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English translation

Know—may God honor you—that intoxication (sukr) and overpowering (ghalaba) is an expression the masters of meanings have coined for the overpowering of the love of God Most High, and sobriety (sahw) is an expression for the attainment of one's desire. The people of meanings have much discourse on this matter: one group deems the former superior to the latter, and another group holds the opposite. Those who deem intoxication superior to sobriety—and that is Abu Yazid, may God be pleased with him, and his followers—say: Sobriety takes form upon stability and equilibrium, an attribute of humanity, and that is the greatest veil from God Most High; whereas intoxication is upon the removal of affliction, the deficiency of human attributes, the departure of one's own management and choice, and the annihilation of one's own agency within oneself through the subsistence of a power present within him contrary to his own kind—and this is more eloquent, more complete, and more perfect. Just as David, peace be upon him, was in the state of sobriety, and an act came into being from him, and God Most High attributed that act to him and said, 'And David slew Goliath' (al-Baqara 251); and the Chosen One (Mustafa), peace be upon him, was in the state of intoxication, and an act came into being from him, and God Most High attributed that act to Himself; His saying, Most High: 'And you did not throw when you threw, but God threw' (al-Anfal 17). How great is the difference between one servant and another! To him who subsists through himself and is established in his own attributes it was said, 'You did it,' by way of honor; and to him who subsists through God and is annihilated from his own attributes it was said, 'We did what We did.' So the attribution of the servant's act to God is better than the attribution of God's act to the servant; for when God's act is attributed to the servant, the servant subsists through himself, and when the servant's act is attributed to God, he subsists through God. For when the servant subsists through himself, it was as when David, peace be upon him, cast a single glance to a place where he ought not, until he saw what he saw; and when he subsists through God, it was as when the Chosen One, peace be upon him, cast a single glance of the same kind, and a woman became forbidden to a man—because the one was in the station of sobriety and this in the station of intoxication. And again, those who deem sobriety superior to intoxication—and that is Junayd, may God be pleased with him, and his followers—say: Intoxication is a place of affliction, for it is a disturbance of states, a loss of soundness, and a losing of one's own thread; and since the foundation of all meanings is the seeker—whether from the standpoint of his annihilation or his subsistence, his effacement or his affirmation—when he is not sound in state, the benefit of verification is not attained; because the heart of the people of Truth must be stripped of all affirmations, and by blindness there is never rest from the bondage of things nor salvation from their affliction. And the remaining of creatures amid things without God is because they do not see things as they are; and if they saw them, they would be delivered. Correct vision is of two kinds: one is that the beholder looks upon a thing with the eye of its subsistence, and the other with the eye of its annihilation. If he looks with the eye of subsistence, he finds all deficient in their own subsistence, for they do not subsist through themselves in their state of subsistence; and if he looks with the eye of annihilation, he finds all existent things annihilated beside the subsistence of the Truth—and both these attributes turn him away from existent things. And that is what the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said in his supplication: 'O God, show us things as they are.' For whoever sees is set at rest; and this is the meaning of the saying of God, Mighty and Majestic: 'So take heed, O you who have eyes' (al-Hashr 2); and until one sees, one is not freed. So all this comes right only in the state of sobriety, and the people of intoxication have no awareness of this meaning; just as Moses, peace be upon him, was in the state of intoxication and had not the endurance to bear the manifestation of a single theophany and lost consciousness; whereas the Messenger, peace be upon him, was in the state of sobriety, and from Mecca up to 'two bows'-length' was in the very midst of theophany, and at every moment more alert and more awake. 'I drank wine, cup after cup, / yet the drink was not exhausted, nor was I quenched.' And my master used to say—and he was of the Junaydi school—that intoxication is the playground of children and sobriety is the annihilation-ground of men. And I, who am Ali ibn Uthman al-Jullabi, say, in agreement with my master, may God's mercy be upon him: The perfection of the state of the possessor of intoxication is sobriety, and the least degree in sobriety is the vision of the remnant of humanity. So a sobriety that shows affliction is better than an intoxication that is the very essence of that affliction. And they relate of Abu Uthman al-Maghribi, may God's mercy be upon him, that at the beginning of his state he secluded himself for twenty years in the deserts, such that he heard no human sound, until from hardship his frame melted away, and his eyes became as small as the passage of a sack-maker's needle, and he was transformed from the appearance of human beings. After twenty years the command for companionship came and said, 'Keep company with people.' He said to himself, 'Let me first keep company with the people of God and the neighbors of His House, that it may be more blessed.' He set out for Mecca. The masters had awareness in their hearts of his coming, and went out to meet him. They found him changed in appearance and in a condition in which nothing remained of him but the last breath of his creation. They said, 'O Abu Uthman, for twenty years you lived in this state, such that Adam and his progeny in your time were rendered powerless. Tell us: why did you go, what did you see, what did you find, and why did you return?' He said, 'I went in an intoxication and saw the affliction of intoxication, and I found despair, and I returned in incapacity.' All the masters said, 'O Abu Uthman, it is forbidden for the interpreters after you to make expressions of sobriety and intoxication, for you have done justice to all and have shown the affliction of intoxication.' So intoxication is wholly the illusion of annihilation in the very subsistence of attribute, and this is a veil; and sobriety is wholly the vision of subsistence in the annihilation of attribute, and this is the very essence of unveiling. And in sum, if it should appear to someone that intoxication is nearer to annihilation than sobriety, that is impossible; because intoxication is an attribute in addition to sobriety, and as long as the servant's attributes tend toward increase he is heedless, and when they tend toward decrease then the seeker has hope in him. And this is the utmost of their discourse concerning sobriety and intoxication. And they relate of Abu Yazid, may God be pleased with him, an anecdote that is inverted, and it is this: Yahya ibn Mu'adh, may God be pleased with him, wrote him a letter saying, 'What do you say of one who becomes intoxicated by a single drop from the sea of love?' Bayazid, may God be pleased with him, wrote in reply, 'What do you say of one for whom all the seas of the world become a draught of love, who drinks them all and still cries out from thirst?' And it appears to people that Yahya spoke of intoxication and Bayazid of sobriety, but it is the opposite; for the possessor of sobriety is he who has not the endurance for a single drop, and the possessor of intoxication is he who in his drunkenness drinks all and still needs more—because drinking is the instrument of intoxication, and like is more fitting to like; and sobriety is its opposite, which does not find rest with drink. But intoxication is of two kinds: one by the wine of affection (mawadda) and the other by the cup of love (mahabba). The intoxication of affection is caused, for its birth is from the vision of the blessing; and the intoxication of love is causeless, for its birth is from the vision of the Benefactor. So whoever sees the blessing sees it upon himself and has seen himself; and whoever sees the Benefactor sees by Him and has not seen himself—and though he be in intoxication, his intoxication is sobriety. And sobriety too is of two kinds: one sobriety through heedlessness, and the other steadfastness upon love. And the sobriety that is of heedlessness is the greatest veil, and the sobriety that is of love is the most manifest unveiling. So that which is joined to heedlessness, though it be sobriety, is intoxication; and that which is connected to love, though it be intoxication, is sobriety. When the root is firm, sobriety is like intoxication and intoxication like sobriety; and when it is without root, likewise. And in sum, sobriety and intoxication, in the footing-place of men, are afflicted by the difference of effect; and when the sultan of Reality shows its face, both sobriety and intoxication appear as mere intruders—because the extremities of both these meanings are connected to one another, and the end of the one is the beginning of the other, and end and beginning take form only in separations; and that whose relation is to separation is equal in ruling, and union is the negation of separations. And on this meaning he says: 'When the morning dawns with a star of wine, / therein the intoxicated and the sober are equal.' And in Sarakhs there were two elders: one Luqman and the other Abu al-Fadl Hasan, may God's mercy be upon them both. One day Luqman came in to Abu al-Fadl and found him with a booklet in his hand. He said: ...