Great Throughts Treasury

"When "I" and "You" have passed away, God alone will remain."

"One day I will have to go and leave this burden behind: Except for Your name, nothing will be found in my record. If my head is not in Your hands, O Ravisher of my heart, At least the dust from under Your foot will form a crown upon my head."

"In the fourth stage (of the belief in the Unity of God), such a surfeit of the dazzling divine light becomes manifest to the pilgrim that every single existing particle that lies within his vision becomes concealed in the very luster of that light just as particles in the air are lost to sight on account of the brightness of the light emanating from the sun. This occurs not because the particles have ceased to exist but rather because the intensity of the sunlight makes it impossible that anything other than this concealment should exist. In the same say, it is not true that a person becomes God - for God is infinitely greater than any man - nor has the person really cease to exist, for ceasing to exist is one thing, and becoming lost to view quite another!"

"Before your Unique Being, their is neither old nor new: Everything is nothing, nothing at all! Yet He is what He is. How then can we remain separate from You!"

"Your true reality is that which is within your breast. A man is where his heart is!"

"Your worth can be estimated by what you seek. If you seek a dog, your worth is that of a dog. Whoever worship God because he desires heaven is a slave of his own desire. Whoever worships Him out of fear of hell is a slave of hell, for anyone who is afraid of something is a slave of that thing."

"The treasury of the King is found in the heart. Look carefully to see what you have in this treasury! If it is filled with gold and gems, then it is indeed a treasury! If it is full of straw and refuse, then it is a mere rubbish dump. One treasure is said to be in heaven, and consists of the blessings of paradise. .. The keeper of treasure of paradise is an angel called "Rizwan", but the keeper of the treasury of love is the Lord Himself."

"When you look into a mirror you do not see the mirror for the simple reason that your attention has become riveted on your own handsome reflection. You would not, however, go on to say that the mirror has ceased to exist, or that it has become beautiful, or that beauty has become a mirror. In a similar fashion, one can contemplate at God's almighty power in the whole gamut of creation, without any distinction. Sufis describe this state that of being entirely lost to oneself in contemplating of the Unique Being!"