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English translation

Know—may God honor you—that caprice (hawa), according to one group, is an expression of the attributes of the lower soul (nafs), and according to another group it is an expression of the desire of the natural disposition, which controls and governs the nafs; just as the intellect belongs to the spirit (ruh). Any spirit that in its constitution lacks the strength of the intellect is deficient, and any nafs that lacks the strength of caprice is deficient. So the deficiency of the spirit is a deficiency of nearness (to God), and the deficiency of the nafs is the very essence of nearness. Continually the living person has two summons, one from the intellect and one from caprice: whoever follows the summons of the intellect reaches faith (iman), and whoever follows the summons of caprice reaches hellfire (niran).

So caprice is the veil of those who arrive, the pitfall of the aspirants, and the place of turning-away for the seekers. The servant is commanded to oppose it and forbidden to commit it; "for whoever mounts it perishes, and whoever opposes it reigns"; as God Most High said: "But as for him who feared standing before his Lord and restrained the soul from caprice (79:40)," and the Prophet, upon him be peace, said: "The most fearful of what I fear for my community is the following of caprice and the prolonging of hope."

And they relate from Ibn Abbas, may God be pleased with him, in the exegesis of God's word, Mighty and Majestic: "Have you seen him who takes his caprice as his god, and God led him astray (45:23); that is, caprice is a worshipped god."

Woe to him whose caprice, apart from the Truth, is his worshipped one, and whose whole aspiration day and night is seeking the pleasure of his caprice.

And caprices altogether are of two kinds: one is the caprice of pleasure and lust, and the other the caprice of rank and leadership. Whoever follows the caprice of pleasure is in ruin (the tavern), and people are safe from his mischief; but whoever follows the caprice of rank and leadership is in cloisters and convents and is a temptation for the people, for he himself has fallen from the path and has also led the people into error. So we seek refuge in God from the following of caprice.

So whoever's every movement is caprice, or who is content in following it, is far from the Truth, even if he be in the heavens; and again, whoever cuts away from caprice and flees from following it is near to the Truth, even if he be in a dunghill.

Ibrahim al-Khawwas, may God be pleased with him, said: Once I heard that in Rum (Byzantium) there was a monk who had been in a monastery for seventy years under the rule of monasticism. I said: How strange! The condition of monasticism is forty years. By what disposition has this man rested seventy years in that monastery? I set out to him. When I reached near his monastery, he opened a little window and said to me: "O Ibrahim, I knew for what task you have come. I have not sat here as a monk these seventy years; rather I have a dog with a raging caprice. I have sat here keeping watch over the dog and holding its evil back from the people—otherwise I am not this." When I heard this speech from him, I said: "O Lord, You are able, in the very midst of error, to give a servant the way of right and to grace him with the straight path." He said to me: "O Ibrahim, how many people will you seek? Go, seek yourself. When you have found yourself, be your own guard; for every day this caprice wears three hundred and sixty kinds of the garb of divinity and summons the servant to error."

And in sum, Satan has no scope in the heart and inner being of the servant until the caprice of some disobedience appears in him; and when a trace of caprice appears, then Satan takes it and adorns it and displays it upon his heart, and this meaning is called whispering (waswas). So the beginning was from his caprice, and the initiator is the more unjust (wa'l-badi azlam). And this meaning is God's word, Mighty and Majestic, in answer to Iblis, who said: "By Your might, I will surely mislead them all (38:82)," and the Truth, exalted and sanctified, said in answer to him: "Indeed, over My servants you have no authority (17:65). You have no authority over My servants."

So Satan is in reality upon the nafs and caprice of the servant, and that is why the Prophet, peace upon him, said: "There is none among you but that his Satan has overcome him, except Umar, for he overcame his Satan"—that is, everyone's caprice has overcome them, except Umar, may God be pleased with him, for he overcame his own caprice. So caprice is the composition of Adam's clay and the sweet-basil of the spirit of his children; according to his word, upon him be peace: "Caprice and lust are kneaded into the clay of the son of Adam."

Abandoning caprice makes the servant a prince, and committing it makes the prince a captive; just as Zulaykha committed caprice—she was a prince, she became a captive; and Joseph, upon him be peace, abandoned caprice—he was a captive, he became a prince.

And Junayd, may God be pleased with him, was asked: "What is union (al-wasl)?" He said: "The abandonment of caprice (tark al-hawa)." Whoever desires to be honored with union with the Truth must oppose the caprice of the body; for the servant performs no worship greater than opposing caprice, because for a human to dig away a mountain with his fingernail is easier than opposing the nafs and caprice.

And in the anecdotes I found from Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri, may God's mercy be upon him, that he said: I saw someone flying in the air. I said: "By what did you attain this rank?" He said: "I set my foot upon caprice until I rose into the air."

And it comes from Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Balkhi, may God be pleased with him, that he said: "I marvel at him who goes to His house by his own caprice and makes pilgrimage—why does he not set his foot upon caprice until he reaches Him and beholds Him?"

But the most manifest attribute of the nafs is lust (shahwat), and lust is a meaning scattered throughout the parts of the human being, and all the senses are its gateways. And the servant is charged with guarding all of them and is answerable for the action of each one. The lust of the eye is seeing, of the ear hearing, of the nose smelling, of the tongue speaking, of the palate tasting, of the body touching, and of the breast thinking. So the seeker must be his own shepherd and judge. Day and night he passes his time in that, so that these incitements of caprice which appear in the senses he may cut off from himself, and he asks of God Most High to make him of such an attribute that these desires may be repelled from his inner being; for whoever is afflicted by the sea of lust is veiled from all meanings. So if the servant repels this from himself by forced effort (takalluf), its pain will grow long upon him and the emergence of its kinds will become recurrent; and the way of this is submission (taslim), so that the goal may be attained, God willing, alone.

And they relate from Abu Ali Siyah al-Marwazi, may God sanctify his spirit, that he said: I had gone to the bathhouse and, following the Sunnah, I was observing the covering of my private parts. I said: O Abu Ali, this object which is the source of lusts, which keeps you afflicted with so many banes—separate it from yourself, so that you may be freed from lust. A call came to my inner ear: "O Abu Ali, are you meddling in Our kingdom? For Our arrangement no organ is more fitting than another. By Our might, if you separate that from yourself, We will create in each hair of it a hundred times as much lust as in that place." And concerning this meaning he says: 'You reproach me with kindness—abandon your kindness; abandon, by God's leave, your eggplant.'

The servant has no power in the ruining of the constitution; but in the altering of the attribute—by the grace of the Truth, submission to His command, and disavowal of one's own power and strength of acquisition—there is power. And in truth, when submission comes, it obtains protection (ismah), and by the protection of the Truth the servant is nearer to guarding and to the annihilation of banes than by striving (mujahadat); "for driving away flies with a cover is easier than driving them away with a fly-whisk."

So the protection of the Truth is the remover of all banes and the lifter of all ailments, and by no attribute does the servant have partnership with Him except in what He has commanded, and meddling in His kingdom is not permissible; and until the decree of the Truth's protection is present, by the servant's effort nothing can be warded off; for effort against effort is effort. When from the Truth there is no effort toward the servant, effort avails him nothing, and the strength of obedience falls away through effort. All efforts take shape in two places: either he strives to turn away the decree of the Truth from himself, or contrary to the decree he acquires something for himself—and both of these are not permissible; for the decree does not change by effort, and no matter is without decree.

And it comes that Shibli, God's mercy upon him, fell ill. A physician came to him and said: "Abstain (keep to a diet)." He said: "From what thing shall I abstain? From something that is my sustenance (rizq), or from something that is not my sustenance? If I must abstain from my sustenance, it cannot be; and if from other than my sustenance, they will not give that to me..."