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His saying, mighty and majestic: "They do not ask people importunately (Quran 2:273)." They do not ask with importunity, and when someone asks something of them, they do not refuse; for His saying, exalted: "And as for the petitioner, do not repel him (Quran 93:10)." And as far as they are able, they ask of none but God the Exalted, and they do not put another in the position of the one asked; for asking is a turning away from God toward other-than-God, and when the servant turns away, there is fear that he will be left in the state of turning away. I found that one of the worldly people said to Rabia, may God be pleased with her: "O Rabia, ask something of me so that I may fulfill your wish." She said: "O you! I am ashamed to ask the world from the Creator of the world; shall I then not be ashamed to ask it from one like myself?" They say: in the time of Bu Muslim al-Marwazi, an innocent dervish was seized on a charge of theft and held in the Chartaq of Merv. When night came, Bu Muslim saw the Prophet, peace be upon him, in a dream, who said to him: "O Bu Muslim, God has sent me to you, for a friend of My friends is in your prison without any crime. Arise and bring him out." Bu Muslim leapt from sleep and, bareheaded and barefoot, ran to the prison door and ordered that it be opened, and brought the dervish out, and asked his pardon, and said: "Ask a favor." The dervish said: "O Amir, one who has a Lord who at midnight thus rouses Bu Muslim, bareheaded and barefoot, from a warm bed and sends him to deliver him from afflictions—is it fitting that he should ask of another and seek a favor?" Bu Muslim wept, and the dervish departed. And again a group say: it is permissible for the dervish to ask of people; for His saying, exalted, "They do not ask people importunately (2:273)," forbids asking, but [only] by way of importunity. And his saying, peace be upon him: "Seek your needs from those with beautiful faces." And the shaykhs, may God be pleased with them, have deemed asking permissible for three reasons: One, for the freeing of the heart, which is necessary; and they have said: we do not put such value on two loaves of bread that we should spend day and night waiting for them, because there is no preoccupation like the preoccupation with food. And thus, when Bayazid asked the disciple of Shaqiq about the state of Shaqiq, may God be pleased with them, at the time he had come to visit him, the disciple said: "He has become free of people and sits upon the rule of trust (tawakkul)." Bayazid said to him: "When you return, tell him: Beware of testing God with two loaves of bread. When you grow hungry, ask two loaves from your own kind and set aside the pretension of trust, lest that city and land sink into the earth from the ill-omen of your dealing." And secondly, they have asked for the discipline of the ego (nafs), so as to bear its humiliation and lay hardship upon their own heart, and know their own worth—what they are worth to each person—and not be arrogant. Did you not see that when Shibli came to Junayd, may God be pleased with them both, he said: "O Abu Bakr, you have in your head the pride that: I am the son of the chief chamberlain of the Caliph and the Amir of Samarra. Nothing will come right from you until you go out into the market and ask of everyone you see, so that you may know your own worth." He did so. Each day his begging grew weaker, until at the year's end he reached a point where he went through the whole market and no one gave him anything. He returned and told Junayd, may God be pleased with them. Junayd said: "O Abu Bakr, now you know your own worth: that you are worth nothing to people. Do not attach your heart to them, and do not regard them as anything either." And this was for discipline, not for gain. And it is related from Dhu al-Nun al-Misri, may God have mercy on him, that he said: I had a congenial companion. God, mighty and majestic, called him unto Himself, and from the tribulation of the world he attained the bliss of the hereafter. I saw him in a dream and said to him: "What did God the Exalted do with you?" He said: "He forgave me." I said: "By what quality?" He said: "He set me on my feet and said: My servant, you bore much humiliation and hardship from the base and the miserly, and stretched out your hand before them, and were patient in that. For that I forgave you." And thirdly, they asked of people for the reverence due to God. They knew all the possessions and wealth of the world to be His, and saw all creatures as His agents. Whatever pertained to the portion of their own self they asked from His agent and spoke their words to him; and in the visible realm the servant's need, when presented to the agent, is nearer to honor and dignity than when presented to the Master. So their asking of another is a sign of presence and turning toward God, not absence and turning away from Him. I found that Yahya ibn Mu'adh had a daughter. One day she said to her mother: "I want such-and-such a thing." The mother said: "Ask it of God." She said: "O mother, I am ashamed to ask my own carnal need from His presence; and what you give is also His and is my ordained sustenance." So the manners of asking are: that if your aim is attained, you should be no more joyful than if it is not attained; and you should not see creatures in between; and not ask of women or of the people of the markets; and not tell your secret except to one whose wealth you are certain is lawful; and as much as you can, not ask for your own portion, nor make of it luxury and householding, nor make it your own property; and be subject to the ruling of the [present] moment, not letting the thought of tomorrow pass over your heart, so that you not be seized by eternal ruin; and not bind God, mighty and majestic, to the snare of your beggary, and not make a show of your own piety so that thereby something be given to you. I found an old man among the eminent Sufis who came out of the desert, stricken by poverty and having endured the hardship of isolation, and entered the market of Kufa with a sparrow perched on his hand, saying: "For the sake of this little sparrow, give me something." They said: "O you! What is this you are saying?" He said: "It would be absurd for me to say: give me something for the sake of God; because for the sake of the world one cannot bring forth any intercessor but something contemptible." This is a little of the much that is required in this chapter. And peace.