The Generations · The Friends of God
quddisa sirruhu — may his secret be sanctified
His portrait is his lamp: no image survives, and none is needed.
I want not to want, except what He wants.
All that I have done I reckon but as dust. Whatever Thou hast seen of me not pleasing to Thy Presence, do Thou draw a line of pardon through it. And wash the dust of disobedience from me; for I have myself washed away the dust of the presumption that I have obeyed Thee.
I stood with the pious but I did not progress with them. I stood with the warriors in the cause but I did not progress a single step with them. I stood with those who pray excessively and those who fast excessively, but I did not progress a footstep. Then I said, "O God, what is the way to You?" and God said, "Leave yourself and come".
