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Among them: the king of the people of Sufism, and one free from the affliction of affectation, Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Nuri, may Allah be pleased with him. He was the most excellent in conduct, the clearest in words, and the most refined in spiritual struggles. He has a distinct school within Sufism, and there is a group among the Sufis called the Nuris who follow and give their allegiance to him. All the Sufis are twelve groups: two of them are rejected and ten are accepted. As for those who are accepted: the first are the Muhasibis, the second the Qassaris, the third the Tayfuris, the fourth the Junaydis, the fifth the Nuris, the sixth the Sahlis, the seventh the Hakimis, the eighth the Kharrazis, the ninth the Khafifis, and the tenth the Sayyaris. All of these are among the verifiers and the people of the Sunna and the community. But as for the two rejected groups: one is the Hulmanis, who are ascribed to incarnation (hulul) and commingling, and the Salimis and Mushayyi'a are attached to them; the other is the Hallajis, who are rejected for abandoning the sacred law and for heresy, and the Ibahatis and Farisis are attached to them. In this book I will bring a chapter on the differences of their groups, and I will explain the disagreements of those ten groups and the deviations of those two groups, so that the benefit may be complete, God the Exalted willing. His path was praiseworthy in abandoning flattery, in setting aside indulgence, and in perpetual struggle. It is related from him that he came into the presence of Junayd and saw him seated at the head of the assembly. He said: 'O Abu al-Qasim, you concealed their faults, so they seated you at the head, and I counseled them, so they drove me off with stones.' You covered their faults, so they made you their chief, and I gave them counsel, so they drove me away with stones; for flattery agrees with caprice, while counsel opposes it, and a person is an enemy of that which opposes his caprice and a friend of that which agrees with his caprice. Abu al-Hasan al-Nuri was the companion of Junayd and the disciple of Sari. He had seen many of the shaykhs and attained their company, and he had met Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari. He has subtle allusions in the path of Sufism, beautiful sayings, and lofty fine points in the branches of knowledge. It is related from him that he said: 'Union with the Real is separation from other than Him, and separation from other than Him is union with Him.' Union with the Real is separation from other than Him, and separation from other than Him is union with Him; meaning, whoever's aspiration is gathered upon God the Exalted is separated from other than Him, and whoever is separated from other than Him is gathered unto Him. So the gathering of aspiration upon God the Exalted is a separation from the thought of created things. When turning away from created things is established, turning toward the Real is established, and when turning toward the Real is established, turning away from creation is established; for 'two opposites cannot be joined together.' And it is in the anecdotes that once he cried out for three days and nights in a house, standing in one place. They told Junayd. He rose and went to him and said: 'O Abu al-Hasan, if you know that crying out will benefit you with Him, then let me too join in the crying out; and if you know that contentment is better, then submit, so that your heart may become joyful.' Al-Nuri ceased his crying out and said: 'What an excellent teacher you are to us, O Abu al-Qasim!' And it is related from him that he said: 'The most precious of things in our time are two: a scholar who acts upon his knowledge, and a gnostic who speaks from his reality.' The most precious of things in our age are two: one is a scholar who acts upon his own knowledge, and the other is a gnostic who speaks from the reality of his own state; meaning that in this age both knowledge and gnosis are precious, for knowledge without action is not knowledge, and gnosis without reality is not gnosis. That elder gave this saying as a sign of his own age, and in all his times this was precious; today it is even more precious. And whoever busies himself in seeking the scholar and the gnostic, his time will become disturbed and he will not find them. One must busy oneself with oneself so that one may see the whole world as scholars, and turn from oneself to the Lord so that one may see the whole world as gnostics; for the scholar and the gnostic are precious, and the precious is hard to find. That whose existence is difficult to attain—seeking it is a wasting of life. Knowledge and gnosis must be sought from oneself, and action and reality demanded from oneself. It is related from him, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said: 'Whoever comprehends things through God, his return in everything is to God.' Whoever knows things through God the Exalted and recognizes them as belonging to Him, in all things his return is to Him and not to the things; for the subsistence of the kingdom and the property is through the Owner. So repose lies in the vision of the Maker, not in the vision of the made; for if he considers things the cause of actions, he will be perpetually distressed, and to return to each thing would be polytheism for him. When he knows things to be the means of an action, the means does not subsist by itself, but subsists by the One who causes it; when he returns to the Causer of causes, he is delivered from preoccupation.