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Know that wearing the patched frock (muraqqa') is the emblem of the Sufis, and wearing patched garments is a sunnah; for the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: 'Adhere to woolen clothing, and you will find the sweetness of faith in your hearts.' And also one of the Companions, may God be pleased with him, said: 'The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to wear wool and ride a donkey.' And also the Messenger (peace be upon him) said to Aisha, may God be pleased with her: 'Do not let the garment go to waste until you patch it.' He said: 'Adhere to woolen garments, that you may find the sweetness of faith.' And it is narrated that: 'He (peace be upon him) wore a woolen garment and rode a donkey.' And he also said to Aisha, may God be pleased with her: 'Do not let the garment be wasted before you place patches, that is, mends, upon it.'

And it is related from Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, that he had a patched frock upon which he had placed thirty patches.

And also it comes from Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, that he said: 'The best of garments is that whose cost is least.'

And it comes from the Commander of the Faithful, Ali, may God be pleased with him, that he had a shirt whose sleeve was level with his fingers, and if at any time a shirt was longer, he would tear off the end of its sleeve.

And also the Messenger (peace be upon him) received the command to shorten the garment; as God, exalted be He, said: 'And purify your garments (74/al-Muddaththir),' that is, shorten them.

Hasan al-Basri, may God's mercy be upon him, said: 'I saw seventy of the men of Badr; all of them had woolen garments.'

And al-Siddiq al-Akbar (Abu Bakr), may God be pleased with him, in the state of divestment wore a garment of wool.

And Hasan al-Basri, may God's mercy be upon him, said: 'I saw Salman wearing a blanket with many patches.'

And from Umar ibn al-Khattab and Ali ibn Abi Talib, may God's pleasure be upon them both, and from Harim ibn Hayyan, may God be pleased with him, it is related that they saw Uways al-Qarani wearing woolen garments with patches placed upon them.

And Hasan al-Basri, Malik ibn Dinar, and Sufyan al-Thawri, may God's mercy be upon them, were all wearers of the woolen patched frock.

And from the Greatest Imam Abu Hanifa, may God be pleased with him, it is related — and this is written in the book Tarikh al-Mashayikh which Muhammad ibn Ali al-Tirmidhi composed — that at first he used to wear wool and intended seclusion, until he saw the Prophet (peace be upon him) in a dream saying: 'You must be among the people; for you are the cause of the revival of my sunnah.' Then he abandoned seclusion and never wore a garment that had [worldly] value. And he commanded Dawud al-Ta'i, may God's mercy be upon him, to wear wool, and he was one of the verifiers (muhaqqiqan) among the Sufis.

And Ibrahim ibn Adham came to Abu Hanifa, may God's mercy be upon them both, with a patched frock of wool. The companions looked upon him with an eye of disdain. Abu Hanifa said: 'Our master, Ibrahim ibn Adham.' The companions said: 'Jest does not pass upon the tongue of the imam of the Muslims. How did he attain this mastery?' He said: 'Through constant service; for he occupied himself with the service of the Lord while we occupied ourselves with the service of our own bodies, until he became our master.'

And if now the intent of some people of the age in wearing patched frocks and rags is [to gain] rank and beauty in the eyes of people, or if they are not inwardly in agreement with the outward, it may be permissible; for in an army there is [but] one champion, and among all the groups the verifiers are few; yet all are attributed to them whenever they resemble them in one thing of the [outward] rulings; according to his saying (peace be upon him): 'Whoever imitates a people is one of them.' Whoever allies himself with a people does so by conduct and by belief; but the eye of one group falls upon their custom and the outward of their dealings, and the eye of another group falls upon their secret and the purity of their inner state.

In sum, whoever intends the company of the Sufis is not outside of four meanings:

One group is shown, through the purity of their inner state, the clarity of their mind, the refinement of their nature, the balance of their temperament, and the soundness of their conscience, the secrets [of the Sufis], so that they see the nearness of the verifiers and their supreme elevation, and the desire for that station takes hold of them; they attach themselves to them with insight, and the beginning of their state is upon the unveiling of states, divestment from passion, and turning away from the self (nafs).

And another group is shown, through righteousness, chastity of heart, tranquility, and soundness of breast, their outward manifestation, so that they see the practice of the sacred law (shari'a), the observance of the manners of Islam, and the goodness of their dealings, and they intend their company and take up the practice of righteousness; and the beginning of their state is upon striving (mujahada) and good dealing.

And another group is guided, through human chivalry, the refinement of companionship, and good conduct, to their deeds, so that they see their outward life adorned with refinement and chivalry — with elders in reverence and with juniors in generosity, with their peers in good fellowship, at ease from seeking increase and content with contentment — and they intend their company and make easy upon themselves the path of struggle and toil in seeking the world, and make themselves free of all [needs] like kings.

And another group is guided, through laziness of nature and folly of the self, the seeking of leadership without means, the desire for precedence without merit, and the pursuit of distinction without knowledge, to their deeds, and imagines that apart from this outward work there is no other work; they intend their company, and [the Sufis] flatter them with good character and generosity, and by the rule of tolerance pass their life with them; because in their hearts there is nothing of the discourse of Truth, and upon their bodies there is nothing of the striving of seeking the path, and they wish that people would honor them as [they honor] the verifiers, and be in awe of them as [they are in awe] of the elect of God, mighty and exalted; and through companionship and attachment to them they wish to conceal their own faults within [the Sufis'] righteousness, and to don their garment, and those garments without practice cry out upon their falsehood; for that is a garment of falsehood and a robe of vanity and a regret on the Day of Gathering and Resurrection. God, exalted be He, said: 'The likeness of those charged with the Torah, then who did not carry it, is as the likeness of a donkey carrying books. Wretched is the likeness of the people who denied the signs of God (62/al-Jumu'a).' And in this age this group is the majority.

So it is incumbent upon you that you not aim at anything that does not become yours; for if you speak for a thousand years of accepting the path, it is not the same as one moment in which the path accepts you; for this matter is not by the frock (khirqa) but by the burning (hirqa). When someone is familiar with the path, to him the [fine] robe (qaba) is as the [humble] cloak (aba). And when they said to a great elder: 'Why do you not wear the patched frock?' he said: 'It is hypocrisy to wear the garment of the chivalrous (fityan) and not enter into bearing the burdens of chivalry (futuwwa).' [In Persian:] 'Why do you not wear the muraqqa'?' He said: 'It would be hypocrisy to wear the garment of the chivalrous and not come under the weight of the dealings of the chivalrous; abandoning the bearing of the burden, to bear [the name of] chivalry is hypocrisy.'

So if this garment is in order that God may know you as being wholly His, He knows [you] without the garment; and if it is in order that you may show to the people that 'I am His,' if you truly are [His], it is ostentation (riya), and if you are not, it is hypocrisy (nifaq). And this is a difficult, perilous road, and the people of Truth are too exalted to be known by [their] garment. 'Purity (safa) is from God a blessing and an honoring, and wool (suf) is the clothing of animals.' Purity from God, exalted be He, to the servant is a manifest blessing and honor, and wool is the clothing of beasts.

So the adornment (hilyat) is a device (hilat). One group makes a device of nearness and performs what is [incumbent] upon them. They adorn the outward, hoping thereby to become of them [the Sufis]. And the masters of this affair commanded their disciples device and adornment with the patched frocks, and did so themselves too, so that they might become a mark among the people and all the people become their watchmen. If they set one step contrary [to the path], all would stretch out the tongue of blame against them; and if they wished to commit a sin in that garment, out of shame before the people they could not do it.

In sum, the patched frock is the adornment of the friends (awliya) of God, mighty and exalted. The common become honored by it, and the elect become abased in it. The honor of the common is that when they wear it, the people honor them for it; and the abasement of the elect is that when they wear it, the people look upon them with the eye of the common and blame them for it. 'The garment of blessings is for the common, and the coat of mail of affliction is for the elect.' To the common the patched frock is a garment of blessings, and to the elect it is a coat of mail of affliction; because most of the common are compelled in it, such that their hand reaches no other work and they have no other instrument for the seeking of rank... [text truncated]