Wisdoms

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِِ

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Imam al-Shafi`i said:

faqihan wa sufiyyan fa kun laysa wahidan
fa inni wa haqqillahi iyyaka ansahu

(Be both) a faqih and a sufi: do not be only one of them,
Verily, by Allah’s truth, I am advising you sincerely.
[al-Shafi`i, Diwan, (Beirut and Damascus: Dar al-fikr) p. 47]

Imam al-Shafi`i also said:

I accompanied the Sufis and received from them but three words: their statement that time is a sword: if you do not cut it, it cuts you; their statement that if you do not keep your ego busy with truth it will keep you busy with falsehood; their statement that deprivation is immunity.
(bn al-Qayyim in his Madarij al-salikin (3:128) and al- Suyuti in his Ta’yid al-haqiqa al-`aliyya (p. 15)

And Imam Al-Shafi’ in justice and fairness once said:

“I never talked with someone but sincerely wished that Allah keep him, protect him from sin and misdeed and guide him; and I never debated with someone but sincerely wished that we would come upon truth, regardless of whether he or I should be the one to think of it first.”