He used to say:
“When you see a Sufi fussing over the elegance of his woolen cloak (1), know that he is no Sufi at all (2).

“The best of this community are the people of cotton—Abu Bakr al-Siddiq and his fellow Companions (3).”

Abu Sulayman said:
“The true brother is the one who admonishes you by his very presence before he even speaks. I would look at a brother among my companions in Iraq and benefit (4) from the mere sight of him for a whole month.”

He also said:
“Allah, Exalted is He, declares: ‘My servant, as long as you feel shame before Me, I will make people forget your faults, I will make the very patches of earth forget your sins, I will erase your slips from the Mother of the Book, and I will not scrutinize you in the reckoning on the Day of Resurrection (5).’”

Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari related:
“I asked Abu Sulayman about patience. He replied, ‘By Allah, you cannot manage it in matters you love—how, then, could you bear it in what you dislike? (6)’”

Ahmad also said:
“I once sighed in his presence, and he remarked, ‘You will be questioned about that sigh on the Day of Judgment. If it was over a past sin, glad tidings to you; but if it was over this world, then woe to you (7).’”

He said:
“Those who turned back only did so before reaching the goal; had they reached Allah, they would never have turned back (8).”

He said:
“People disobey Allah only because they are insignificant in His sight; were they honored in His estimation (9), that would have restrained them from disobeying Him (10).”

He said:
“Those who will sit in the company of the All-Merciful on the Day of Resurrection are the ones endowed with the following traits: generosity, forbearance, wisdom, mercy, tenderness, grace, overlooking, beneficence, righteousness, pardon, and gentleness (11).”

Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami relates in his book ‘Trials of the Shaykhs’ that Abu Sulayman al-Darani was expelled from