THE UNCOVERING OF THE FIFTH VEIL: CONCERNING PRAYER (_al-ṣalát_).
Etymologically, prayer (_namáz_) means remembrance (of God) and
submissiveness (_dhikr ú inqiyád_), but in the correct usage of lawyers
the term is specially applied to the five prayers which God has ordered
to be performed at five different times, and which involve certain
preliminary conditions, viz.: (1) purification outwardly from filth and
inwardly from lust; (2) that one’s outward garment should be clean and
one’s inner garment undefiled by anything unlawful; (3) that the place
where one purifies one’s self should be outwardly free from
contamination and inwardly free from corruptness and sin; (4) turning
towards the _qibla_, the outward _qibla_ being the Ka`ba and the inward
_qibla_ being the Throne of God, by which is meant the mystery of Divine
contemplation; (5) standing outwardly in the state of power (_qudrat_)
and inwardly in the garden of proximity to God (_qurbat_); (6) sincere
intention to approach unto God; (7) saying “_Allah akbar_” in the
station of awe and annihilation, and standing in the abode of union, and
reciting the Koran distinctly and reverently, and bowing the head with
humility, and prostrating one’s self with abasement, and making the
profession of faith with concentration, and saluting with annihilation
of one’s attributes. It is recorded in the Traditions that when the
Apostle prayed, there was heard within him a sound like the boiling of a
kettle. And when `Alí was about to pray, his hair stood on end and he
trembled and said: “The hour has come to fulfil a trust which the
heavens and the earth were unable to bear.”[152]
Footnote 152:
Here the author cites a description given by Ḥátim al-Aṣamm of his
manner of praying.
SECTION.
Prayer is a term in which novices find the whole way to God, from
beginning to end, and in which their stations (_maqámát_) are revealed.
Thus, for novices, purification takes the place of repentance, and
dependence on a spiritual director takes the place of ascertaining the
_qibla_, and standing in prayer takes the place of self-mortification,
and reciting the Koran takes the place of inward meditation (_dhikr_),
and bowing the head takes the place of humility, and prostration takes
the place of self-knowledge, and profession of faith takes the place of
intimacy (_uns_), and salutation takes the place of detachment from the
world and escape from the bondage of “stations”. Hence, when the Apostle
became divested of all feelings of delight (_mashárib_) in complete
bewilderment, he used to say: “O Bilál, comfort us by the call to
prayer.” The Ṣúfí Shaykhs have discussed this matter and each of them
occupies a position of his own. Some hold that prayer is a means of
obtaining “presence” with God (_ḥudúr_), and others regard it as a means
of obtaining “absence” (_ghaybat_); some who have been “absent” become
“present” in prayer, while others who have been “present” become
“absent”. Similarly, in the next world where God is seen, some, who are
“absent”, when they see God shall become “present”, and _vice versâ_. I,
`Alí b. `Uthmán al-Jullábí, assert that prayer is a Divine command and
is not a means of obtaining either “presence” or “absence”, because a
Divine command is not a means to anything. The cause of “presence” is
“presence” itself, and the cause of “absence” is “absence” itself. If
prayer were the cause or means of “presence”, it could be performed only
by one who was “present”, and if it were the cause of “absence”, one who
was “absent” would necessarily become “present” by neglecting to perform
it. But inasmuch as it must be performed by all, whether they be
“present” or “absent”, prayer is sovereign in its essence and
independent.
Prayer is mostly performed and prescribed by those who are engaged in
self-mortification or who have attained to steadfastness (_istiqámat_).
Thus the Shaykhs order their disciples to perform four hundred bowings
in prayer during a day and night, that their bodies may be habituated to
devotion; and the steadfast likewise perform many prayers in
thanksgiving for the favour which God has bestowed upon them. As regards
those who possess “states” (_arbáb-i aḥwál_), their prayers, in the
perfection of ecstasy, correspond to the “station” of union, so that
through their prayers they become united; or again, when ecstasy is
withdrawn, their prayers correspond to the “station” of separation, so
that thereby they become separated. The former, who are united in their
prayers, pray by day and night and add supererogatory prayers to those
which are incumbent on them, but the latter, who are separated, perform
no more prayers than they need. The Apostle said: “In prayer lies my
delight,” because prayer is a source of joy to the steadfast. When the
Apostle was brought nigh unto God on the night of the Ascension, and his
soul was loosed from the fetters of phenomenal being, and his spirit
lost consciousness of all degrees and stations, and his natural powers
were annihilated, he said, not of his own will, but inspired by longing:
“O God, do not transport me to yonder world of affliction! Do not throw
me under the sway of nature and passion!” God answered: “It is My decree
that thou shalt return to the world for the sake of establishing the
religious law, in order that I may give thee there what I have given
thee here.” When he returned to this world, he used to say as often as
he felt a longing for that exalted station: “O Bilál, comfort us by the
call to prayer!” Thus to him every time of prayer was an Ascension and a
new nearness to God. Sahl b. `Abdalláh says: “It is a sign of a man’s
sincerity that he has an attendant angel who urges him to pray when the
hour of prayer is come, and wakes him if he be asleep.” This mark (of
sincerity) was apparent in Sahl himself, for although he had become
palsied in his old age he used to recover the use of his limbs whenever
the hour of prayer arrived; and after having performed his prayers he
was unable to move from his place. One of the Shaykhs says: “Four things
are necessary to him who prays: annihilation of the lower soul (_nafs_),
loss of the natural powers, purity of the inmost heart, and perfect
contemplation.” Annihilation of the lower soul is to be attained only by
concentration of thought; loss of the natural powers only by affirmation
of the Divine majesty, which involves the destruction of all that is
other than God; purity of the inmost heart only by love; and perfect
contemplation only by purity of the inmost heart. It is related that
Ḥusayn b. Manṣúr (al-Ḥalláj) used to lay upon himself the obligation of
performing four hundred bowings of prayer in a day and a night. On being
asked why he took so much trouble in the high degree which he enjoyed,
he answered: “Pain and pleasure indicate your feelings, but those whose
attributes are annihilated feel no effect either of pleasure or of pain.
Beware lest you call remissness maturity and desire of the world search
for God.” A certain man relates: “I was praying behind Dhu ´l-Nún. When
he began to pronounce the _takbír_, he cried ‘_Allah akbar_’ and fell in
a swoon like a lifeless body.” Junayd, after he had grown old, did not
omit any item of the litanies (_awrád_) of his youth. When he was urged
to refrain from some of these supererogatory acts of devotion to which
his strength was unequal, he replied that he could not abandon at the
last those exercises which had been the means of his acquiring spiritual
welfare at the first. It is well known that the angels are ceaselessly
engaged in worship, because they are spiritual and have no lower soul
(_nafs_). The lower soul deters men from obedience, and the more it is
subdued the more easy does the performance of worship become; and when
it is entirely annihilated, worship becomes the food and drink of Man,
even as it is the food and drink of the angels. `Abdalláh b. Mubárak
says: “In my boyhood I remember seeing a female ascetic who was bitten
by a scorpion in forty places while she was praying, but no change of
expression was visible in her countenance. When she had finished, I
said: ‘O mother, why didst not thou fling the scorpion away from thee?’
She answered: ‘Ignorant boy! dost thou deem it right that while I am
engaged in God’s business I should attend to my own?’”
Abu ´l-Khayr Aqṭa`[153] had a gangrene in his foot. The physicians
declared that his foot must be amputated, but he would not allow this to
be done. His disciples said: “Cut it off while he is praying, for at
that time he is unconscious.” The physicians acted on this advice. When
Abu ´l-Khayr finished his prayers he found that his foot had been
amputated.[154]
Footnote 153:
_Nafaḥát_, No. 259.
Footnote 154:
Here follows a story, already related in the notice of Abú Bakr (p.
70), concerning the different manner in which Abú Bakr and `Umar
recited the Koran when they performed their prayers.
Some Ṣúfís perform obligatory acts of devotion openly, but conceal those
which are supererogatory in order that they may escape from ostentation
(_riyá_). Anyone (they say) who desires that others should take notice
of his religious practices becomes a hypocrite; and if he says that
although other people see his devotions he himself is unconscious of
them, that too is hypocrisy. Other Ṣúfís, however, exhibit both their
obligatory and supererogatory acts of devotion, on the ground that
ostentation is unreal and piety real: therefore, it is absurd to hide
reality for the sake of unreality. “Do not let any thought of
ostentation (they say) enter your heart, and worship God wherever you
will.” The Shaykhs have observed the true spirit of the rules of
devotional practice, and have enjoined their disciples to do the same.
One of them says: “I travelled for forty years, and during that time I
did not miss a single public service of prayer, but was in some town
every Friday.”
The corollaries of prayer belong to the stations of love, of which I
will now set forth the principles in full.
_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, 59); 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 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.”
_Maḥabbat_ (love) is said to be derived from _ḥibbat_, which are seeds
that fall to the earth in the desert. The name _ḥubb_ (love) was given
to such desert seeds (_ḥibb_), 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 _maḥabbat_ is derived from _ḥubb_, 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 Shiblí says: “Love is called _maḥabbat_ because it obliterates
(_tamḥú_) from the heart everything except the beloved.” Others say that
_maḥabbat_ is derived from _ḥubb_, meaning “the four conjoined pieces of
wood on which a water-jug 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, _maḥabbat_ is
derived from _ḥabb_, the plural of _ḥabbat_, and _ḥabbat_ is the core of
the heart, where love resides. In this case, _maḥabbat_ is called by the
name of its dwelling-place, a principle of which there are numerous
examples in Arabic. Others derive it from _ḥabáb_, “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 _ḥubb_ is a name applied to pure love,
because the Arabs call the pure white of the human eye _ḥabbat
al-insán_, just as they call the pure black (core) of the heart _ḥabbat
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.
You must know that the term “love” (_maḥabbat_) 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 (_thaná-yi jamíl_).[155]
Footnote 155:
Cf. Qushayrí (Cairo, 1318 A.H.), 170, 14 sqq.
Some scholastic philosophers say that God’s love, which He has made
known to us, belongs to those traditional attributes, like His face and
His hand and His settling Himself firmly on His throne (_istiwá_), 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 (_irádat_), 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 Ḥárith Muḥásibí and Junayd and a large number of the Ṣúfí
Shaykhs as well as of the lawyers belonging to both the sects; and most
of the Sunní scholastics hold the same opinion. As regards their
assertion that Divine love is “praise given to a man for a good action”
(_thaná-yi jamíl bar banda_), God’s praise is His word (_kalám_), 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 (_dhikr_) of Him, and abjures
the 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
(_kayfiyyat_), because the seeker stands by himself, but he who devotes
himself to death (_mustahlik_) 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 (_dhát_) 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 an
attribute 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.
Among the Ṣúfí Shaykhs Sumnún al-Muḥibb 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 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” (_ṣafwat_), and the lover they called “Ṣúfí”; 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” (_faqír_). I have explained the theory of “purity” and
“poverty” in the beginning of this book.
`Amr b. `Uthmán Makkí says in the _Kitáb-i Maḥabbat_[156] that God
created the souls (_dilhá_) seven thousand years before the bodies and
kept them in the station of proximity (_qurb_), and that he created the
spirits (_jánhá_) seven thousand years before the souls and kept them in
the degree of intimacy (_uns_), and that he created the hearts
(_sirrhá_) seven thousand years before the spirits and kept them in the
degree of union (_waṣl_), 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 (_`aql_) 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 (_ḥál_), and feelings are never mere words
(_qál_). If the whole world 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.
Footnote 156:
“The Book of Love.”
SECTION.
Concerning excessive love (_`ishq_) there is much controversy among the
Shaykhs. Some Ṣúfís 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” (_maḥabbat_) and “pure love” (_ṣafwat_) are correct. They
say, moreover, that while love (_maḥabbat_) 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 (_maḥabbat_)
towards God, because God, through His attributes and actions, is a
gracious benefactor to His friends. Since Jacob was absorbed in love
(_maḥabbat_) for Joseph, from whom he was separated, his eyes became
bright and clear as soon as he smelt Joseph’s shirt; but since Zulaykhá
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.
SECTION.
I will now mention a few of the innumerable indications which the Ṣúfí
Shaykhs have given as to the true nature of love. Master Abu ´l-Qásim
Qushayrí 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 (_báqí_) and the lover is annihilated (_fání_) 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
Ḥusayn b. Manṣúr (al-Ḥalláj) on the scaffold were _Ḥasb al-wájid ifrád
al-wáḥid_, “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. Abú Yazíd Bisṭámí 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. `Abdalláh al-Tustarí says: “Love
consists in embracing acts of obedience (_mu`ánaqat al-ṭá`át_) 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 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 Muḥammad will never be abrogated, and if
one such person may be thus relieved why not all? The case of persons
overcome with rapture (_maghlúb_) and idiots (_ma`túh_) 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, 1). 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. Sumnún Muḥibb
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. Yaḥyá b. Mu`ádh
al-Rází 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 and unkindness with the same indifference. The story is well
known how Shiblí 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.”