Читать книгу The Kashf al-mahjúb: The oldest Persian treatise on Súfiism онлайн
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[Here follows the story of Ḥáritha, who declared that he had true faith in God. The Prophet asked: “What is the reality of thy faith?” Ḥáritha replied: “I have cut off and turned myself away from this world, so that its stones and its gold and its silver and its clay are equal in my sight. And I have passed my nights in wakefulness and my days in thirst until methinks I see the Throne of my Lord manifest, and the people of Paradise visiting one another, and the people of Hell wrestling with one another”[34] (or, according to an alternative reading: “making sudden attacks on one another”).[35] The Prophet said, repeating the words thrice: “Thou knowest, therefore persevere.”]
“Ṣúfí” is a name which is given, and has formerly been given, to the perfect saints and spiritual adepts. One of the Shaykhs says: Man ṣaffáhu ´l-ḥubb fa-huwa ṣáfin wa-man ṣaffáhu ´l-ḥabíb fa-huwa Ṣúfiyyun, “He that is purified by love is pure, and he that is absorbed in the Beloved and has abandoned all else is a ‘Ṣúfí’.” The name has no derivation answering to etymological requirements, inasmuch as Ṣúfiism is too exalted to have any genus from which it might be derived; for the derivation of one thing from another demands homogeneity (mujánasat). All that exists is the opposite of purity (ṣafá), and things are not derived from their opposites. To Ṣúfís the meaning of Ṣúfiism is clearer than the sun and does not need any explanation or indication. Since “Ṣúfí” admits of no explanation, all the world are interpreters thereof, whether they recognize the dignity of the name or no at the time when they learn its meaning. The perfect, then, among them are called Ṣúfí, and the inferior aspirants (ṭálibán) among them are called Mutaṣawwif; for taṣawwuf belongs to the form tafa``ul, which implies “taking trouble” (takalluf),[36] and is a branch of the original root. The difference both in meaning and in etymology is evident. Purity (ṣafá) is a saintship with a sign and a relation (riwáyat), and Ṣúfiism (taṣawwuf) is an uncomplaining imitation of purity (ḥikáyatun li´l-ṣafá bilá shikáyat). Purity, then, is a resplendent and manifest idea, and Ṣúfiism is an imitation of that idea. Its followers in this degree are of three kinds: the Ṣúfí, the Mutaṣawwif, and the Mustaṣwif. The Ṣúfí is he that is dead to self and living by the Truth; he has escaped from the grip of human faculties and has really attained (to God). The Mutaṣawwif is he that seeks to reach this rank by means of self-mortification (mujáhadat) and in his search rectifies his conduct in accordance with their (the Ṣúfís’) example. The Mustaṣwif is he that makes himself like them (the Ṣúfís) for the sake of money and wealth and power and worldly advantage, but has no knowledge of these two things.[37] Hence it has been said: Al-mustaṣwif `inda ´l-Ṣúfiyyat ka-´l-dhubáb wa-`inda ghayrihim ka-´l-dhi´áb, “The Mustaṣwif in the opinion of the Ṣúfís is as despicable as flies, and his actions are mere cupidity; others regard him as being like a wolf, and his speech unbridled (bé afsár), for he only desires a morsel of carrion.” Therefore the Ṣúfí is a man of union (ṣáḥib wuṣúl), the Mutaṣawwif a man of principles, (ṣáḥib uṣúl), and the Mustaṣwif a man of superfluities (ṣáḥib fuḍúl). He that has the portion of union loses all end and object by gaining his end and reaching his object; he that has the portion of principle becomes firm in the “states” of the mystic path, and steadfastly devoted to the mysteries thereof; but he that has the portion of superfluity, is left devoid of all (worth having), and sits down at the gate of formality (rasm), and thereby he is veiled from reality (ma`ní) and this veil renders both union and principle invisible to him. The Shaykhs of this persuasion have given many subtle definitions of Ṣúfiism which cannot all be enumerated, but we shall mention some of them in this book, if God will, who is the Author of success.