Abu Yazid Al-Bistami (804 – 874), commonly known in the Iranian world as Bāyazīd Bisṭāmī was a Persian Sufi from north-central Iran. Bisṭāmī is considered to be one of the expositors of the notion of passing away in mystical union with the divine. The ecstatic sufi is one who openly expresses his love for the deity while neglecting social customs and consequences. Bistami, who was famous for “the boldness of his expression of the mystic’s complete absorption into the Godhead,” had many ecstatic utterances which lead to him being known as the founder of the “drunken” or “ecstatic” school of Islamic mysticism.
Quotes by Abu Yazid Al-Bistami…
This thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.
For thirty years I sought God. But when I looked carefully I found that in reality God was the seeker and I the sought.
All this talk and turmoil and noise and movement and desire is outside the veil. Inside the veil is silence and calm and peace.
If I only knew that I had taken one single step in sincerity, I would give no value to anything else.
I made four mistakes in my preliminary steps in this way: I thought that I remember Him, that I know Him, that I love Him and that I seek Him. But when I reached Him, I saw that His remembering of me preceded my remembrance of Him, that His knowledge about me preceded my knowledge of Him, that His love towards me was more ancient than my love towards Him, and that He sought me in order that I would begin to seek Him.