Wisdom is not in words, it is in understanding.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
What a great thing is understanding! It is priceless. No one can give greater pleasure to their fellow beings than by understanding them.
What can one wish for more in life than understanding? Understanding gives one harmony in the home with those near and dear to one and peace outside the home with so many different natures and characters. If one lacks understanding, one is poor in spite of all that one possesses of the goods of this world; it is understanding which gives a person riches. … A life without such understanding is like a dark room which contains everything you wish — it is all there, but there is no light.
( from Enquirers’ Gathekas, Paper 16 – Sufi Mysticism (II) – The Use of the Mind to Gain Understanding [ unpublished ] )
If there is no understanding between two persons, words are of no use. They may talk and talk, and discuss and discuss, and it will only go from bad to worse, for argument will never end. As it is said in the Vadan, ‘Why? Is an animal with a thousand tails. At every bite you give it, it drops one of its curved tails and raises another.’ Can argument bring about understanding? Never. Argument only increases argument, and so one can go on till two persons turn their backs upon one another. Understanding is a gift of God, understanding is a soul’s unfoldment, and understanding is the greatest fortune one can have in life.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: Chapter 3 – The Personality of God )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
As words are caused by breaks in the transmission of energy, they cannot possibly be of the nature of light and they can more certainly be of the nature of shadow. Wisdom is pure light which can flash steadily through the eyes or atmosphere of a personality. It contains all it would convey as a unity which cannot be readily analyzed. Yet it can inspire and strengthen and enable the mind to broaden its horizon.