TOPHazrat Junaid (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
Whatever I have gained spiritually was through three practices, namely, renouncing the world, fasting and waking u the whole nights.
For 10 years I had to protect my heart from straying away and kept watch on it. Thereafter for the next 10 years my heart took care of me. Now my condition is such that the heart does not know me and I do not mind it. For the last 20 years the Lord Almighty is speaking through me. I am not in-between, although the world is not acquainted with it. I am narrating only formal Sufism for the last 20 years. I am warned against uttering the mysteries in Public. I lost my senses when the fear of Almighty Allah overpowers me but recover when I am remained of His mercy.
I am a slave and have no liberty. I shall go when Almighty Allah will order me to go, be it Paradise of Hell.
When somebody asked him to look at him he replied, "For the last 20 years I am trying with all my heart to look towards Almighty Allah, but I; how can I have not succeeded in it; how can I look at you?"
One day during illness he cried, "Lord! Cure me of this ailment." In reply the Divine Voice said, "If ye are not content with the ailment that We have conferred on you, you are out of our Court.
My preceptor, Hazrat Saqti (RA) ordered me to deliver sermons. I said I could not do so in his presence. During the night the Noble Prophet Muhammad (SAW) appeared to me in a dream and commanded me to deliver sermons. In the morning as I was going to convey the message of the Prophet to my preceptor, I found him waiting for me at my door. Immediately on seeing me he remarked, "Up to this time you wanted someone else to tell you to deliver sermons before you would do so." Surprised, I asked him how he could know all that happened to me. He replied that the Lord has told him that He had sent the Prophet to ask Junaid to start delivering sermons. Thereupon I consented to deliver sermons, provided the audience did not exceed forty. So effective were my sermons that one-day, out of forty, eighteen expired on hearing the sermon. So I stopped delivering sermons, as it practically killed me when I delivered them.
One day I went to meet an ailing dervish. He was weeping. I asked him who has conferred the ailment on him and to whom he was complaining. The dervish became silent. I asked him what his impatience like that signified. The dervish sighed and said, "Neither I have the capacity to shed tears nor bear with the ailment."
One day I was delivering a sermon when one of the audiences said he could not follow the discourse. I told he to place 70 years (he was over seventy) worship under foot and bow down in humility and then he would follow it.
The heart is pleased when Almighty Allah is pleased.
One day someone asked the audience presented me with a purse of 500. I asked him if he had any more money with him to live upon. He answered in the affirmative. I asked him if he craved to earn more. He replied that he did. Then I told him to keep his 500 also with him as he was more poor than me, for although I had nothing to offer with me, I desired for no more, whilst he had so much, yet he craved more.
One day a beggar came to my door. He was so robust that I wondered why he begged. He could work to earn his livelihood. It did not suit him to go begging like that. When I slept that night, I had a dream; I saw a covered dish was kept before me to eat its contents. When I uncovered it I noticed a dead body lay in it. I said, "Lord! Why should I partake of this corpse?" The Divine Voice said, "Then, why did you eat it in the day?" "I got up and took the hint and prayed to the Lord for forgiveness for cherishing evil ideas about the beggar. When I got up I went seeking that beggar. I found him in a jungle. On seeing me he remarked, "The Lord accepts the repentance of those who offer it immediately after the sin is committed, but take care henceforward that you do not cherish any evil thought about anybody or slander one behind his back!"
In Mecca I saw a barber who was shaving a rich man. I approached him and asked him to shave me. He left the rich man and started shaving me. When he finished he gave me a purse containing some coins and asked me to accept them. Thereupon I decided to give to the barber whatever was presented to me that day. Soon a person came and presented me a purse full of gold coins. I went and offered it to the barber as a gift. He rejected it with a remark, "Are you not ashamed of presenting it to me? Do you not know that one does not accept a return for the work one performs in the name of the Lord?"
One day my mind remained very unsettled in prayers. I got up and went out of the house and at a distance met a dervish seated on a blanket. He said that he was waiting there for me for long for he had to ask me a question, namely, how to cure the mind of it’s entertaining new desires? I replied, "Fight the mind and do not yield to its behests. Disobey it." Addressing himself, then, he said, "O my mind, did I not give you the same reply, but you insisted on having the reply from Junaid? You have now heard his reply." As he left I found my mind was at peace and returning. I fully enjoyed my orisons and knew that the old dervish was the cause of mental distraction.
If between my Lord and me a river of fire flowed, in my yearning to meet Him, I would jump into it and cross it.
Hazrat Suhal (RA) wrote to me that he does not attain to Almighty Allah who sleeps, for did not the Lord tell David, "He is false in his profession of love for Me who passes any time in sleep?"
I saw a thief who was being gibbeted. I bowed to him. People asked me the reason for acting that way. I replied, "He is to be praised for being true to the profession he followed to the very end, inasmuch as he sacrificed his life for it."
The Quran says, "Who else is there to accept the prayers for the distressed except I, thy Lord."
When I saw a dervish complaining of his poverty inasmuch as he was without food that day, I told him, "You are complaining of that great gift of Almighty Allah-poverty-which is His greatest favor on His Saints. They never complain on it when it falls to their lot. Get away. The Lord shall not keep thee without food and garments."
Hearing my sermon one day, a rich young man was so affected that he distributed all his wealth to the poor keeping back a 1000 dinars which he wished to present to me. As he was coming with money to me, people told him, "Do you mean to involve such a great Saint in the meshes of maya (world)?" The boy went away and one after another threw all the coins in the river. When he approached me I told him, "You are not fit for my company, for why did you take so much time over the act of renunciation which could be performed at one stroke, and did not throw the coins in all at a time, but one by one?"
Your heart is the House of Almighty Allah; let none dwell therein besides Allah.
The breath of yearning burns away sins
Till you pass through the vale of annihilation (fana) you cannot attain to eternity (baqa).
He who fears Almighty Allah never smiles.
Forgetfulness of the remembrance of the Lord is worse than the pangs of Hell.
He whose life depends on the soul dies when it leaves the body; but he whose life depends on Almighty Allah never dies.
The eye that appreciated not the beauty of the Creator were better blind; the tongues that repeated not His Name were better dumb; the ears that heard not of His exploits were better deaf; and the limbs that performed hot His service were better dead.
He who depends on his effort in remembering Almighty Allah does not reap full reward of worship.
When Almighty Allah loves, He gives him the company of Saints.
He who studies anything besides the scriptures does not attain to perfection.
He who eats much cannot perform worship.
For the disciple, the world should turn sour and spiritually taste sweet.
Four hundred teachers of religion unanimously proclaim that one should perform the worship and that not for an instant should any thought besides that of Almighty Allah cross one’s mind.
A Sufi is like a field in which manure of dirt is put and it yields rich corn in return.
To renounce all besides Almighty Allah and to die to the self is Sufism.
A Sufi is one who changes the attribute less and meets Almighty Allah.
Tauhid is to know Almighty Allah
One does not attain to the love of Almighty Allah until one annihilates oneself. The talk of the great lovers of Almighty Allah appears as heresy to the common people.
Ecstasy enlivens and vivifies, whilst His vision killeth. Ecstasy destroys the ego.
One moments forgetfulness of the Lord ruins a thousand years of worship.
A thousand years obedience cannot annul a moment’s disobedience to Almighty Allah.
Of a certainty he who is honest in search of Almighty Allah, attains to Him.
Faith is that which inscribes on your heart, "Seek ye not food, and believe emphatically that He is the bestower of food to all."
A good-natured sensual being is better than a bad-tempered Sufi.
The Lord created His grace before He created the world.
Whoever repeats the Name of the Lord merges into the Name and the Name merges into the Lord.
To run away from the world to Almighty Allah and remain constantly in worship is Sufism. Seek Sufism in thyself.
He is a Sufi whom none knows except Almighty Allah.
he greatest evil is avarice (greed, materialism).
Pondering on the verses of the Quran leads to illumination and contemplating on the gifts and excellences of the Lord attains the same goal. The Quran instills love of Almighty Allah in the reader. Ponder on the promises of Almighty Allah, and this shall create healthy fear for Him.
When someone ponders on the grace of Almighty Allah he avoids sin, fearing that if he will sin he will be deprived of the graces of the Lord.
He is the greatest amongst men who has subordinated his will to that of the Lord and is content with His dealings.
A slave of Almighty Allah worships none besides Him.
Renounce the world and the Way to Almighty Allah shall be revealed to you.
Renunciation of desires leads to the union of Almighty Allah.
Three things constitute veils in the Path, namely, carnal desire (nafs), world and creature. They are common ones. The uncommon veils are: show of worship, display of miracles, pretension whilst making gifts, as all these are done with pride.
He who not seen Thee, O Lord, were better blind that he may never see anything else.
None is a greater sympathizer of mine than the Quran.