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It’s odd how faces, solid and visible as they are, evaporate, while words, made of breath, stay.
‘When one reaches a higher awareness,’ he said, ‘one need not pay attention to haram and halal* as much as to the inner core of faith.’
The Sufis, having attained an upper level of understanding, were not bound by the decrees of the ulema. Those were invented for the masses, for those who did not want to think and who expected others to think for them.
‘You are a bright boy, mahout. I want to help you. But there are many bright boys around.’ Sinan paused, as if waiting for his words to sink in. ‘If you wish to excel at your craft, you have to convince the universe why it should be you rather than someone else.’
He who has a library has a thousand teachers.
He said there were three fountains of wisdom from which every artisan should drink abundantly: books, work and roads. Reading, practising and travelling.
‘God has built the palace of our body and entrusted to us its key,’
‘Man is made in the image of God. At its centre there’s order, balance. See the circles and the squares. See how proportionately they have been arranged.
when you see a human being, slave or vizier, Mohammedan or heathen, you ought to respect him. Remember, even a beggar owns a palace.’
Sinan was made of flowing water. When anything blocked his course, he would flow under, around, above it, however he could; he found his way through the cracks, and kept flowing forward.
‘No worse curse than to bury all your loved ones and still keep breathing.’
this world, too, was a spectacle. One way or another, everyone was parading. They performed their tricks, each of them, some staying longer, others shorter, but in the end they all left through the back door, similarly unfulfilled, similarly in need of applause.
His most fearsome rival was none other than himself.
If not put to use, iron rusts, woodwork crumbles, man errs, Sinan said. Work we must.
with closeness came blindness and with a certain distance, awareness.
life was the sum of the choices one did not make; the paths yearned for but not taken.
Not just brothers. You are the witnesses to each other’s journeys.’
Centre of the universe was neither in the East nor in the West. It was where one surrendered to love.
if human beings could only live more like animals, without a thought to the past or the future, and without rounds of lies and deceit, this world would be a more peaceful place, and perhaps a happier one.
