50. Abú `Alí al-Ḥasan b. `Alí al-Júzajání.
He wrote brilliant works on the science of ethics and the detection of spiritual cankers. He was a pupil of Muḥammad b. `Alí al-Tirmidhí, and a contemporary of Abú Bakr Warráq. Ibráhím Samarqandí was a pupil of his. It is related that he said: “All mankind are galloping on the race-courses of heedlessness, relying upon idle fancies, while they suppose themselves to be versed in the Truth and to be speaking from Divine revelation.” This saying alludes to natural self-conceit and to the pride of the soul. Men, though they are ignorant, have a firm belief in their ignorance, especially ignorant Ṣúfí’s, who are the vilest creatures of God, just as wise Ṣúfís are the noblest. The latter possess the Truth and are without conceit, whereas the former possess conceit and are without the Truth. They graze in the fields of heedlessness and imagine that it is the field of saintship. They rely on fancy and suppose it to be certainty. They go about with form and think it is reality. They speak from their own lust and think it is a Divine revelation. This they do because conceit is not expelled from a man’s head save by vision of the majesty or the beauty of God: for in the manifestation of His beauty they see Him alone, and their conceit is annihilated, while in the revelation of His majesty they do not see themselves, and their conceit does not intrude.