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A group of the shaykhs have followed the path of blame (malamat), and blame has a great effect in the purity of love and is a complete way. The people of Truth are singled out for the blame of creation out of the whole world, especially the great ones of this community — may God multiply them — and the Messenger — peace be upon him — who was the exemplar and imam of the people of Truth and the vanguard of the lovers. So long as the proof of Truth had not yet appeared upon him and revelation had not yet joined him, he was of good name and great in the eyes of all. And when they cast the robe of friendship upon his head, the people stretched out the tongue of blame against him. A group said, 'He is a soothsayer,' and a group said, 'He is a poet,' and a group said, 'He is a liar,' and a group said, 'He is mad,' and the like of this. God — mighty and majestic — described the believers and said that they do not fear the blame of any blamer, according to His words, exalted: 'And they fear not the blame of any blamer; that is the grace of God which He gives to whom He wills, and God is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing' (5:54, al-Ma'idah). And the custom (sunnah) of the Lord of the world — majestic is His majesty — has run thus: that whoever speaks of Him, He makes the whole world a blamer of him and preserves his inner secret from being occupied with their blame; and this is the jealousy (ghayrah) of the Truth, that He keeps His friends from the regard of others so that no one's eye may fall upon the beauty of their state, and He also keeps them from seeing themselves so that they do not behold their own beauty and become conceited about themselves and fall into the affliction of conceit and pride. So He has set the people over them so that they stretched the tongue of blame against them, and He has made the blaming soul (nafs-i lawwama) a mount within them, so that it blames them for whatever they do — if they do ill, for the ill, and if they do good, for falling short. And this is a strong principle in the path of God — mighty and majestic — that there is no affliction or veil in this difficult path more severe than that a person become conceited about himself. And the root of conceit ('ujb) arises from two things: one, from the esteem of the people and their praise — that is, when the servant's action pleases the people and they praise him for it, and he becomes conceited by it; and the other, when someone's own action pleases him and he deems himself worthy, and he becomes conceited by it. God exalted, by His grace, closed this path upon His friends, so that their conduct, though it was good, the people did not approve — because they did not truly see it — and their striving (mujahadat), though it was much, they did not see it as from their own power and strength and did not approve of themselves, so that they were preserved from conceit. So the one who is approved by the Truth, the people do not approve of him; and the one who is chosen by his own self, the Truth does not choose him. Just as the people approved of Iblis, and the angels approved of him, and he approved of himself — since he was not approved by the Truth, their approval brought upon him the burden of a curse. And Adam — God's blessings upon him — the angels did not approve of him and said, 'Will You place therein one who will cause corruption therein and shed blood?' (2:30, al-Baqarah), and he himself did not approve of himself and said, 'Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves' (7:23, al-A'raf); and since he was approved by the Truth, the Truth said, 'But he forgot, and We found in him no resolve' (20:115, Ta-Ha). The disapproval of the people and his own self-disapproval brought upon him mercy, so that the people of the world may know that the one accepted by Us is shunned by the people, and the one accepted by the people is shunned by Us. Thus inevitably the blame of the people is the nourishment of the friends of the Truth — because in it are the marks of acceptance — and it is the drink (mashrab) of His saints, for it is a sign of nearness. And just as all people are joyful at the acceptance of the people, they are joyful at the rejection of the people. And in the traditions it is reported from the Chosen Master — peace be upon him — from Gabriel — peace be upon him — from God — mighty and majestic — that He said: 'My friends are under My domes; none knows them but Me except My friends.' But blame is of three aspects: one is going straight, the second is intending, and the third is abandoning. The form of blame of going straight is that one does his own work, and practices the religion, and observes the proper conduct (mu'amalat), and the people blame him in that — this is the way of the people upon him, while he is free of them all. And the form of blame of intending is that someone attains much esteem from the people and becomes a target among them, and his heart inclines toward that rank and his nature clings to them; he wishes to free his heart of them and become occupied with the Truth, so he deliberately takes up the path of the people's blame in something that causes no harm in the religious law (shar'), so that the people become averse to him — and this is his way upon the people, while the people are free of him. And the form of blame of abandoning is that a natural unbelief and error (kufr wa dalalat) seizes someone by the collar so that he forsakes the shari'a and its observance and says, 'This is a blame that I am practicing.' And this is his way upon himself. But as for the one whose path is going straight, and not practicing hypocrisy, and letting go of ostentation (riya) — he has no fear of the blame of the people, and in every state he remains upon the thread of his own course; by whatever name they call him, it is all one to him. And in the anecdotes I found that Shaykh Abu Tahir al-Harami — may God be pleased with him — one day was seated upon a donkey, and a disciple of his had taken the reins of his donkey and was going through the marketplace. Someone cried out, 'That heretic old man has come.' When that disciple heard those words, out of the jealousy of his devotion he stoned that man, and the people of the marketplace all became agitated. The shaykh said to the disciple, 'If you keep silent, I will teach you something by which you may be delivered from these tribulations.' The disciple was silent. When they returned to their khanqah, he said to this disciple, 'Bring that chest.' When he brought it, he took out bundles of letters and cast them before him. He said, 'Look — from everyone I have letters that they have sent. One has addressed me as Shaykh Imam, one as Shaykh Zaki, one as Shaykh Zahid, one as Shaykh al-Haramayn, and the like of this — and these are all titles, not names, and I am none of all these. Each has said something according to his own belief and given me a title. If that poor man too, according to his own belief, said something and gave me a title, why did you stir up all this quarrel?' And as for the one whose path is intending in blame and abandoning rank and leadership and letting go of the people's preoccupation — it is as they relate from the Commander of the Faithful 'Uthman — may God be pleased with him — that one day, during his caliphate, he was coming from a date-orchard of his own, having taken a bundle of firewood upon his head, while he had four hundred slaves. They said, 'O Commander of the Faithful, what is this state?' He said, 'I wish to test my self (nafs). I have slaves who would do this work, but I wanted to test my self, whether the esteem of the people would hold it back from any work.' And this anecdote is explicit in establishing the doctrine of blame; and in this meaning there is an anecdote from Imam Abu Hanifa — may God be pleased with him — which, there where his mention comes, will come in this book. And also it comes from Abu Yazid — may God be pleased with him — that he was coming from the Hijaz. In the city the cry arose, 'Bayazid has come.' The people of the city all went out to meet him and brought him into the city with honor. When he became occupied with attending to them, he was cut off from the Truth and became scattered. When he entered the marketplace, he took a loaf from his sleeve and began to eat. All of them turned away from him and left him alone — and this was in the month of Ramadan. Then, to the disciple who was with him, he said, 'Did you not see that I put one matter of the shari'a into practice and all the people rejected me?' And I, who am Ali ibn Uthman al-Jullabi — may God grant me success — say that in that age blame required a reprehensible act, and an appearing by something contrary to custom. Now, if someone wishes that the people blame him, tell him, 'Perform two rak'ahs of prayer longer,' or 'Practice the religion completely,' and all the people at once will call him a hypocrite and an ostentatious one (mura'i). But as for the one whose path is abandoning, and who takes up something contrary to the shari'a and says, 'I am practicing the path of blame' — that is a manifest error and an evident affliction and a mere caprice (hawas); such as there are many in this age. And their purpose from the rejection of the people is their acceptance — because first one must be accepted so that they may intend the rejection of them and appear by an act by which they reject him. The acceptance of the disapprover... [text truncated in the source].