The secret of the cook is not to lose your self when you search for yourself. Shaykh Yahya Suhrawardî wrote a quatrain about the right kind of orientation: Hân tâ sar rishta-yi-khud gum nakunîKud râ barâ-yi nîk wa bad gum nakunîRah-raw tuî wa râ tuî manzil tuHushdâr ki râh-i-khud be khud gum nakuni Take care not to lose sight of the origin of your self,Lest, for the sake of good and bad, you lose your self.The traveller, the road and the destination, you are yourself.Take care not to lose the road to your self!   There is another version of the first line, mentioning rishta-yi-khirad [instead of rishta-yi-khud], and this can be translated as ‘the thread of wisdom’ or ‘the thread of the intellect’. What causes us to lose self-mastery?…

There was once a dervish in Abadan, whose cell was always surrounded by disciples, people who had come from far and near to hear his wisdom and try to achieve knowledge and spiritual fulfilment. Sometimes he spoke to them, sometimes he did not. Sometimes he read from books, and sometimes he made them perform various tasks. The disciples tried, for decades, to understand the purport of his words, to fathom the depth of his signs and symbols, and in every way possible to get closer to his wisdom. Those who understood what he taught, were the ones who did not spend time trying to puzzle out things. They cultivated patience and attention, and refrained from looking for verbal associations from…

This is the true story of the prophet Moshgel Gosha who saved the life of an innocent prisoner. Many years ago there was an old man by the name of Abdollah who lived in abject poverty. With a broken back and pain in his old hands he went every day to the desert to plant some shrubs in order to to earn some money for his family. This type of life was very hard and bitter for him and his wife. The older Abdollah became, the harder his life became. The wife of Abdollah then formulated an inner intention that every Friday morning before sunrise she would sweep the spot in front of their house and sprinkle some water on…

Shah Inayat was the head gardener of the Shalimar gardens of Lahore. These gardens are Mogul gardens. The shrine of Madho Lal Huseyn can be found there. Bullha Shah visited these gardens and as it was summer, he roamed in the mango-groves. Desirous of tasting the fruit he looked round for the guardian, but, not finding him there, he decided to help himself. To avoid the sin of stealing he looked at the ripe fruit and said: “Allah, al-Ghaneey!” (Allah, the Rich One). On the uttering of this invocation a mango fell in his hands. He repeated them several times and thus collected a few mangoes. Tying them in his scarf (a long piece of cloth wound round the shoulders…

Shaykh Ibn al-‘Arabi has invested a number of people with his khirqa. He provides 14 names in the beginning of his Diwan, whereof 13 are women. He has applauded all of these women – with the exception of Zumurrud, because of her abandoning the khirqa he had passed to her – as genuine aspirants on the Sufi path. This is the poem he wrote for his murid Fatimah who received one of these khirqa’s: You adorned Fatimah with the garment of piety and guidance, I do not see anyone more deserving of the apparel of virtue. You clothed her with the exalted and supreme mantle, Casting all ills from her heart. Between substance and accident she learned virtue from me,…