The Method (original) (raw)

'Nothing is more pleasing to Me, as a means for My slave to draw near unto Me, than worship which I have made binding upon him; and My slave ceaseth not to draw near unto Me with added devotions of his free will until I love him; and when I love him I am the Hearing wherewith he heareth and the Sight wherewith he seeth and the Hand whereby he graspeth and the Foot whereon he walketh.' 1. The whole of Sufism—its aspirations, its practice, and in a sense also even its doctrine—is summed up in this Holy Tradition, which is quoted by the Sufis perhaps more often than any other text apart from the Qur'¯ an. As may be inferred from it, their practices are of two kinds: rites which are binding on all Muslims, and additional voluntary rites. When a novice enters an order, one of the first things he or she has to do is to acquire an extra dimension which will confer a depth and a height on rites which (assuming an Islamic upbringing) have been performed more or less exoterically since childhood. The obligations of Islam, often known as 'the five pillars', are the Shah¯ adah , the ritual prayer five times a day, the almsgiving, the fast of the month of Ramad. ¯ an, and the pilgrimage to Mecca if circumstances allow, this last obligation being the only one that is conditional. We have already seen the difference between the Shah¯ adah as fathomed by the Sufis and its superficial meaning 'none is 1 Bukh¯ ar¯ ı, Riqaq, 37