Shaikh Abu-Said Abil-Kheir was one of the earlier Sufi poets. He lived more than two centuries before Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi yet, like Rumi, much of his mysticism follows a similar path of annihilation in divine Love. Abu-Said’s poetry ranges from the ecstatic and celestial, to struggles with abandonment. His poetry has an immediacy and even a sort of devoutly wry petulance that can draw comparisons with the great Bengali poet, Ramprasad.

Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir Quotes

01. “Allah says, “The broken ones are my beloved.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

02. “The true saint goes in and out amongst the people and eats and sleeps with them and buys and sells in the market and marries and takes part in social intercourse, and never forgets God for a single moment.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

03. “Beg for Love.
Consider this burning, and those who
burn, as gifts from the Friend.
Nothing to learn.
Too much has already been said.
When you read a single page from
the silent book of your heart,
you will laugh at all this chattering,
all this pretentious learning.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

04. “My Beloved, don‘t be heartless with me.
Your Presence is my only cure.
How can I be left with neither a heart,
nor my Beloved?
Either return my heart, or do not deny me
Your Presence.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

05. Lovers learned from You how to burn, Beloved.
The flame was set by the Friend
to give the moth a gate to enter.
Love is a gift from the Beloved to the Lover.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

06. “Love came and emptied me of self,
every vein and every pore,
made into a container to be filled by the Beloved.
Of me, only a name is left,
the rest is You my Friend, my Beloved.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

07. “Life here is a gamble in which when you win,
you lose. Be content, that’s how you beat the game. This world is like a pair of dice,
the only reason you pick them up
is to throw them down!”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

08. “The sum total of our life is a breath
spent in the company of the Beloved.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

09. “All my deeds are dark.
I am drawn in the river of my sins as deep as
the Nile.
They say the day of reckoning never turns
dark.
So it shall be,
unless my deeds are brought to light.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

10. “Inside this robe there is only God.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

11. “You have read but a page and you fancy yourself beholding eternity.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

12. “Who am I? One fed up with his self, at war with sanity.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

13. “Allah says, “The broken ones are my beloved….”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir

14. “Under this cloak is nothing but God. Introduce me as “Nobody, Son of Nobody”.”
― Shaikh Abu-Saeed Abil-Kheir