Sahl al-Tustari

Sahl al-Tustarī (c.818– 896) was a Persian Sunni Muslim scholar and early classical Sufi mystic. He founded the Salimiyah Muslim theological school, which was named after his disciple Muhammad ibn Salim.

Quotes

 * I am the Proof of God for the created beings and I am a proof for the saints (awliya) of my time.
 * Sufism: The Formative Period, p. 38

The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004)

 * Sufism is to eat little and to take rest with God, and to flee from men.
 * p. 54
 * The utmost degree of gnosis is dismay and perplexity.
 * p. 54
 * Love consists in embracing acts of obedience and in avoiding acts of disobedience which implies that the devotee of God develops his kinship with God as he merges his will in His will and avoids that which is forbidden by Him.
 * p. 54
 * It is illicit for the heart to smell the scent of certainty while contentment with other-than-God dwells therein.
 * p. 54
 * Trust in God is that the heart lives with Allah Most High without other attachment. He also said Trust in God is the state of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and earning is his Sunnah. So whoever maintains his state will never abandon his Sunnah.
 * p. 54-55
 * The first station of trust in God is that servant be between the hands of God exactly as the dead body is between the hands of the one who washes the dead.
 * p. 55
 * When God created the world, He placed sin and ignorance within satisfication of the appetite and knowledge and wisdom withing hunger. When Sahl hungered he was powerful, and whenever he ate, he became weak.
 * p. 55