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God Most High said: 'And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say words of peace' (al-Furqan 63).

And the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: 'Whoever hears the voice of the people of wool (ahl al-suf) and does not say Amin to their prayer is recorded with God among the heedless.'

People have spoken much in investigating this name and have composed books about it. One group has said: 'The Sufi is called Sufi because he wears a garment of wool (suf).' Another group has said: 'He is called Sufi because they stand in the first rank (saff-i awwal).' Another group has said: 'He is called Sufi because they attach themselves to the People of the Bench (Ahl al-Suffa).' And another group has said: 'This name is derived from safa (purity).' But according to the requirement of the language it is far from these meanings. So purity (safa) is in every case praiseworthy, and its opposite is turbidity (kudurat), and the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, has said: 'The purity of the world has gone and its turbidity remains.' The name of the subtle aspects of things is their pure part (safw), and the name of the coarse aspects of things is their dregs (kudr). So since the people of this affair refined their character and dealings and disavowed the afflictions of nature, they were called Sufi. And this is a proper name for this group among proper names; because the rank of its people is too exalted for their dealings to be concealed so that their name should require a derivation.

And in this age God, mighty and glorious, has veiled most of creation from this affair and its people, and has concealed the subtlety of this affair from their hearts; so that one group supposes that this is merely the practice of outward righteousness without inner contemplations, and another group supposes that this is a formality without any reality or foundation; to the extent that the people of jest and the scholars of the outward have committed denial and become content with the veil of this affair, so that the common folk imitated them and abandoned the seeking of inner purity from the heart, and set aside the way of the predecessors and the Companions. 'Indeed purity (safa) is the attribute of the truthful one, if you desire a Sufi in truth.' For purity has a root and a branch: its root is the cutting off of the heart from all others than God, and its branch is the emptiness of the hand from the treacherous world, and both of these are the attributes of the greatest truthful one (al-Siddiq al-Akbar), Abu Bakr Abdullah ibn Abi Quhafa, may God be pleased with him; because he was the leader (imam) of the people of this path. Now the cutting off of his heart from others was this: all the Companions had become broken-hearted at the departure of the Prophet, peace be upon him, to the exalted Presence and the purified place, and Umar, may God be pleased with him, drew his sword saying: 'Whoever says Muhammad has died, I will cut off his head.' The greatest truthful one came forth and raised his voice aloud and said:

'Behold, whoever worshipped Muhammad—indeed Muhammad has died; and whoever worshipped the Lord of Muhammad—indeed He is living and does not die.' Then he recited: 'And Muhammad is not but a messenger; messengers have passed on before him. So if he was to die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels?' (Al Imran 144).

He whose object of worship was Muhammad—Muhammad has gone; and he who worshipped the God of Muhammad—He is living and never dies. He who binds his heart to the perishing perishes with the perishing and his toil all becomes dust; and he who sends his soul to the enduring Presence, when the self perishes, becomes subsisting through subsistence (baqa). So he who looked upon Muhammad with the eye of humanity—when he departed from the world, the reverence of worship departed from his heart along with him. But whoever looked upon him with the eye of reality, his going and his staying appeared to him both as one; because in the state of subsistence he saw his subsistence through the Truth, and in the state of annihilation he saw his annihilation from the Truth. He turned away from the transitory and turned toward the Transferor. He saw the standing of the transitory through the Transferor; and according to the measure of God's honoring he revered him. He did not bind the innermost of his heart to anyone and did not open the pupil of his eye upon creation; because they have said: 'Whoever looks to creation perishes, and whoever returns to the Truth reigns.' For looking at creation is the sign of perdition, and returning to the Truth is the mark of dominion.

As for the emptiness of the hand from the treacherous world, it was this: whatever he had of wealth, property, and possessions he gave all away, put on a woolen cloak, and came to the Prophet, peace be upon him. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said to him: 'What have you left for your family?' He said: 'God and His Messenger.' 'What have you left behind for your dependents from your wealth?' He said: 'Two boundless treasuries and two limitless treasures.' He said: 'What are they?' He said: 'One is the love of God Most High, and the other is the following of His Messenger.' When his heart became free from attachment to the purity of the world, he emptied his hand of its turbidity, and all this was the attribute of the sincere Sufi, and the denial of this was wholly the denial of the Truth and stubborn opposition to the evident.

And I said that purity (safa) is the opposite of turbidity (kudurat), and turbidity is among the attributes of the human being (bashar), and in truth the Sufi is the one who has passed beyond turbidity; just as in the state of absorption in the contemplation of Joseph, peace be upon him, and the subtleties of his beauty, humanity (bashariyyat) overcame the women of Egypt, and that overwhelming turned to its reverse. When it reached its utmost, it reached its end, and when it reached its end, they came to pass beyond it, and their gaze fell upon the annihilation of their humanity. They said: 'This is not a human being' (Yusuf 31). They made a sign of him and gave expression to their own state, and from this the shaykhs of this path, may God have mercy on them, have said: 'Purity is not among the attributes of the human being, for the human is of clay, and clay is not free from turbidity.' Purity is not among the attributes of the human being; because the orbit of clay is only upon turbidity, and for the human there is no passing beyond turbidity.

So the attainment of purity is not by actions, and from the aspect of striving there is no ceasing of humanity, and the attribute of purity has no relation to actions and states, and its name has no connection to names and titles. 'Purity is the attribute of the beloved ones, and they are suns without cloud'; because purity is the attribute of the friends, and he who is annihilated from his own attribute and subsisting through the attribute of the Friend is the true friend, and their states in the presence of the masters of meanings are evident like the sun; just as the Beloved of God, Muhammad the Chosen, may the blessings of God be upon him, was asked about the state of Haritha. He said: 'A servant whose heart God has illumined with faith.' He is a servant whose heart is illumined by the sincerity of faith, so that his face is moonlit from its effect and he is fashioned by divine light; as they have said: 'The light of the sun and the moon, when they combine, is a model of the purity of love and unity (tawhid) when they intertwine.' The gathering of the light of the sun and the moon, when joined together, is the likeness of the purity of love and tawhid compounded with one another. And what measure has the light of the moon and the sun, there where the light of love and tawhid is, that the one should be added to the other? Yet in the world there is no light more manifest than those two lights; for with the light of the eye one sees the sovereign sun and the moon of the sky, and with the light of tawhid and love the heart sees the Throne and becomes informed of the hereafter while still in the world.

And in this, all the shaykhs of this path, may God have mercy on them, are agreed that when the servant is freed from the bond of the stations (maqamat), emptied of the turbidity of the states (ahwal), and freed from the place of coloration and change, and becomes praiseworthy in attribute in all states while separated from all the attributes—that is, he does not become bound in any attribute of self-praise, nor sees it, nor is made conceited by it—his state becomes hidden from the perception of intellects and his time becomes purified of the disposal of conjectures, so that his presence has no absence and his existence has no causes; 'because purity is presence without absence and existence without causes.' He is present without absence and a finder (wajid) without cause or reason; for he upon whom absence takes form is not present, and he who becomes the cause and occasion of his own ecstasy (wajd) is not a finder. And when he reaches this degree, he becomes annihilated in the world and the hereafter and divine (rabbani) within the armor of humanity. Gold and clod become equal in his sight, and that which is most difficult for creation—the keeping of the rulings of religious obligation—becomes easy for him; just as Haritha came to the Prophet, peace be upon him. The Messenger, peace be upon him, said to him: 'How have you become this morning, O Haritha?' He said: 'I have become a true believer.' He, peace be upon him, said: 'Look at what you say, O Haritha. Indeed, for every truth there is a reality. So what is the reality of your faith?' He said: 'I have detached my self from the world, so that its stone, its gold, its silver, and its clay have become equal to me. And I have kept my night wakeful and made my day thirsty, until I have become as if I look upon the Throne of my Lord made manifest, and as if I look upon the people of Paradise visiting one another therein, and...'