Original content

English translation

Since you have learned the most important things—that the disciple owes the right of companionship—then inevitably observing companionship is an obligation; because being alone is destruction for the disciple; for his saying, peace be upon him: 'Satan is with the one who is alone. The demon is with the person who is alone'; and His saying, the Exalted: 'There is no secret conversation of three but that He is the fourth of them (58/al-Mujadila), there are not three of you but that the fourth of them is God the Exalted.' So there is no affliction for the disciple like being alone.

And in the tales I found that a disciple of Junayd, may God be pleased with him, was under the illusion that: 'I have reached the degree of perfection, and being alone is better for me than companionship.' He went into a corner and withdrew his head from the company of the group. When night came, they would bring a camel and say to him: 'You must go to paradise.' He would mount it and go until a pleasant place appeared, and a group of beautiful-faced ones and delicious foods and flowing waters, and they kept him there until dawn. Then he would fall asleep; when he awoke he found himself at the door of his own cell, until the vanity of humanity took root in him and the arrogance of youth showed its effect in his heart. He opened the tongue of pretension and said: 'It is thus for me.' Until the news was brought to Junayd, he arose and came to the door of his cell. He found him with pride cast into his head and haughtiness spread out. He asked him about his state, and he told Junayd everything. Junayd, may God be pleased with him, said: 'When you reach that place tonight, say three times: There is no power and no strength except in God, the Most High, the Most Great.' When night came they were taking him, and he was denying Junayd in his heart. When a while passed, for the sake of testing he said the phrase 'la hawl' three times; that whole company cried out and departed. He found himself sitting in the midst of a dunghill with some bones of carrion placed around him. He became aware of his error, clung to repentance, and rejoined the companionship.

And there is no affliction for the disciple like solitude. And the condition of their companionship is that each person be kept in his own degree: being respectful with elders, living companionably with peers, and showing compassion to children; such that he considers elders in the degree of fathers, peers in the degree of brothers, and children in the position of sons, and he clears himself of rancor, avoids envy, turns away from malice, and withholds counsel from no one. And it is not permissible in companionship to backbite one another, to practice treachery, or to deny one another in word and deed; because since the beginning of companionship was for the sake of God, mighty and glorious, it is necessary that they not sever it by any deed or word that appears from the servant.

And I asked the Shaykh of Shaykhs Abu'l-Qasim Gurgani, may God be pleased with him: 'What is the condition of companionship?' He said: 'That you do not seek your own portion in companionship; for all the afflictions of companionship arise from this, that everyone seeks their own portion from it, and for the seeker of a portion, solitude is better than companionship; and when one abandons his own portion and observes the portions of his companion in companionship, he is on the right course.'

One of the dervishes says: Once I set out from Kufa intending Mecca. I found Ibrahim al-Khawwas, may God be pleased with him, on the road. I sought companionship from him. He said to me: 'Companionship requires a commander and one who obeys; do you wish to be the commander, or I?' I said: 'Be you the commander.' He said: 'Beware, do not step outside the command of the commander.' I said: 'That is acceptable.' He said: When we reached the halting place, he said to me: 'Sit.' I did so. He drew water from the well; it was cold. He gathered firewood and lit a fire beneath a spit, and to every task that I intended he would say: 'Keep the condition of obedience.' When night came, a mighty rain set in. He took out his patched cloak and until morning stood over my head with the cloak cast over his two hands, and I was ashamed, but by the rule of the condition I could say nothing. When morning came, I said: 'O Shaykh, today let me be the commander.' He said: 'That is correct.' When we reached the halting place, he took up that same service himself. I said: 'You are stepping outside the command.' He said to me: 'One steps outside the command who commands the commander to serve himself.' Until Mecca he companioned with me in this manner, and when we came to Mecca I fled from shame of him, until at Mina he saw me and said: 'O son, it is incumbent upon you to companion with dervishes as I companioned with you.'

It is related from Anas ibn Malik that he said: 'I companioned the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, for ten years and served him, and by God he never said to me: Uff, nor did he ever say of anything I did: Why did you do thus? nor of anything I did not do: Why did you not do thus?' He said: 'I served the Messenger, peace be upon him, for ten years; by God, he never said to me: Uff, and I never did any task about which he said to me: Why did you do it? and that which I did not do, he never said to me: Why did you not do such a task?'

So the dervishes as a whole are of two divisions: one the residents and the other the travelers. And the tradition of the shaykhs, may God be pleased with them, is that the travelers should esteem the residents above themselves, because the travelers go after their own share while the residents are seated in the right of service; in travelers is the sign of seeking, and in residents the sign of having found. So it is a merit for the one who has found, settled down, and rested from seeking over the one who is still seeking. And the residents should esteem the travelers above themselves, because the residents are people of attachments while the travelers have become detached from attachments, and the travelers are in seeking while the residents are at rest. And the elders should esteem the youths above themselves, for they are more recent in the world and their sins are fewer. And the youths should esteem the elders above themselves, for they are foremost in worship and precede in service. And when it is thus, both groups attain salvation through one another; otherwise they perish.