“Patience”, what the following stage consists of, is a virtue without
which the depths of poverty could not be borne. Thus it is said to be the
better part of faith, if not the whole of it.
“Trust or self-surrender” is the attitude of one who entrusts himself
completely to God. It springs from the very fundamental Islamic position
and forms a part of its creed (
aqida
). Its roots are in
tauhid,
or belief in the
One God. Al Ghazali says: “
Tawakkul
or God reliance, is a stage of religion
and a state of progress of the believers. Rather it is the highest state of those
who are near God... The meaning of God reliance is the intermingling of
three elements — intellect,
shariat
and
tauhid
— in a proportionate
manner.”
15
The last stage or
rida
denotes a condition in which the spiritual traveller
is always pleased with whatever providence sends his way. Junayd (d. 910)
says: “He is the greatest amongst men who has subordinated his will to that
of the Lord and is content with His dealings.”
16
To emphasize that the aim and end of Sufism and its Way is to reach
God, theTruth (
Al Haqq
) and not merely the act of passing through so many
stages and experiencing so many states, let us recall this anecdote about
Junayd found in the
Tadhkirat ul-Auliya
of Farid ud din Attar (d. 1229).
“For forty successive years, Junayd kept awake for whole nights in his
devotional practices. Thereupon the pride was born in him that he had
reached the spiritual pinnacle. The Divine Voice reprimanded Junayd and
said, ‘The time has arrived when you should be declared a heretic.’ He
15
for quotation, see p. 235 of Book IV, Imam
Ghazali’s Ihya ulum-id-din,
tr. Maulana Fazul ul Karim,
Lahore, 1971. This volume deals with all the stages of mystical progress.
16
Tadhkirat ul-Auliya
of Fariduddin Attar, tr. Bankey Bihari, Lahore, 1961, p.. 110.
