“Gnosis truly, is a light which God casts into the heart. True knowledge of God is gained when the lover comes in contact with the Beloved through secret communion with Him.”

— Abu Talib al-Makki

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 86

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Abu Talib al-Makki 5

Scholar, mystic

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“From all these things the Gods gain nothing; what gain could there be to God? It is we who gain some communion with them.”

Sallustius Roman philosopher and writer

XV. Why we give worship to the Gods when they need nothing.
On the Gods and the Cosmos
Context: The divine itself is without needs, and the worship is paid for our own benefit. The providence of the Gods reaches everywhere and needs only some congruity for its reception. All congruity comes about by representation and likeness; for which reason the temples are made in representation of heaven, the altar of earth, the images of life (that is why they are made like living things), the prayers of the element of though, the mystic letters of the unspeakable celestial forces, the herbs and stones of matter, and the sacrificial animals of the irrational life in us.
From all these things the Gods gain nothing; what gain could there be to God? It is we who gain some communion with them.