the faults of the meritorious soul become merits, and even merits of the faulty one turn into faults.

There are two kinds of people: those who are blinded by faith, and those who are blind to faith.

One cannot be real and live in the world of falsehood, and one cannot be false and exist in the world of reality.

Love all, trust none; forgive all, forget none; respect all, worship none. That is the manner of the wise.

The rose brings forth fragrance, color, and beautiful structure;
so the soul, with its unfoldment, shows personality, atmosphere, and refined manner.

The sun, air, water, space, and fertile soil are necessary for the rose to bloom; intelligence, inspiration, love, a wide outlook, and guidance are required for the soul to unfold.

Art without beauty,
poetry without inspiration,
music without feeling,
science without reason,
philosophy without logic,
religion without devotion,
mysticism without ecstasy
are like a lake without water.

A joke without wit,
a speech without meaning,
tears without romance,
learning without wisdom,
position without honor,
a heart without love,
a head without thought
are like the space without the air.

A man without manly courage,
a woman without womanly grace,
a child without a child's simplicity,
an infant without an infant's innocence,
a lover without willing sacrifice,
a worshipper without the ideal of God,
a giver without great modesty
are like a king without a kingdom.

Criticism, indifference, pessimism are the three things which close the door of the heart.

Love is the object in the life of both devil and saint. The one demands it, the other gives it.

God created man in His own image, and man made God in his own likeness.

What pleasure is there in a useless action?
What interest is there in a senseless speech?
What joy is there in a depthless thought?
What happiness is there in a loveless feeling?

The image of Christ is in the Church,
the book of Christ is with the clergy,
the love of Christ is in the heart of his worshipper,
but the light of Christ shines through the illuminated souls.