Читать книгу The Kashf al-mahjúb: The oldest Persian treatise on Súfiism онлайн

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I said, “I pray God to aid and prosper me” (p. 3), because God alone can help a man to do good deeds. When God assists anyone to perform acts deserving recompense, this is truly “success given by God” (tawfíq). The Koran and the Sunna attest the genuineness of tawfíq, and the whole Moslem community are unanimous therein, except some Mu`tazilites and Qadarites, who assert that the expression tawfíq is void of meaning. Certain Ṣúfí Shaykhs have said, Al-tawfíq huwa ´l-qudrat `ala ´l-ṭá`at `inda ´l-isti`mál, “When a man is obedient to God he receives from God increased strength.” In short, all human action and inaction is the act and creation of God: therefore the strength whereby a man renders obedience to God is called tawfíq. The discussion of this topic, however, would be out of place here. Please God, I will now return to the task which you have proposed, but before entering on it I will set down your question in its exact form.

Section.

The questioner, Abú Sa`íd al-Hujwírí, said: “Explain to me the true meaning of the Path of Ṣúfiism and the nature of the ‘stations’ (maqámát) of the Ṣúfís, and explain their doctrines and sayings, and make clear to me their mystical allegories, and the nature of Divine Love and how it is manifested in human hearts, and why the intellect is unable to reach the essence thereof, and why the soul recoils from the reality thereof, and why the spirit is lulled in the purity thereof; and explain the practical aspects of Ṣúfiism which are connected with these theories.”