Resist the calls of wrangling talk (from The Poem of the Sufi Way)
Resist the calls of wrangling talk,
and save yourself
from false claims and their assaults,
which truly aim only to be heard.
For the tongues of those called
“gnostics most eloquent”
said all that could be said,
then fell silent.
You are intimate, akin to what
you do not say, but speak of it
and you are a stranger,
so, shut up!
In silence is nobility,
a place of strong and sound restraint,
but he is slave to dignity
who is silent for thought of rank.
So be sight and see,
be an ear and hear,
be a tongue and speak,
for union is the truest way.