The Heart of Sufism: Esoteric Teachings

"Sufism is to renounce the growth of the riches of the ego, to gain the wealth of the True. It is more noble to deal with the life of one's heart within, than with meritorious works on the outside. The purpose of the Sufi is, first of all, to reach the True and until it has found what it seeks, it finds no rest, nor does it pay attention to anything. Sufism is to enter into every high disposition, and leave every provision low. The entirety of Sufism consists in the abandonment of the superfluous. Sufism is letting oneself be guided completely by the True. Sufism is being observant of the True in all circumstances, and having self-discipline at heart. The Sufi is not contaminated by anything, and everything is purified by him. The Sufi who knows the True, in being among the other men, however, is elsewhere from them. Sufism is closer to silence than to discourse. The Sufi is the one who is not attached to anything, and nothing sticks to him. Sufism is an essence without form. Sufism is that the Sufi should go back to being what it was before it came into being. Sufism is, in the beginning, a memory, then it becomes ecstasy, and in the end it is neither one nor the other: nothing more exists, because in reality nothing had ever existed. The True is nothing to us sailing, if we do not occupy ourselves not with existence, but with ourselves. Because, having forgotten our existence, we would find the One who is at the origin of all existence, seeing at the same time that we do not exist at all. The True is not veiled by some reality that exists next to Him, but what The sail is only the illusion that there is some reality beyond."

- Abu'l-Husayn