I, `Alí b. `Uthmán al-Jullábí, declare that our life is wholly through God, and our stability is through Him, and our being kept alive is the act of God in us, and we live through His creation, not through His essence and attributes. The doctrine of the animists (rúḥiyán) is entirely false. Belief in the eternity of the spirit is one of the grave errors which prevail among the vulgar, and is expressed in different ways, e.g. they use the terms “soul” and “matter” (nafs ú hayúlá), or “light” and “darkness” (núr ú ẕulmat), and those Ṣúfí impostors speak of “annihilation” and “subsistence” (faná ú baqá), or “union” and “separation” (jam` ú tafriqa), or adopt similar phrases as a fair mask for their infidelity. But the Ṣúfís abjure these heretics, for the Ṣúfís hold that saintship and true love of God depend on knowledge of Him, and anyone who does not know the eternal from the non-eternal is ignorant in what he says, and the intelligent pay no attention to what is said by the ignorant. Now I will unveil the portals of the practice and theory of the Ṣúfís, furnishing my explanation with evident proofs, in order that you may the more easily comprehend my meaning, and that any sceptic possessed of insight may be led back into the right way, and that I may thereby gain a blessing and a Divine reward.
[109]. i.e. the detachment of all phenomenal attributes from the Unity of God.
[110]. According to Qushayrí (105, 21 ff.) the `Iráqís held the doctrine which is here ascribed to the Khurásánís, and vice versâ.
[111]. A well-known traditionist, who died about 120 A.H.
[112]. `Abdalláh, son of the Caliph `Umar.
[113]. Here follow two stories illustrating the same topic: the first relates how `Alí slept in the Prophet’s bed on the night of the latter’s emigration from Mecca, when the infidels were seeking to slay him; the second, how on the battle-field of Uḥud the wounded Moslems, though parched with thirst, preferred to die rather than drink the water which their comrades asked for.
[114]. The followers of Ḥamdún al-Qaṣṣár, who are generally called Qaṣṣárís.
[115]. Here the author cites Kor. lxxix, 40, 41; ii, 81 (part of the verse); xii, 53; and the Traditions: “When God wishes well unto His servant He causes him to see the faults of his soul,” and “God said to David, ‘O David, hate thy soul, for My love depends on thy hatred of it.’”
[116]. Here follows an account of the mortification which the Prophet imposed on himself.