15. Abu ´l-Ḥasan Sarí b. Mughallis al-Saqaṭí.
He was the maternal uncle of Junayd. He was well versed in all the sciences and eminent in Ṣúfiism, and he was the first of those who have devoted their attention to the arrangement of “stations” (maqámát) and to the explanation of spiritual “states” (aḥwál). Most of the Shaykhs of `Iráq are his pupils. He had seen Ḥabíb Rá`í and associated with him. He was a disciple of Ma`rúf Karkhí. He used to carry on the business of a huckster (saqaṭ-firúsh) in the bazaar at Baghdád. When the bazaar caught fire, he was told that his shop was burnt. He replied: “Then I am freed from the care of it.” Afterwards it was discovered that his shop had not been burnt, although all the shops surrounding it were destroyed. On seeing this, Sarí gave all that he possessed to the poor and took the path of Ṣúfiism. He was asked how the change in him began. He answered: “One day Ḥabíb Rá`í passed my shop, and I gave him a crust of bread, telling him to give it to the poor. He said to me, ‘May God reward thee!’ From the day when I heard this prayer my worldly affairs never prospered again.” It is related that Sarí said: “O God, whatever punishment Thou mayst inflict upon me, do not punish me with the humiliation of being veiled from Thee,” because, if I am not veiled from Thee, my torment and affliction will be lightened by the remembrance and contemplation of Thee; but if I am veiled from Thee, even Thy bounty will be deadly to me. There is no punishment in Hell more painful and hard to bear than that of being veiled. If God were revealed in Hell to the people of Hell, sinful believers would never think of Paradise, since the sight of God would so fill them with joy that they would not feel bodily pain. And in Paradise there is no pleasure more perfect than unveiledness (kashf). If the people there enjoyed all the pleasures of that place and other pleasures a hundredfold, but were veiled from God, their hearts would be utterly broken. Therefore it is the custom of God to let the hearts of those who love Him have vision of Him always, in order that the delight thereof may enable them to endure every tribulation; and they say in their orisons: “We deem all torments more desirable than to be veiled from Thee. When Thy beauty is revealed to our hearts, we take no thought of affliction.”