The Sufi way is through knowledge and practice, not through intellect and talk.
The union of the mind and intuition which brings about illumination, and the development which the Sufis seek, is based upon love.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that true understanding and enlightenment arise from combining intellect with intuition, rooted in love.
Idries Shah's quote suggests that the profound insights and spiritual growth sought by Sufis stem from a harmonious relationship between rational thought and intuitive understanding, both of which are embraced and energized by love. This union highlights the importance of nurturing emotional connections in the pursuit of knowledge and personal enlightenment, indicating that love plays a crucial role in the process of illumination and personal development.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might say, 'As Idries Shah so eloquently puts it, the union of mind and intuition brings about illumination through love.'
More from Idries Shah
All quotes →To 'see both sides' of a problem is the surest way to prevent its complete solution. Because there are always more than two sides.
You have not forgotten to remember; You have remembered to forget. But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember - and generally more practical.
Banality is like boredom: bored people are boring people, people who think that things are banal are themselves banal. Interesting people can find something interesting in all things.
Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right effort, right time, right people, right materials.
To be obsessed by the idea of freedom, for instance, is itself a form of slavery. Such people are in the chains of the hope of freedom, and are therefore able to do little else than struggle with them.
Similar quotes
We are on the side of religion as opposed to religions, and we are among those who believe in the wretched inadequacy of sermons and the sublimity of prayer.
All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.
He was one of the numerous and varied legion of dullards, of half-animated abortions, conceited, half-educated coxcombs, who attach themselves to the idea most in fashion only to vulgarize it and who caricature every cause they serve, however sincerely.
Human beings make a strange fauna and flora. From a distance they appear negligible; close up they are apt to appear ugly and malicious. More than anything they need to be surrounded with sufficient space―space even more than time.
Talk of the devil, and his horns appear.
Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.