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English translation

The masters have many subtle allusions concerning this meaning, and for the attainment of benefits I shall bring some of their sayings, God willing, the Mighty and Majestic.

Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak says, may God have mercy on him: 'Gnosis is that you wonder at nothing.' Gnosis is that nothing causes you wonder; for wonder arises at a deed performed by someone beyond his own capacity. Since He, exalted and holy, is capable of perfection, it is impossible for the gnostic to wonder at His acts. And were wonder to take form, it should be there — that He brought a handful of dust to the rank of becoming the locus of His command, and a drop of blood to the station of speaking of His love and gnosis, seeking the vision of Him and aiming at nearness and union with Him.

Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri says, may God have mercy on him: 'The reality of gnosis is God's disclosure of the secrets by the continuous joining of the subtleties of the lights.' The reality of gnosis is God's disclosure upon the secrets by that to which the subtleties of the lights of gnosis are joined; that is, until God most high, by His own grace, adorns the servant's heart with His light and cleanses it of all afflictions — such that existent and affirmed things weigh no more than a mustard seed in his heart — the contemplations of inner and outer secrets do not overwhelm him; and when He does this, all that is absent becomes contemplated.

And Shibli says, may God have mercy on him: 'Gnosis is perpetual bewilderment.' Bewilderment is of two kinds: one concerning existence, the other concerning modality. Bewilderment concerning His existence is polytheism and unbelief, and concerning His how-ness is gnosis; for concerning His existence no doubt takes form for the gnostic, and concerning His modality the intellect has no scope. There remains here a certitude in the existence of the Real and a bewilderment in His quality, and thus he said: 'O Guide of the bewildered, increase me in bewilderment.' First he affirmed the gnosis of the perfection of the attributes and knew that He is the object sought by creation and the answerer of their supplications, and that the bewildered have no bewilderment except in Him; then he sought increase of bewilderment, knowing that in the object sought, bewilderment and perplexity of the intellect would be polytheism and a halting. This meaning is very subtle.

It may also be that the gnosis of existence through the Real demands bewilderment at one's own existence; for when the servant knows the Lord, he sees his whole self bound in His overpowering. Since his existence and non-existence are through Him and from Him, and his stillness and motion by His power, he becomes bewildered: 'Since my whole subsistence is through Him, who am I and upon what am I?' And thus the Prophet said, peace be upon him: 'Whoever knows himself has known his Lord.' Whoever knows himself through annihilation (fana) knows the Real, exalted be God, through subsistence (baqa); through annihilation the knot and attribute become void, and since the essence of a thing is not knotted, in the gnosis of it nothing is possible except bewilderment.

And Abu Yazid said, may God have mercy on him: 'Gnosis is that you know that the motions of creatures and their stillnesses are through God.' Gnosis is that you know that the motions of creatures and their stillnesses are through the Real, and that no one has any disposal in His kingdom without His permission. The essence is essence through Him and the effect is effect through Him, the attribute is attribute through Him, the moved is moved through Him and the still is still through Him. Until He creates capability in the frame and will in the heart, the servant can perform no act; the act of the servant is metaphorical while the act of the Real is real.

And Muhammad ibn Wasi says, describing the gnostic, may God have mercy on him: 'Whoever knows Him, his speech becomes little and his bewilderment lasting.' He who knows, his speech is little and his bewilderment perpetual; for expression can be made of a thing that falls under expression, and in principle expressions have a limit; and since the object of expression is not limited so that the foundation of expression be set upon it, how can the expression of the expressed find stability? And since the object sought does not come into expression and the servant has no escape from it, what recourse has he except perpetual bewilderment?

Shibli says, may God have mercy on him: 'The reality of gnosis is incapacity for gnosis.' The reality of gnosis is incapacity for gnosis; for from the reality nothing marks the servant except incapacity therein, and it may be that the servant has no greater claim upon himself in attaining it; for incapacity comes only after seeking, and as long as the seeker stands in his own instrument and attribute, the name of incapacity is not correct for him, and when this instrument and these attributes cease, then it is annihilation, not incapacity.

And a group of pretenders, in the state of affirming the attribute of humanity and the subsistence of obligation through the soundness of address and the standing of God's proof upon them, say: 'Gnosis is incapacity, and we have become incapable and have fallen short of all.' This is error and loss. We say: In seeking what did you become incapable? This incapacity has two signs, and neither is with you: one sign is the annihilation of the instrument of seeking, the other the manifestation of the theophany (tajalli). Where there is annihilation of the instrument, expression dissolves — the expression that would express incapacity, for the expression of incapacity is not incapacity; and where there is the manifestation of theophany, it accepts no mark and no distinction takes form, so that the incapable one does not know whether he is incapable or whether that to which he is ascribed is called incapacity — for incapacity is otherness, and the affirmation of gnosis is not the gnosis of otherness; and as long as there is room for the other in the heart, and as long as the gnostic expresses otherness, the gnostic is still not a gnostic.

And Abu Hafs al-Haddad says, may God have mercy on him: 'Since I knew God, neither truth nor falsehood has entered my heart.' Since I have known God, exalted and holy, the thought of truth and falsehood has not entered my heart; for when creatures have desire and passion, it returns to the heart, so that the heart, through the soul (nafs), indicates that it is a locus of falsehood; and when they gain a lasting glory it likewise returns to the heart, so that the heart, through the spirit (ruh), indicates it as the source of truth and reality. Since the heart is other, the gnostic's returning to it became repugnant. So all creatures sought the proof of gnosis from the heart, and sought desire and passion also from it. They had no desire fulfilled, for they sought falsehood from the heart, and there is no rest except with the Real until they sought the Real from the heart. When the sign of proof was needed they returned to the Real. This is the difference between a servant whose return is to the heart and a servant whose return is to the Real.

And Abu Bakr al-Wasiti says, may God have mercy on him: 'Whoever knows God is cut off, nay, becomes mute and silenced.' And the Prophet said, peace be upon him: 'I cannot enumerate the praise due to You.' He who knows God is severed from all things, nay, becomes dumb to the expression of all things and annihilated from his own attributes; as the Prophet said, peace be upon him — while he was in absence he was the most eloquent of Arab and non-Arab; when they brought him from absence to the Presence he said: 'My tongue has no possibility of the perfect praise of You; what shall I say? From speech I became without speech, from state I became without state. You are that which You are. Is my speech through me or through You? If I speak through myself, I am veiled by my own speech, and if I speak through You, by my own acquisition I am flawed in the realization of nearness to You. So I shall not speak.' The command came: 'If you do not speak, O Muhammad, We shall speak — by your life, since you are silent from My praise, all My praise is from you. Since you do not count yourself among the people of Our praise, We have made all the parts of the world your deputies, so that they utter Our praise and refer it to you.' And with God is success; God suffices us, and how excellent a Friend!