Excerpts from REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY
 

INTRODUCTION by Carl W. Ernst

Shaykh Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Uthman al-Jullabi al-Hujwiri al-Ghaznawi was born in a small town in Afghanistan near Ghazni. He came to Lahore in 1039, during the reign of Sultan Mas'ud, the son of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. He would stay there until his death in 1073, and such was the gratitude of the people of Lahore for his spiritual gifts that they called him by the simple Hindi name "Data" (meaning "the giver") or else "Data Ganj Bakhsh" ("the giver who bestows treasure"). Few details are known of the life of this man, though he came to exert a significant influence on Muslim spiritual life through his writings, above all the famous Kashf al-mahjub (Revelation of the Mystery). His tomb, which was built by the grandson of Sultan Mahmud, remains an important center for followers of Sufism from all classes.

A sign of his importance for Sufism is the small shrine adjacent to Shaykh Hujwiri's tomb, which is known today as the station of Shaykh Mu'in al-Din Chishti. When the latter came from Afghanistan to India in the closing years of the twelfth century, he is said to have stopped to pray and meditate at the tomb of Shaykh Hujwiri to seek permission to go further, since Data Ganj Bakhsh had spiritual authority over the entire Indian subcontinent. Shaykh Mu'in al-Din evidently received permission to proceed, together with the broadest authority, and as a result, the Chishti Sufi order is probably the most extensive lineage in South Asia.

The ancient mosque near the tomb, which was originally built by Shaykh Hujwiri himself, has recently been reconstructed with elegant Turkish-style minarets, a modernistic dome, and fine stained glass windows (the latter planned by American architectural designer Jay Bonner), so that it has [[viii]] become a major showcase of modern Islamic architecture. The annual festival of Data Ganj Bakhsh in Lahore, celebrated on his death-anniversary with the support of Pakistan's Ministry of Charitable Trusts, attracts hundreds of thousands of devotees. Politicians, understanding the popular appeal of the saint, have been eager to associate themselves with him; for instance, when Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan from exile in 1986, her cavalcade headed directly from the airport to Data Durbar, the "court" where this spiritual ruler of Pakistan presides.

Our interest in Shaykh Hujwiri, or Data Sahib, is principally in his book on Sufism. Kashf al-mahjub was the first comprehensive text written in Persian about Sufism, at a time when Arabic was still the dominant language for the expression of Islamic religious thought. Prior to Shaykh Hujwiri, masters such as Abu Nasr al-Sarraj and Abu Talib al-Makki had written famous Arabic treatises on Sufi thought and practice in terms of the standard religious sciences. But Shaykh Hujwiri, who was also known for his Persian poetry, effectively used the elegant and courtly Persian of the Samanid style to convey his message. Kashf al-mahjub was a model for the great Sufi biographer Farid al-Din 'Attar (d. ca. 1220) when he wrote his Memorial of the Saints. The Mughal prince Dara Shikuh wrote in the seventeenth century that none could challenge the fame and greatness of Kashf al-mahjub, for it was written from the perspective of the perfect teacher, and it had no equal on the subject of Sufism in the Persian language. 'Ali Qawim, the editor of the edition published by the Iran-Pakistan Center for Persian Studies in 1978, observed that this book is unparalleled in the beauty of its learned composition, in its attractive literary style, and in its avoidance of unpleasant and jarring expressions. It is worth mentioning that the superb library of the Iran-Pakistan Center for Persian Studies in Islamabad, which contains over 15,000 Persian manuscripts, was named the Ganj Bakhsh Library in honor of Shaykh Hujwiri.

Written at the request of a fellow Sufi from his hometown of Hujwir, Kashf al-mahjub is not simply a literary production. It [[ix]] is, as well, an exposition of practical Sufism that summarizes a wide tradition of centuries of reflection and is still one of the best descriptions of the Sufi path. It has been said that those who seek a guide in Sufism should do three things: pray for guidance, visit the tombs of the great shaykhs, and read Kashf al-mahjub. Shaykh Hujwiri traveled widely and met most of the leading Sufis of his day. Accounts of his personal experiences in Iran, Central Asia, and the Middle East enliven his learned discussion of mysticism. He drew upon writings of well-known Sufis such as Sarraj, Qushayri, and Ansari, and he also had access to many early Sufi writings that no longer exist.

Fully one-third of the book is biographical, tracing the practice of Sufism from the companions of the Prophet Muhammad through subsequent generations to the time of Data Sahib himself. His unusual description of the different schools of thought in early Sufism (in Chapter XIV) is a way of discussing the meditative specialties of leading Sufis. The fact that he uses the theological terminology of handbooks on Islamic sects could give the misleading impression that the early Sufi schools were "sects" in some exclusive doctrinal sense, but that would be an overly rationalistic reading of early Sufism. Readers should also be aware that Shaykh Hujwiri was writing at a time before the emergence of the Sufi orders, and so his description of Sufi teaching reflects the less formal situation that prevailed before Sufism became established as a major public force in Muslim societies.

The last and perhaps most interesting part of the book consists of eleven "unveilings" of Sufi practice. The first ten deal with knowledge of God, the divine unity, faith, purity, prayer, alms, fasting, pilgrimage, the rules of Sufi society, and technical terms. The final chapter describes the principles for listening to Sufi music, the original form of the modern qawwali music performed at shrines in India and Pakistan.

Like his predecessor, Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri, Shaykh Hujwiri adopted the teachings of al-Ash'ari, who stressed a rational interpretation of Islam without approaching Greek [[x]] philosophy as closely as did the Mu'tazili theologians. This background gives the arguments of Kashf al-mahjub a systematic appearance, in some cases, perhaps overly so. Shaykh Hujwiri evidently had a particular fondness for the sayings of the controversial Sufi martyr Hallaj, about whom he wrote a book, though he regarded Hallaj's experiences as not being fully mature. Unfortunately, Shaykh Hujwiri's other writings that are mentioned in Kashf al-mahjub have not survived the centuries.

Shaykh Hujwiri appears to have been a kind but irascible person and a shrewd yet forgiving judge of character. The opening paragraphs of Kashf al-mahjub show him testily explaining why he has put his name there so prominently. He had made the mistake with two of his previous books of lending the original manuscripts to unscrupulous people, who then erased his name and claimed the books as their own work! Shaykh Hujwiri has also captured effectively the hypocrisy of some official representatives of Sufism, as in his description of the wealthy Sufis in Khurasan, who threw him rotten melon rinds while they feasted on the best. And he had his difficult moments too. His master, Abu al-Fazl al-Khatli (Nicholson spells the name as Khuttali), was a serious and learned recluse whom Shaykh Hujwiri described as the most awe-inspiring man he had ever met, and it was al-Khatli who ordered Shaykh Hujwiri to move from Ghazni to Lahore. Hujwiri arrived just in time to attend the funeral of a fellow disciple and take his place as the resident Sufi of Lahore, but he seems to have come so hastily that he left his beloved library behind. He is said to have written, "My books are all left in Ghazni, and now I am trapped in Lahore with unkind people!"* The shock of the move must have worn off quickly, though, for Shaykh Hujwiri became the most beloved Sufi of Lahore, and he is remembered today by thousands who revere him as "the giver who bestows treasure."

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*Note by FWP: in Kashf ul Mahjub, Chapter XI, Section 3 (p. 91 in the present translation), he says: "My Shaykh had further traditions concerning him, but I could not possibly set down more than this, my books having been left at Ghazna--may God guard it!--while I myself had become a captive among uncongenial folk in the district of Lahawur, which is a dependency of Multan. God be praised both in joy and sorrow!"

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REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY

from Chapter XIV, Part Seven:
Discourse on the Superiority of the Prophets to the Saints.

You must know that, by universal consent of the sufi Shaykhs, the saints are at all times and in all circumstances subordinate to the prophets, whose missions they confirm. [[236]] The prophets are superior to the saints, because the end of saintship is only the beginning of prophecy. Every prophet is a saint, but some saints are not prophets. The prophets are constantly exempt from the attributes of humanity, while the saints are so only temporarily; the fleeting state of the saint is the permanent station of the prophet; and that which to the saints is a station is to the prophets a veil.

This view is held unanimously by the Sunni divines and the Sufi mystics, but it is opposed by a sect of the Hashwiyya--the Anthropomorphists of Khurasan--who discourse in a self-contradictory manner concerning the principles of Unification (tawhid), and who, although they do not know the fundamental doctrine of Sufism, call themselves saints. Saints they are indeed, but saints of the Devil. They maintain that the saints are superior to the prophets, and it is a sufficient proof of their error that they declare an ignoramus to be more excellent than Muhammad, the Chosen of God. The same vicious opinion is held by another sect of Anthropomorphists, who pretend to be Sufis, and admit the doctrines of the incarnation of God and His descent (into the human body) by transmigration, and the division of His essence. I will treat fully of these matters when I give my promised account of the two reprobated sects (of Sufis). The sects to which I am now referring claim to be Moslems, but they agree with the Brahmans in denying special privileges to the prophets; and whoever believes in this doclrine becomes an infidel.

Moreover, the prophets are propagandists and Imams, and the saints are their followers, and it is absurd to suppose that the follower of an Imam is superior to the Imam himself. In short, the lives, experiences, and spiritual powers of all the saints together appear as nothing compared with one act of a true prophet, because the saints are seekers and pilgrims, whereas the prophets have arrived and have found and have returned with the command to preach and to convert the people. If anyone of the above-mentioned heretics should urge that an [[237]] ambassador sent by a king is usually inferior to the person to whom he is sent, as e.g. Gabriel is inferior to the Apostles, and that this is against my argument, I reply that an ambassador sent to a single person should be inferior to him, but when an ambassador is sent to a large number of persons or to a people, he is superior. to them, as the Apostles are superior to the nations. Therefore one moment of the prophets is better than the whole life of the saints, because when the saints reach their goal they tell of contemplation and obtain release from the veil of humanity, although they are essentially men. On the other hand, contemplation is the first step of the apostle; and since the apostle's starting-place is the saint's goal, they cannot be judged by the same standard.

Do not you perceive that, according to the unanimous opinion of all the saints who seek God, the station of union belongs to the perfection of saintship? Now, in this station, a man attains such a degree of rapturous love that his intelligence is enraptured in gazing upon the act of God, and in his longing for the Divine Agent he regards the whole universe as that and sees nothing but that. Thus Abu' Ala Rudbari says: "Were the vision of that which we serve to vanish from us, we should lose the name of servantship," for we derive the glory of worship solely from vision of Him. This is the beginning of the state of the prophets, inasmuch as separation is inconceivable in relation to them. They are entirely in the essence of union, whether they affirm or deny, whether they approach or turn away, whether they are at the beginning or at the end. Abraham, in the heginning of his state, looked on the sun and said: "This is my Lord;" and he looked on the moon and stars and said: "This is my Lord" (Kor. vi, 76-8), because his heart was overwhelmed by the Truth and he was united in the essence of union. Therefore he saw naught else, or if he saw aught else he did not see it with the eye of otherness, but with the eye of [[238]] union, and in the reality of that vision he disavowed his own and said: "I love not those that set" (Kor, vi, 76). As he began with union, so he ended with union.

Saintship has a beginning and an end, but prophecy has not. The prophets were prophets from the first, and shall be to the last, and before they existed they were prophets in the knowledge and will of God. Abu Yazid was asked about the state of the prophets. He replied: "Far be it from me to say! We have no power to judge of them, and in our notions of them we are wholly ourselves. God has placed their denial and affirmation in such an exalted degree that human vision cannot reach unto it." Accordingly, as the rank of the saints is hidden from the perception of mankind, so the rank of the prophets is hidden from the judgment of the saints. Abu Yazid was the proof of his age, and he says:  I saw that my spirit was borne to the heavens. It looked at nothing and gave no heed, though Paradise and Hell were displayed to it, for it was freed from phenomena and veils. Then I became a bird, whose body was of Oneness and whose wings were of Everlastingness, and I continued to fly in the air of the Absolute, until I passed into the sphere of Purification, and gazed upon the field of Eternity and beheld there the tree of Oneness. When I looked I myself was all those. I cried: 'O Lord, with my egoism I cannot attain to Thee, and I cannot escape from my selfhood. What am I to do?' God spake: 'O Abu Yazid, thou must win release from thy "thou-ness" by following My beloved (i.e. Muhammad). Smear thine eyes with the dust of his feet and follow him continually.'" This is a long narrative. The Sufis call it the Ascension of Bayazid, and the term "ascension" denotes proximity to God. The ascension of prophets takes place outwardly and in the body, whereas that of saints takes place inwardly and in the spirit. The body of an apostle resembles the heart [[239]] and spirit of a saint in purity and nearness to God. This is a manifest superiority. When a saint is enraptured and intoxicated he is withdrawn from himself by means of a spiritual ladder and brought near to God; and as soon as he returns to the state of sobriety all those evidences have taken shape in his mind and he has gained knowledge of them. Accordingly, there is a great difference between one who is carried thither in person and one who is carried thither only in thought, for thought involves duality.
 

Discourse on the Superiority of the Prophets and Saints to the Angels.

The whole community of orthodox Moslems and all the Sufi Shaykhs agree that the prophets and such of the saints as are guarded from sin are superior to the angels. The opposite view is held by the Mu'tazilites, who declare that the angels are superior to the prophets, being of more exalted rank, of more subtle constitution, and more obedient to God. I reply that this is not as you imagine, for an obedient body, an exalted rank, and a subtle constitution cannot be causes of superiority, which belongs only to those on whom God has bestowed it. Iblis had all the qualities that you mention, yet he is universally acknowledged to have become accursed. The superiority of the prophets is indicated by the fact that God commanded the angels to worship Adam; for the state of one who is worshipped is higher than the state of the worshipper. If they argue that, just as a true believer is superior to the Ka'ba, an inanimate mass of stone, although he bows down before it, so the angels may be superior to Adam, although they bowed down before him, I reply: "No one says that a believer bows down to a house or an altar or a wall, but all say that he bows down to God, and it is admitted by all that the angels bowed down to Adam (Kor. ii, 32). How, then, can the Ka'ba be compared to Adam ? A traveller may worship God on the back of the animal which he is riding, and he is excused if his face be not turned towards the Ka'ba; and, in like manner, one who [[240]] has lost his bearings in a desert, so that he cannot tell the direction of the Ka'ba, will have done his duty in whatever direction he may turn to pray. The angels offered no excuse when they bowed down to Adam, and the one who made an excuse for himself became accursed." These are clear proofs to any person of insight.

Again, the angels are equal to the prophets in knowledge of God, but not in rank. The angels are without lust, covetousness, and evil; their nature is devoid of hypocrisy and guile, and they are instinctively obedient to God;  whereas lust is an impediment in human nature; and men have a propensity to commit sins and to be impressed by the vanities of this world; and Satan has so much power over their bodies that he circulates with the blood in their veins; and closely attached to them is the lower soul, which incites them to all manner of wickedness. Therefore, one whose nature has all these characteristics and who, in spite of the violence of his lust, refrains from immorality, and notwithstanding his covetousness renounces this world, and, though his heart is still tempted by the Devil, turns back from sin and averts his face from sensual depravity in order to occupy himself with devotion and persevere in piety and mortify his lower soul and contend against the Devil, such a one is in reality superior to the angel who is not the battle-field of lust, and is naturally without desire of food and pleasures, and has no care for wife and child and kinsfolk, and need not have recourse to means and instruments, and is not absorbed in corrupt ambitions. A Gabriel, who worships God so many thousands of years in the hope of gaining a robe of honour, and the honour bestowed on him was that of acting as Muhammad's groom on the night of the Ascension--how should he be superior to one who disciplines and mortifies his lower soul by day and night in this world, until God looks on him with favour and grants to him the grace of seeing Himself and delivers him from all distracting thoughts?

When the pride of the angels passed all bounds, and every one of them vaunted the purity of his conduct and spoke with an unbridled tongue [[241]] in blame of mankind, God resolved that He would show to them their real state. He therefore bade them choose three of the chief among them, in whom they had confidence, to go to the earth and be its governors and reform its people. So three angels were chosen, but before they came to the earth one of them perceived its corruption and begged God to let him return. When the other two arrived on the earth God changed their nature so that they felt a desire for food and drink and were inclined to lust, and God punished them on that account, and the angels were forced to recognize the superiority of mankind to themselves. In short, the elect among the true believers are superior to the elect among the angels, and the ordinary believers are superior to the ordinary angels. Accordingly those men who are preserved and protected from sin are more excellent than Gabriel and Michael, and those who are not thus preserved are better than the Recording Angels and the noble Scribes.

Something has been said on this subject by every one of the Shaykhs. God awards superiority to whom He pleases, over whom He pleases. You must know that saintship is a Divine mystery which is revealed only through conduct. A saint is known only to a saint. If this matter could be made plain to all reasonable men it would be impossible to distinguish the friend from the foe or the spiritual adept from the careless worldling. Therefore God so willed that the pearl of His love should be set in the shell of popular contempt and be cast into the sea of affliction, in order that those who seek it may hazard their lives on account of its preciousness and dive to the bottom of this ocean of death, where they will either win their desire or bring their mortal state to an end.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

from CHAPTER XIX:
Chapter concerning Love and matters connected therewith.
 

God hath said, " O believers, whosoever among you apostatize from their religion, God will assuredly bring in their stead a people whom He will love and who will love Him" (Kor. v,50; and He hath also said, "Some men take idols beside God and love them as they love God, but the believers love God best" (Kor. ii,160). And the Apostle said: "I heard Gabriel say [[305]] that God said, 'Whoever despises any of My friends has declared war against Me. I do not hesitate in anything as I hesitate to seize the soul of My faithful servant who dislikes death and whom I dislike to hurt, but he cannot escape therefrom; and no means whereby My servant seeks My favour is more pleasing to Me than the performance of the obligations which I have laid upon him; and My servant continuously seeks My favour by works of supererogation until I love him, and when I love him I am his hearing and his sight and his hand and his helper.'" And the Apostle also said, "God loves to meet those who love to meet Him, and dislikes to meet those who dislike to meet Him"; and again, "When God loves a man He says to Gabriel, 'O Gabriel, I love such and such a one, so do thou love him' ; then Gabriel loves him and says to the dwellers in Heaven, 'God loves such and such a one,' and they love him too; then he bestows on him favour in the earth, so that he is loved by the inhabitants of the earth; and as it happens with regard to love, so does it happen with regard to hate."

Mahabbat (love) is said to be derived from hibbat, which are seeds that fall to the earth in the desert. The name hubb (love) was given to such desert seeds, because love is the source of life just as seeds are the origin of plants. As, when the seeds are scattered in the desert, they become hidden in the earth, and rain falls upon them and the sun shines upon them and cold and heat pass over them, yet they are not corrupted by the changing seasons, but grow up and bear flowers and give fruit, so love, when it takes its dwelling in the heart, is not corrupted by presence or absence, by pleasure or pain, by separation or union. Others say that mahabbat is derived from hubb, meaning "a jar full of stagnant water", because when love is collected in the heart and fills it, there is no room there for any thought except of the beloved, as Shibli says: "Love is called mahabbat because it obliterates from the heart everything except the beloved." Others say that mahabbat is derived from hubb, meaning "the four conjoined pieces of wood on which a water-jug [[306]] is placed, because a lover lightly bears whatever his beloved metes out to him--honour or disgrace, pain or pleasure, fair treatment or foul". According to others, mahabbat is derived from habb, the plural of habbat, and habbat is the core of the heart, where love resides. In this case, mahabbat is called by the name of its dwelling-place, a principle of which there are numerous examples in Arabic. Others derive it from habab, "bubbles of water and the effervescence thereof in a heavy rainfall," because love is the effervescence of the heart in longing for union with the beloved. As the body subsists through the spirit, so the heart subsists through love, and love subsists through vision of, and union with, the beloved. Others, again, declare that hubb is a name applied to pure love, because the Arabs call the pure white of the human eye habbat al-insan, just as they call the pure black (core) of the heart habbat al-qalb: the latter is the seat of love, the former of vision. Hence the heart and the eye are rivals in love, as the poet says:

"My heart envies mine eye the pleasure of seeing,
And mine eye envies my heart the pleasure of meditating."

SECTION 2:

You must know that the term "love" (mahabbat) is used by theologians in three significations. Firstly, as meaning restless desire for the object of love, and inclination and passion, in which sense it refers only to created beings and their mutual affection towards one another, but cannot be applied to God, who is exalted far above anything of this sort. Secondly, as meaning God's beneficence and His conferment of special privileges on those whom He chooses and causes to attain the perfection of saintship and peculiarly distinguishes by diverse kinds of His miraculous grace. Thirdly, as meaning praise which God bestows on a man for a good action.

Some scholastic philosophers say that God's love, which He has made known to us, belongs to those traditional attributes, [[307]] like His face and His hand and His settling Himself firmly on His throne, of which the existence from the standpoint of reason would appear to be impossible if they had not been proclaimed as Divine attributes in the Koran and the Sunna. Therefore we affirm them and believe in them, but suspend our own judgment concerning them. These scholastics mean to deny that the term "love" can be applied to God in all the senses which I have mentioned. I will now explain to you the truth of this matter.

God's love of Man is His good will towards him and His having mercy on him. Love is one of the names of His will, like "satisfaction", "anger",  mercy", etc., and His will is an eternal attribute whereby He wills His actions. In short, God's love towards Man consists in showing much favour to him, and giving him a recompense in this world and the next, and making him secure from punishment and keeping him safe from sin, and bestowing on him lofty "states" and exalted "stations" and causing him to turn his thoughts away from all that is other than God. When God peculiarly distinguishes anyone in this way, that specialization of His will is called love. This is the doctrine of Harith Muhasibi and Junayd and a large number of the Sufi Shaykhs as well as of the lawyers belonging to both the sects; and most of the Sunni scholastics hold the same opinion. As regards their assertion that Divine love is "praise given to a man for a good action", God's praise is His word, which is uncreated; and as regards their assertion that Divine love means "beneficence", His beneficence consists in His actions. Hence the different views are substantially in close relation to each other.

Man's love towards God is a quality which manifests itself in the heart of the pious believer, in the form of veneration and magnification, so that he seeks to satisfy his Beloved and becomes impatient and restless in his desire for vision of Him, and cannot rest with anyone except Him, and grows familiar with the remembrance of Him, and abjures the [[308]] remembrance of everything besides. Repose becomes unlawful to him and rest flees from him. He is cut off from all habits and associations, and renounces sensual passion and turns towards the court of love and submits to the law of love and knows God by His attributes of perfection. It is impossible that Man's love of God should be similar in kind to the love of His creatures towards one another, for the former is desire to comprehend and attain the beloved object, while the latter is a property of bodies. The lovers of God are those who devote themselves to death in nearness to Him, not those who seek His nature, because the seeker stands by himself, but he who devotes himself to death stands by his Beloved; and the truest lovers are they who would fain die thus, and are overpowered, because a phenomenal being has no means of approaching the Eternal save through the omnipotence of the Eternal. He who knows what is real love feels no more difficulties, and all his doubts depart.

Love, then, is of two kinds--(1) the love of like towards like, which is a desire instigated by the lower soul and which seeks the essence of the beloved object by means of sexual intercourse; (2) the love of one who is unlike the object of his love and who seeks to become intimately attached to all attributes of that object, e.g. hearing without speech or seeing without eye. And believers who love God are of two kinds--(1) those who regard the favour and beneficence of God towards them, and are led by that regard to love the Benefactor; (2) those who are so enraptured by love that they reckon all favours as a veil (between themselves and God) and by regarding the Benefactor are led to (consciousness of) His favours. The latter way is the more exalted of the two.

SECTION 3:

Among the Sufi Shaykhs Sumnun al-Muhibb holds a peculiar doctrine concerning love. He asserts that love is the foundation and principle of the way to God, that all "states" and "stations" are stages of love, and that every stage and abode in which the [[309]] seeker may be admits of destruction, except the abode of love, which is not destructible in any circumstances so long as the way itself remains in existence. All the other Shaykhs agree with him in this matter, but since the term "love" is current and well known, and they wished the doctrine of Divine love to remain hidden, instead of calling it "love" they gave it the name of "purity" and the lover they called "pure"; or they used the word "poverty" (faqr) to denote the renunciation of the lover's personal will in his affirmation of the Beloved's will, and they called the lover "poor" (faqir). I have explained the theory of "purity" and "poverty" in the beginning of this book.

'Amr b. 'Uthman Makki says in the Kitab-i Mahabbat that God created the souls seven thousand years before the bodies and kept them in the station of proximity, and that he created the spirits seven thousand years before the souls and kept them in the degree of intimacy, and that he created the hearts seven thousand years before the spirits and kept them in the degree of union, and revealed the epiphany of His beauty to the heart three hundred and sixty times every day and bestowed on it three hundred and sixty looks of grace, and He caused the spirits to hear the word of love and manifested three hundred and sixty exquisite favours of intimacy to the soul, so that they all surveyed the phenomenal universe and saw nothing more precious than themselves and were filled with vanity and pride. Therefore God subjected them to probation: He imprisoned the heart in the spirit and the spirit in the soul and the soul in the body; then He mingled reason with them, and sent prophets and gave commands; then each of them began to seek its original station. God ordered them to pray. The body betook itself to prayer, the soul attained to love, the spirit arrived at proximity to God, and the heart found rest in union with Him. The explanation of love is not love, because love is a feeling, and feelings are never mere words. If the whole world [[310]] wished to attract love, they could not; and if they made the utmost efforts to repel it, they could not. Love is a Divine gift, not anything that can be acquired.

SECTION 4:

Concerning excessive love ('ishq) there is much controversy among the Shaykhs. Some Sufis hold that excessive love towards God is allowable, but that it does not proceed from God. Such love, they say, is the attribute of one who is debarred from his beloved, and Man is debarred from God, but God is not debarred from Man: therefore Man may love God excessively, but the term is not applicable to God. Others, again, take the view that God cannot be the object of Man's excessive love, because such love involves a passing beyond limits, whereas God is not limited. The moderns assert that excessive love, in this world and the next, is properly applied only to the desire of attaining the essence, and inasmuch as the essence of God is not attainable, the term ('ishq) is not rightly used in reference to Man's love towards God, although the terms "love" (mahabbat) and "pure love" are correct. They say, moreover, that while love (mahabbat) may be produced by hearing, excessive love ('ishq) cannot possibly arise without actual vision: therefore it cannot be felt towards God, who is not seen in this world. The essence of God is not attainable or perceptible, that Man should be able to feel excessive love towards Him; but Man feels love (mahabbat) towards God, because God, through His attributes and actions, is a gracious benefactor to His friends. Since Jacob was absorbed in love (mahabbat) for Joseph, from whom he was separated, his eyes became bright and clear as soon as he smelt Joseph's shirt; but since Zulaykha was ready to die on account of her excessive love ('ishq) for Joseph, her eyes were not opened until she was united with him. It has also been said that excessive love is applicable to God, on the ground that neither God nor excessive love has any opposite.

[[311]] I will now mention a few of the innumerable indications which the Sufi Shaykhs have given as to the true nature of love. Master Abu'l-Qasim Qushayri says: "Love is the effacement of the lover's attributes and the establishment of the Beloved's essence," i.e. since the Beloved is subsistent (baqi) and the lover is annihilated (fani) the jealousy of love requires that the lover should make the subsistence of the Beloved absolute by negating himself, and he cannot negate his own attributes except by affirming the essence of the Beloved. No lover can stand by his own attributes, for in that case he would not need the Beloved's beauty; but when he knows that his life depends on the Beloved's beauty, he necessarily seeks to annihilate his own attributes, which veil him from his Beloved; and thus in love for his Friend he becomes an enemy to himself. It is well known that the last words of Husayn b. Mansur (al-Hallaj) on the scaffold were, "It is enough for the lover that he should make the One single," i.e. that his existence should be cleared away from the path of love and that the dominion of his lower soul should be utterly destroyed.

Abu Yazid Bistami says: "Love consists in regarding your own much as little and your Beloved's little as much." This is how God Himself deals with His servants, for He calls "little" that which He has given to them in this world (Kor. iv, 79), but calls their praise of Him "much"--"the men and women who praise God much" (Kor. xxxiii, 35)-- in order that all His creatures may know that He is the real Beloved, because nothing is little that God bestows on Man, and all is little that Man offers to God. Sahl b. 'Abdallah al-Tustari says: "Love consists in embracing acts of obedience and in avoiding acts of disobedience," because a man performs the command of his beloved more easily in proportion to the strength of love in his heart. This is a refutation of those heretics who [[312]] declare that a man may attain to such a degree of love that obedience is no longer required of him, a doctrine which is sheer heresy. It is impossible that any person, while his understanding is sound, should be relieved of his religious obligations, because the law of Muhammad will never be abrogated, and if one such person may be thus relieved why not all? The case of persons overcome with rapture and idiots is different.

It is possible, however, that God in His love should bring a man to such a degree that it costs him no trouble to perform his religious duties, because the more one loves Him who gives the command the less trouble will he have in executing it. When the Apostle abandoned himself entirely to devotion both by day and night, so that his blessed feet became swollen, God said: "We have not sent down the Koran to thee in order that thou shouldst be miserable" (Kor. xx, I ). And it is also possible that one should be relieved of the consciousness of performing the Divine command, as the Apostle said: "Verily, a veil is drawn over my heart, and I ask forgiveness of God seventy times daily," i.e. he asked to be forgiven for his actions, because he was not regarding himself and his actions, that he should be pleased with his obedience, but was paying regard to the majesty of God's command and was thinking that his actions were not worthy of God's acceptance.

Sumnun Muhibb says: "The lovers of God have borne away the glory of this world and the next, for the Prophet said, 'A man is with the object of his love.'" Therefore they are with God in both worlds, and those who are with God can do no wrong. The glory of this world is God's being with them, and the glory of the next world is their being with God. Yahya b. Mu'adh al-Razi says: "Real love is neither diminished by unkindness nor increased by kindness and bounty," because in love both kindness and unkindness are causes, and the cause of a thing is reduced to nothing when the thing itself actually exists. A lover delights in the affliction that his beloved makes him suffer, and having love he regards kindness [[313]] and unkindness with the same indifference. The story is well known how Shibli was supposed to be insane and was confined in a madhouse. Some persons came to visit him. "Who are you?" he asked. They answered: "Thy friends," whereupon he pelted them with stones and put them to flight. Then he said: "Had you been my friends, you would not have fled from my affliction."