Quotes from The Heart of Islamic Philosophy by William C. Chittick

The Heart of Islamic Philosophy

William C. Chittick

Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001. 373 pages.

Not knowing, you've given your life to the wind,

not heading, you've taken death's day as easy.

you think you've the means for two hundred years more

and that time's not given a moment of rest.  

   -- Quatrain 158, page 127

O sir, though the work not be to your liking

and the eternal address not be in your name,

live in joy and grieve not, for in this world's house,

greed is not happy even with kingship. 

    -- Quatrain 89, page 132

If the heart is not freed of attachments,

the shell of existence will not fill with pearls.

How could intellect fill the head's cup?

An upside-down cup cannot be filled.

    -- Quatrain 58, page 132

The world of the soul is not what you think,

the road of union is not what you've followed.

The spring at which Khizr drank the water of life

is found in your house, but you've blocked it up.

    -- Quatrain 151,  page 132

Quotes submitted by Jennifer Knight

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