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English translation

Know that in this Path the doctrine of Blame (Malamat) was spread by the Shaykh of his age, Hamdun al-Qassar, and in the reality of Blame he has many subtle sayings. It is related from him, may God have mercy upon him, that he said: 'Al-malamah tark al-salamah' (Blame is the abandonment of safety). Blame is to let go of safety; and when someone deliberately sets aside his own safety, girds himself for afflictions, and renounces all things familiar and comforting for the hope of the unveiling of Majesty and the seeking of the Real, so that through the rejection of him by people he becomes despairing of people, and his nature severs its attachment from them—the more severed he is from them, the more joined he is to the Real. So that toward which all people turn their face, namely safety, is that to which the people of Blame turn their back, so that their concerns are the opposite of ordinary concerns and their aspirations the opposite of ordinary aspirations. In their attributes they are solitary (unitary), just as Ahmad ibn Fatik related from Husayn Mansur, who, when asked 'Who is the Sufi?' answered: 'Wahdani al-dhat' (Unitary in essence). And Hamdun—may God have mercy upon him—was asked about Blame. He said: 'Its way is difficult for people; but I will state one aspect: raja al-murji'a wa khawf al-qadariyya (the hope of the Murji'a and the fear of the Qadariyya). The fear of the Qadaris and the hope of the Murji'is is the quality of the Malamati.' And beneath this lies a subtle hint: know that by nothing does this nature become more estranged from the threshold of God Most High than by seeking rank among people; and it suffices a man that someone should say he is a good man and praise him, whereupon he gives his soul and heart to that person and is cut off from God Most High. So the fearful one continually strives to remain far from the place of peril, and in this striving the seeker faces two perils: one, the fear of being veiled by people, and the other, refraining from acts through which people would sin against him and stretch out their tongues in blaming him—neither resting content with their esteem, nor consenting that they should sin by blaming him. So the Malamati must first cut off worldly and otherworldly contention with people through what they say of him, and, for the deliverance of his heart, perform an act that is neither a major nor a minor sin in the Sacred Law, so that people reject him; so that his fear in his dealings is like the fear of the Qadaris, and his hope in the dealings of those who blame him is like the hope of the Murji'is. And in the reality of love nothing is sweeter than blame; for the blame of the beloved leaves no mark upon the heart of the beloved, and the beloved passes only along the lane of the beloved, and strangers hold no peril over the heart of the beloved; 'for blame is the garden of lovers, the fragrance of the loving, the rest of the yearning, and the joy of the aspirants.' And this group among the two weighty ones (men and jinn) are singled out by their choosing the blame of the body for the sake of the safety of the heart; and none among created beings, neither the near ones (muqarrabun), nor the cherubim, nor the spiritual beings, ever attained this degree, nor among the earlier communities did the worshippers, ascetics, and notables who existed reach this rank—save a group of this community who are the travelers on the path of severing the heart. But in my view, the seeking of blame is the very essence of ostentation (riya), and ostentation is the very essence of hypocrisy; for the ostentatious one treads a path so that people will accept him, and the Malamati affectedly treads a path so that people will reject him, and both groups remain caught up in people and have no passage beyond outward tokens—the one having emerged by this dealing, the other by that dealing. But nothing passes over the heart of the dervish save the discourse of the Real, and when his heart is severed from people he is free of both these meanings, and nothing binds him. Once I fell into the company of one of the Malamatis of Transoxiana. When I became at ease in his company, I said: 'O brother, what is your aim in these frenzied acts?' He said: 'To wear out (spend) people upon myself.' I said: 'These people are many, and you will not find the lifespan, days, and standing to wear out all creatures upon yourself; rather wear yourself out upon people, so that you may be freed from all this preoccupation.' There is a group who are occupied with people, imagining that people too are occupied with them. So: no one is looking at you. Do not look at yourself. The affliction of your time comes from your own eye. What business have you with others? One who should seek his cure through abstinence but seeks it through indulgence is not among the wise. And again there is a group who make blame a discipline for the lower soul (nafs), so that through the contempt of people their soul may be schooled and they may take their due from it; for the sweetest moment for them is to find their own soul in affliction and abasement. And it is related from Khwaja Ibrahim Adham, may God have mercy upon him, that someone asked him: 'Have you ever seen yourself attain your desire?' He said: 'Yes, I have seen it twice: Once I was seated in a boat, and no one there knew me, and I wore the garb of the common folk, and my hair had grown long, and I was in a state such that the people of that boat mocked and laughed at me; and on the boat with that crowd there was a jester who every so often would come and pull and pluck my hair, and treat me with derision and contempt, and I found myself at my desire and was glad at that abasement of my soul. Until one day that gladness reached its utmost, and it was thus: one day that jester rose and urinated upon me. And the second time, in a mighty rain I came to a village, and the winter cold had overcome me and my patched frock had become soaked upon my body. I came to a mosque; they would not let me in there, and another mosque, and a third the same. I became helpless and the cold grew strong upon my body. I went into the furnace-room of a bathhouse and drew the hem of my garment into that fire; its smoke rose up beneath me and my garment and face became black. That night I had attained my desire.' And to me, who am Ali ibn Uthman al-Jullabi—may God grant me success—there once befell an incident (a spiritual difficulty), and I strove much in the hope that the incident would be resolved, but it was not. And once, before that, an incident of that same kind had befallen me, and I had sat as a neighbor (mujawir) at the tomb of Shaykh Bayazid, may God have mercy upon him, until it was resolved. This time too I set out for there, and for three months I dwelt beside his shrine, each day performing three full washings and thirty ablutions, in the hope of the unveiling of that incident; but it was not resolved at all. I arose and set out for Khurasan. In the province of Kumis I came to a village where there was a khanqah and a group of Sufis, and I had a coarse patched frock according to the sunna, and I had nothing of the paraphernalia of the formalists except a staff and a water-skin. In the eyes of that group I appeared exceedingly lowly, and no one recognized me. According to their custom they were saying to one another: 'This one is not of us.' And it was truly so, that I was not of them; but staying there that night was unavoidable. That night they seated me on a roof and themselves went up onto a higher roof, and they set me on bare ground and placed before me a loaf turned green (moldy), while the aroma of the stews they were eating reached me; and they spoke to me mockingly from the roof above. When they finished their food, they ate melons and cast the rinds down upon my head by way of jest. I swallowed down my condition and their contempt in my heart, saying: 'O Lord, were it not that they wear the garb of Your friends, I would not bear this from them.' The more their taunting increased upon me, the sweeter my heart grew within it, until, through the bearing of that burden, my incident was resolved. And at that moment I understood why the shaykhs, may God have mercy upon them, have admitted the ignorant among themselves, and why they bear their burden. This is the ruling of Blame in full, together with the verification of it which I have set forth. And with God is the granting of success.