The following short verses are from the early Persian Sufi and poet Shaikh Abu Said Abul Khair (967 – 1049 CE). He is considered by some to have been the father of Persian Sufi poetry, and Fariduddin Attar, born a century later, and the author of The Conference of the Birds among other works, called him his teacher. Abul Khair’s constant theme is liberation from the ego.

To your mind feed understanding,
to your heart, tolerance and compassion.
The simpler your life,
the more meaningful.
The less you desire of the world,
the more room you will have in it
to fill with the Beloved.

***

Those with no sense of honor and dignity
are best avoided.
Those who change colors constantly
are best forgotten.
The best way to be with those
bereft of the Beloved’s qualities,
is to forget them in the
joy of silence in one’s corner of solitude.