Deen > Deen's Quotes

“It is important to note that the meaning of the Arabic word
nafs
should not be limited here to the soul, for this word is found in the Arabic translation of the saying in question, while its Greek equivalent
psyche
does not appear in the original.
Nafs
should therefore not be taken in its usual sense, for it is certain that it has another much higher significance, which makes it similar to the word essence, and which refers to the
Self
or to the
real being
; as proof of this, we can cite what has been said in a
ḥadīth
that is like a complement of the Greek saying" 'He who knows himself, knows his Lord'.
When man knows himself in his deepest essence, that is, in the center of his being, then at the same time he knows his Lord. And Knowing his Lord, he at the same time Knows all things, which come from Him and return to Him. He knows all things in the supreme oneness of the Divine Principle, outside of which, according to the words of Muhyi 'd-Din Ibn Al-Arabi 'there is absolutely nothing which exists', for nothing can be outside of the Infinite.”
― René Guénon, Know Thyself

“χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά

Nothing beautiful without struggle.”
― Plato, The Republic

“[...] Thus the sedentary peoples create the plastic arts (architecture, sculpture, painting), the arts consisting of forms developed in space; the nomads create the phonetic arts (music, poetry), the arts consisting of forms unfolded in time; for, let us say it again, all art is in its origin essentially symbolical and ritual, and only through a late degeneration, indeed a very recent degeneration, has it lost its sacred character so as to become at last the purely profane 'recreation' to which it has been reduced among our contemporaries.”
― René Guénon, The Reign of Quantity & the Signs of the Times