I, `Alí b. `Uthmán al-Jullábí, declare that our life is wholly through God, and our stability is through Him, and our being kept alive is the act of God in us, and we live through His creation, not through His essence and attributes. The doctrine of the animists (_rúḥiyán_) is entirely false. Belief in the eternity of the spirit is one of the grave errors which prevail among the vulgar, and is expressed in different ways, e.g. they use the terms “soul” and “matter” (_nafs ú hayúlá_), or “light” and “darkness” (_núr ú ẕulmat_), and those Ṣúfí impostors speak of “annihilation” and “subsistence” (_faná ú baqá_), or “union” and “separation” (_jam` ú tafriqa_), or adopt similar phrases as a fair mask for their infidelity. But the Ṣúfís abjure these heretics, for the Ṣúfís hold that saintship and true love of God depend on knowledge of Him, and anyone who does not know the eternal from the non-eternal is ignorant in what he says, and the intelligent pay no attention to what is said by the ignorant. Now I will unveil the portals of the practice and theory of the Ṣúfís, furnishing my explanation with evident proofs, in order that you may the more easily comprehend my meaning, and that any sceptic possessed of insight may be led back into the right way, and that I may thereby gain a blessing and a Divine reward. CHAPTER XV. THE UNCOVERING OF THE FIRST VEIL: CONCERNING THE GNOSIS OF GOD (_ma`rifat Allah_). The Apostle said: “If ye knew God as He ought to be known, ye would walk on the seas, and the mountains would move at your call.” Gnosis of God is of two kinds: cognitional (_`ilmí_) and emotional (_ḥálí_). Cognitional gnosis is the foundation of all blessings in this world and in the next, for the most important thing for a man at all times and in all circumstances is knowledge of God, as God hath said: “_I only created the genii and mankind that they might serve Me_” (Kor. li, 56), i.e. that they might know Me. But the greater part of men neglect this duty, except those whom God hath chosen and whose hearts He hath vivified with Himself. Gnosis is the life of the heart through God, and the turning away of one’s inmost thoughts from all that is not God. The worth of everyone is in proportion to gnosis, and he who is without gnosis is worth nothing. Theologians, lawyers, and other classes of men give the name of gnosis (_ma`rifat_) to right cognition (_`ilm_) of God, but the Ṣúfí Shaykhs call right feeling (_ḥál_) towards God by that name. Hence they have said that gnosis (_ma`rifat_) is more excellent than cognition (_`ilm_), for right feeling (_ḥál_) is the result of right cognition, but right cognition is not the same thing as right feeling, i.e. one who has not cognition of God is not a gnostic (_`árif_), but one may have cognition of God without being a gnostic. Those of either class who were ignorant of this distinction engaged in