Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Muqrí[[39]] says: Al-taṣawwuf istiqámat al-aḥwál ma`a ´l-ḥaqq, “Ṣúfiism is the maintenance of right states with God,” i.e. “states” do not seduce the Ṣúfí from his (right) state, nor cast him into wrong, since he whose heart is devoted to the Author of states (muḥawwil-i aḥwál) is not cast down from the rank of rectitude nor hindered from attaining to the Truth.
Section.
Maxims of Conduct (mu`ámalát).
Abú Ḥafṣ Ḥaddád of Níshápúr says: Al-taṣawwuf kulluhu ádábun li-kulli waqtin adabun wa-li-kulli maqámin adabun wa-li-kulli ḥálin adabun fa-man lazima ádáb al-awqát balagha mablagh al-rijál fa-man ḍayya`a ´l-ádáb fa-huwa ba`ídun min ḥaythu yaẕunnu ´l-qurb wa-mardúdun min ḥaythu yaẕunnu ´l-qabúl, “Ṣúfiism consists entirely of behaviour; every time, place, and circumstance have their own propriety; he that observes the proprieties of each occasion attains to the rank of holy men; and he that neglects the proprieties is far removed from the thought of nearness (to God) and is excluded from imagining that he is acceptable to God.” The meaning of this is akin to the dictum of Abu ´l-Ḥasan Núrí: Laysa ´l-taṣawwuf rusúman wa-lá `ulúman wa-lákinnahu akhláqun, “Ṣúfiism is not composed of practices and sciences, but it is morals,” i.e. if it consisted of practices, it could be acquired by effort, and if it consisted of sciences, it could be gained by instruction: hence it is morals, and it is not acquired until you demand from yourself the principles of morals, and make your actions square with them, and fulfil their just claims. The distinction between practices (rusúm) and morals (akhláq) is this, that practices are ceremonial actions proceeding from certain motives, actions devoid of reality, so that their form is at variance with their spirit, whereas morals are praiseworthy actions without ceremony or motive, actions devoid of pretension, so that their form is in harmony with their spirit.
Murta`ish says: Al-taṣawwuf ḥusn al-khulq, “Ṣúfiism is good nature.” This is of three sorts: firstly, towards God, by fulfilling His Commandments without hypocrisy; secondly, towards men, by paying respect to one’s superiors and behaving with kindness to one’s inferiors and with justice to one’s equals, and by not seeking recompense and justice from men in general; and thirdly, towards one’s self, by not following the flesh and the devil. Whoever makes himself right in these three matters is a good-natured man. This which I have mentioned agrees with a story told of `Á´isha the veracious (ṣiddiqa)—may God be well-pleased with her! She was asked concerning the nature of the Apostle. “Read from the Koran,” she replied, “for God has given information in the place where He says: ‘Use indulgence and order what is good and turn away from the ignorant’ (Kor. vii, 198).” And Murta`ish also says: Hádhá madhhabun kulluhu jiddun fa-lá takhliṭúhu bi-shay´in min al-hazl, “This religion of Ṣúfiism is wholly earnest, therefore do not mix jest with it, and do not take the conduct of formalists (mutarassimán) as a model, and shun those who blindly imitate them.” When the people see these formalists among the aspirants to Ṣúfiism in our time, and become aware of their dancing and singing and visiting the court of sultans and quarrelling for the sake of a pittance or a mouthful of food, their belief in the whole body of Ṣúfís is corrupted, and they say: “These are the principles of Ṣúfiism, and the tenets of the ancient Ṣúfís were just the same.” They do not recognize that this is an age of weakness and an epoch of affliction. Consequently, since greed incites the sultan to acts of tyranny, and lust incites the savant to commit adultery and fornication, and ostentation incites the ascetic to hypocrisy, and vanity incites the Ṣúfí also to dance and sing—you must know that the evil lies in the men who hold the doctrines, not in the principles on which the doctrines are based; and that if some scoffers disguise their folly in the earnestness of true mystics (aḥrár), the earnestness of the latter is not thereby turned to folly. And Abú `Alí Qarmíni[[40]] says: Al-taṣawwuf huwa ´l-akhláq al-raḍiyyat, “Ṣúfiism is good morals.” Approved actions are such that the creature in all circumstances approves of God, and is content and satisfied. Abu ´l Ḥasan Núrí says: Al-taṣawwuf huwa ´l-ḥurriyyat wa-´l-futuwwat wa-tark al-taklíf wa-´l-sakhá wa-badhl al-dunyá, “Ṣúfiism is liberty, so that a man is freed from the bonds of desire; and generosity,” i.e. he is purged from the conceit of generosity; “and abandonment of useless trouble,” i.e. he does not strive after appurtenances and rewards; “and munificence,” i.e. he leaves this world to the people of this world.
And Abu ´l-Ḥasan Fúshanja[[41]]—may God have mercy on him!—says: Al-taṣawwuf al-yawma ´smun wa-lá ḥaqíqatun wa-qad kána ḥaqíqatan wa-la ´sman, “To-day Ṣúfiism is a name without a reality, but formerly it was a reality without a name,” i.e. in the time of the Companions and the Ancients—may God have mercy on them!—this name did not exist, but the reality thereof was in everyone; now the name exists, but not the reality. That is to say, formerly the practice was known and the pretence unknown, but nowadays the pretence is known and the practice unknown.
I have brought together and examined in this chapter on Ṣúfiism a number of the sayings of the Shaykhs, in order that this Path may become clear to you—God grant you felicity!—and that you may say to the sceptics: “What do you mean by denying the truth of Ṣúfiism?” If they deny only the name it is no matter, since ideas are unrelated to things which bear names; and if they deny the essential ideas, this amounts to a denial of the whole Sacred Law of the Apostle and his praised qualities. And I enjoin you in this book—God grant you the felicity with which He has blessed His Saints!—to hold these ideas in due regard and satisfy their just claims, so that you may refrain from idle pretensions and have an excellent belief in the Ṣúfís themselves. It is God that gives success.
[31]. Kor. xxv, 64.