accordance with the will of God, God would reward him for this, just as
He rewarded him for his formal worship.
The early Sufis believed that the fewer the worldly possessions, the
more they would be able to devote themselves selflessly to the worship of
God. Thus, having fewer goods was taken as a guarantee for securing an
entry into paradise. That is the reason why the Sufis held poverty in such
high esteem.
Then came the stage when it was no longer believed that just possessing
no wealth was enough. Rather, it was thought that one’s heart should be free
from even the desire to possess anything. Thus, the heart as well as the
hand must be empty to attain the sought-after goal. This absence of desire
signified a complete detachment from all things finite, and was regarded as
‘true poverty’ from the Sufi point of view.This concept was expressed by a
later Sufi saint, Nizamuddin Auliya (d.1325) in these words:
“Rejection of the world does not mean that one should strip oneself of
one’s clothes and sit idle. Rejection of the world means that one may put on
clothes and take food. But one should not set one’s heart on anything. This
and this alone is rejection of the world.”
However, one should not lose sight of the fact that the early Sufis were all
practicing Muslims, in that they observed all the obligatory forms of worship.
One may call them orthodox Muslims as far as their beliefs and practices
were concerned, but in actual fact, they laid such great significance on certain
points in the teachings of the Qur’an and traditions that it almost amounted
to a shift of emphasis.Gradually, supererogatory forms of worship, or
nawafil,
came to have more importance attached to them than the obligatory forms
of worship.
Th e Ea r l y De v e l opme n t 30
