Ibn Ata Allah Quotes

Invoking removes darkness and brings forth radiant lights.

So long as you are in this world, be not surprised at the existence of sorrows.

People praise you for what they suppose is in you; but you must blame your soul for what you know is in it.

My god
how gentle you are with me
in spite of my great ignorance
and how merciful You are with me
in spite of my ugly deeds

It may well be that you are in a bad state, but to keep company with someone worse than you would allow to see good in yourself.

The covenant of your servanthood is that you be a servant to God, not to someone else, and that you know that everything except God is a servant to God, as He Most High has said, "There is none in the heaven and the earth but cometh unto the Compassionate as a servant."

The ambition of the spiritual traveller never wants to stop with what it has been shown save that the voices of reality call to him, what you seek is ahead of you.

Your Saying "God is Most Great" does not mean that He is greater than something else, since there is nothing else alongside of Him, so that it could be said that He is greater than it. Rather, the meaning of Allahu Akbar is that He is much too great to be perceived by the senses or for the depths of His Majesty to be reached by reason and logic, and indeed, that He is much too great to be known by an other-than-Him for truly, no one knows God but God.

The gnosis of God is intermediate between immoderation, which is ascribing human characteristics to God, and negligence, which is denying any attributes to God ... The Truth lies in the balance between the two extremes.

If you are aware of your humility, then you are arrogant.

If a tablet is not wiped clean of it's figures, nothing can be written upon it. A single heart cannot serve as the place for two things, let alone for several things. If the heart is filled with the forms of sensory perceptions, it is rare that it would perceive the meaning of Allah, even if one were to say Allah a thousand times. When the heart is empty of all that is other-than-God, if one uttered Allah only once, one would find such bliss that the tongue could not describe.

If you do not know the blessings you have when you have them, then Allah will teach you about them by taking them away from you

Nothing is difficult, if you seek it through your Lord; nothing is easy, if you seek it through your self.

If He opens a door for you, thereby making Himself known, pay no heed if your do not measure up to this. For, in truth, He has not opened if for you but out of a desire to make Himself known to you. Do you not know that He is the one who presented the knowledge of Himself to you, whereas you are the one who presented Him with deeds? What a difference between what He brings to you and what you present to Him!

The realization of 'La ilaha illa Allah' is one of the states of the heart that can be neither expressed by the tongue nor thought out by the mind.

If you do not think well of Him because His qualities are beautiful then think well of Him because of the way He treats you.

The most excellent of those who perform good deeds are those who most often remember God in all situations.

Invoking the letters of God's Name without presence of mind is invocation of the tongue; invoking with presence of mind is invocation of the heart; and invoking with an absence of self-awareness because of absorption in the Invoked is the invocation of the Self - this is the hidden invocation!

Paraphrased: The way of al-Junayd includes among other things abstaining constantly from resisting God Most High in whatever happens to one, whether good or bad ...

I know of nothing more useful to you than four matters: surrender to Allah, to humbly entreat Him, to think the best of Him, and to perpetually renew your repentance to Him, even if you should repeat as in seventy times in a day.

If you make intense supplication and the timing of the answer is delayed, do not despair of it. His reply to you is guaranteed; but in the way He chooses, not the way you choose, and at the moment He desires, not the moment you desire.

Extinction is the beginning of the path: it is traveling to God Most High. Guidance comes afterwards. What I mean by guidance is the guidance of God, as described by the Friend of God, Abraham: "Lo! I am going unto my Lord Who will guide me."

If you make demands on Him, you doubt Him.
If you seek Him, you are absent from Him.
If you seek other-than-Him, you are shameless before Him.
If you make demands on other-than-Him, you are distant from Him.

Let your invocation be the all-embracing Name, which is Allah, Allah, Allah, or if you so wish, Huwa, Huwa, Huwa; and do not violate this remembrance. Be careful lest your tongue pronounce it while other-than-He is in your heart. Let your heart be the one who utters, and your ear the one who is attentive to this invocation until the 'speaker' emanates from your Self (sirr). When you feel the emergence of the Speaker within you through the invocation, do not abandon the spiritual condition wherein you find yourself.

I seek refuge in Thee from every hope which would distract me.

The most beloved manifestation of obedience to God is trust in Him

Allah was when there was nothing else than Him, and His Throne was upon the water, and He wrote in the Reminder (al-dhikr) all things, and He created the heavens and the earth.

When the heart becomes empty, the mimbar of the Divine Oneness is placed therein and the sultan of gnosis sits upon it.

When the invocation descends into the heart, if there is darkness within, it illuminates it; and if there is already light, the invocation increases the light and intensifies it.

Whenever there remains any support for the ego within, even if it be only an atom's weight, then you are pretentious and have a devil who leads you astray.

Actions are but lifeless forms whose soul is the secret of sincerity in them

Persist in that invocation until the unity of the world is subsumed for you in a single sphere, so that with the eye of your heart you will see naught in the two worlds save the One.