William C. Chittick > Quotes

“For such people, the ruling gods are progress, science, and development. They imagine that we know so much more about the world than those people of olden times, because "we" have science. Of course, they themselves do not have science, they have simply heard and believed that scientific knowledge is real knowledge. They know little about the goals and methods of science, and nothing about the Islamic Intellectual tradition. They are blind imitators in intellectual issues, that is, on the level where they should be striving for their own understanding. What is worse, this is a selective imitation, since they only accept the authority of the "scientists" and the "experts", not that of the great Muslim thinkers of the past. If Einstein said it, it must be true, but if Al-Ghazali or Mulla Sadra said it, then it can't be true, because it isn't scientific.”
― William C. Chittick

“insanları insan kılan şey, türe konulmuş özel biyolojik, toplumsal ve tarihsel sınırlamalar değil; onlara verilmiş Sonsuz'a ve Mutlak'a nüfuz etme olgusudur”
― William C. Chittick, Varolmanın Boyutları

“The temporal cannot know the Eternal, so to the extent that the Sufi contemplates God in his heart, God Himself is the contemplator: Ultimately, the Witness, the Witnesser, and the Witnessing are all one. (p. 288)”
― William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi

“A famous aphorism tells us, „The Sufi is the child of the moment“ (as-sufi ibn al-waqt). One of its meanings is that the true Sufi lives in the constant awareness that his self is nothing but what he is at the present moment. And since each present moment is unique, each moment of the self is unique. In some Sufi texts, each moment is called a nafas, a „breath.“ The Sufis are then called „the folk of the breaths“ (ahl al-anfas), because they live in full awareness of the uniqueness of the nafs at each nafas, each breath, each instant. (p. 55-56)”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide

“Saul der ki:"Modern dünya dev bir tahrip makinesidir. İnsanın varoluşunda görülmekte; rasyonel yöntemlerin meyvesi, savaşlarla dolu bir y.y.dır. Bireylerin her karanlık olayı bir bakıma beklenmedik bir şey veya bu konuda sonuncusu imiş gibi ele almak suretiyle, kendilerini sürekli sıkıştıran, açık zorbalık ve dehşete dikkatli biçimde arkalarını döndükleri başka bir çağ düşünmek güçtür”
― William C. Chittick

“It is a common misinterpretation of Islamic intellectual history
to say that Muslim scholars made scientific discoveries but then failed to follow up on them, so the torch of learning passed to the West. This is to read the empirical methodology and practical goals of modern science back into the intellectual methods and spiritual goals of the wisdom tradition. The goal was not to establish a fund of transmitted knowledge which other scientists could imitate and build upon and from which technologists could draw for practical ends. The goal was to discover the truth for oneself.”
― William C. Chittick, Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul: The Pertinence of Islamic Cosmology in the Modern World

“Glory be to Him who veils Himself through His manifestation and manifests Himself through His veil!”
― William C. Chittick, Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets

“Whoever enters the Way without a guide will take a hundred years to travel a two-day journey. . . . – Rumi (p. 123)”
― William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi

“به طور کلی، متکلمان و فقیهان بر اینکه عقل می‌تواند تعالی خدا را درک کند، تاکید کرده‌اند و صوفیان با تاکید بر درک قرب خدا توسط خیال رو در روی آنان قرار گرفته اندو متکلمان میگویند خدا مطلقا با هیچ یک از اشیای جهان همانند نیست (تنزیه)، و صوفیان پاسخ میدهند که همه چیز همانند اوست (تشبیه)، زیرا اشیا همه واقعیت خود را از او می‌گیرند.”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide

“Certainly many if not most of Sufi love poems can be read as if they were addressed to a woman. In fact, without doubt a certain number of them were inspired by a woman‘s beautiful features, but this did not prevent the poet from viewing her loveliness as the mirror of God‘s Beauty. (p. 287)”
― William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi

“The fall of man is the result of the blinding of the ‘eye of the heart’ (chashm-i dil or ‘ayn al-qalb), which alone sees with the vision of gnosis.”
― William C. Chittick, The Sufi Doctrine of Rumi

“awareness”
― William C. Chittick, Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets

“The just Witness is the Beloved‘s Eye. (p. 292)”
― William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi

“Human beings... are infinitely diverse and ever-changing in their inward forms.... A human being comes into the world as a potential divine form, but he or she may leave it as practically anything at all—an angel, a saint, a prophet, a devil, an animal, a vegetable.”
― William Chittick

“Love is that flame which, when it blazes up, consumes everything else but the Beloved (V, 588).”
― William C. Chittick, The Sufi Doctrine of Rumi

“به طور کلی، صوفیان خود را مسلمانانی می‌دانند که دعوت خداوند را به درک حضور او در عالم و در درون خود جدی می‌گیرند. صوفیان بر باطن بیش از ظاهر، بر نظر بیش از عمل، بر تحول روحی بیش از شریعت‌معابی، و بر پرورش روح بیش از تعامل اجتماعی تاکید دارند. از منظر الاهیات، صوفیان از رحمت، مهربانی و جمال پروردگار به مراتب بیشتر از غضب و قهر و جلال او سخن می‌گویند.”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide

“The greatest sin is what brings about the heart’s death. It dies only by not knowing God. This is what is named “ignorance.”
― William C. Chittick, Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets

“Proper recitation of the Qur’an opens up the reader to new meanings at every reading. “When meaning repeats itself for someone who is reciting the Qur’an, he has not recited it as it should be recited. This is proof of his ignorance” (F. IV”
― William C. Chittick, Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets

“هرگز نباید گمان برد که صوفیان موسیقی و رقص را برای هر کس تجویز می‌کنند، بلکه کاملا برعکس است. حتی صوفیانی که با آن موافق‌اند به جایگاه مبهم آن اذعان کرده‌اند.”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide

“The greatest of the lovers, however, are those who constantly seek to augment their knowledge, in keeping with the Quranic command: „Say: „My Lord, increase me in knowledge“ (20:114). They increase their knowledge by never denying God‘s presence in any phenomenon and by never affirming his presence in anything whatsoever. Seeing with both eyes, they constantly recognize that all is „He/not He.“ They never let themselves fall into stasis and fixity, but flow with the constant unfolding of the universe. They recognize themselves and all things for what they are. (p.34)”
― William C. Chittick, Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets

“The Principle is Reality in contrast to all that appears as real but which is not reality in the ultimate sense. The Principle is the Abso lute compared to which all is relative. It is Infinite while all else is finite. The Principle is One and Unique while manifestation is multiplicity. It is the Supreme Substance compared to which all else is accident. It is the Essence to which all things are juxtaposed as form. It is at once Beyond-Being and Being while the order of multiplicity is comprised of existents. It alone is while all else becomes, for It alone is eternal in the ultimate sense, while all that is externalized partakes of change. It is the Origin but also the End, the alpha and the omega. It is Emptiness if the world is envisaged as fullness and Fullness if the relative is perceived in the light of its ontological poverty and essential nothingness.”
― William C. Chittick, The Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“در حقیقت همه ما، تا هنگامی که به تحقق کامل اسمای الاهی در درون خود قائل نشده‌ایم، از انسان کمتریم.”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide

“در برداشت صوفیانه، فکر بی‌نیازی از کمک نبوی، عیب ویرانگر جهان امروز است. علم، فن‌آوری و هرشاخه دیگر دانش جدید –صرف نظر از علم سیاست- چیزی جز جهل به نفس، که نقاب معرفت به چهره‌زده است، نیست. تلاش برای عقلانی کردن جهان و به کار بستن آن برای منافع خودمان محکوم به شکست است. چراکه به هیچ وجه نمیتوانیم بدانیم منافع ما در کجاست.”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide

“بسیاری از صوفیان از سه کتابی که خداوند به تفصیل، سلسله کامل آیاتش را در آنها نوشته است، یعنی قرآن، جهان و نفس انسان، سخن گفته‌اند.”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide

“The three dimensions of Sufi teaching: the Law, the Way, and the Truth; or knowledge, works, and attainment to God; or theory, practice, and spiritual realization. Knowledge of God, man, and the world derives ultimately from God Himself, primarily by means of revelation, – in the context of Islam – the Koran and the Hadith of the Prophet; and secondarily by means of inspiration or „unveiling“, the spiritual vision of the saints, or the realized Sufis. Knowledge provides the illumination whereby man can see everything in its proper place. (p. 11)”
― William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi

“Guidance,” says Ibn Arabi, “is to be led to bewilderment. Then you will know that the whole affair is bewilderment, that bewilderment is agitation and movement, and movement is life. There is no rest, no death, only existence, nothing of nonexistence.”55 So it continues for all eternity. In reality, it is this bewilderment that allows the Sufis to taste already in this world the never-ending bliss of paradise.”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide

“God is the only object worthy of our love, for He is the True Beloved; every other object of love veils His Face. In describing His Image which they contemplate in their hearts, the Sufis often use terminology pertaining to the primary derivative beloved of the male human being, that is, woman. All the imagery employed by the Persian poets in the ghazal or „love poem“ to praise derivative beloveds takes on a new significance at the hands of the Sufi poets. Again one must keep in mind that this is not a question of poetical convention, since according to Sufi teachings women manifest the divine Attributes of Beauty, Mercy, Gentleness, and Kindness in a relatively direct manner within their outward forms. In Rumi‘s view, their derivative beauty is the closest thing to True Beauty in the material world. For this very reason, the attraction that their beauty exerts upon a man can be one of the greatest obstacles to his spiritual development. As long as he thinks that a woman‘s beauty belongs to her, he will be led astray. But once he is able to see her beauty as the reflection of God‘s Beauty, then his derivative love can be transformed into True Love. (p. 286)”
― William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi

“The greatest sin is what brings about the heart’s death. It dies only by not knowing God. This is what is named “ignorance.” For the heart is the house that God has chosen for Himself in this human configuration. Someone like that, however, has misappropriated the house, coming between it and its Owner. He is the one who most wrongs himself, for he has deprived himself of the good that would have come to him from the Owner of the house – had he left the house to Him. This is the deprivation of ignorance. (F. III 179.6)”
― William C. Chittick, Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets

“Already in this world the perfect Sufis live with God. They journey into the Infinite, listening to the music of God’s creative command. At each moment God says “Be” and a new selfdisclosure, more glorious and perfect than the preceding, delights the eye. In the words of Iraqi, The song will never cease, nor the dance come to an end, for all eternity, because the Beloved is infinite.”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide

“دعا با ذکر فرق میکند. زیرا دعا معمولا به شکل یک درخواست است، و عبارات مشخصی ندارد و تکراری نیست. هر نیایش درخواست گونه‌ای را به هر زبانی که باشد میتوان دعا نامید. در حالیکه ذکر شامل نام‌ها و تعابیر عربی است که از قرآن و حدیث گرفته شده‌اند.”
― William C. Chittick, Sufism: A Beginner's Guide