One of the moderns says: _Laysa ´l-faqír man khalá min al-zád: innama ´l-faqír man khalá min al-murád_, “The poor man is not he whose hand is empty of provisions, but he whose nature is empty of desires.” For example, if God gives him money and he desires to keep it, then he is rich; and if he desires to renounce it, he is rich no less, because poverty consists in ceasing to act on one’s own initiative. Yaḥyá b. Mu`ádh al-Rází says: _Al-faqr khawf al-faqr_, “It is a sign of true poverty that, although one has reached the perfection of saintship and contemplation and self-annihilation, one should always be dreading its decline and departure.” And Ruwaym says: _Min na`t al-faqír ḥifṣu sirrihi wa-ṣiyánatu nafsihi wa-adá´u faríḍatihi_, “It is characteristic of the poor man that his heart is protected from selfish cares, and that his soul is guarded from contaminations, and that he performs the obligatory duties of religion:” that is to say, his inward meditations do not interfere with his outward acts, nor _vice versâ_; which is a sign that he has cast off the attributes of mortality. Bishr Ḥáfí says: _Afḍal al-maqámát i`tiqád al-ṣabr `ala ´l-faqr ila ´l-qabr_, “The best of ‘stations’ is a firm resolution to endure poverty continually.” Now poverty is the annihilation of all “stations”: therefore the resolution to endure poverty is a sign of regarding works and actions as imperfect, and of aspiring to annihilate human attributes. But in its obvious sense this saying pronounces poverty to be superior to wealth, and expresses a determination never to abandon it. Sḥiblí says: _Al-faqír man lá yastaghní bi-shay´^{in} dúna ´lláh_, “The poor man does not rest content with anything except God,” because he has no other object of desire. The literal meaning is that you will not become rich except by Him, and that when you have gained Him you have become rich. Your being, then, is other than God; and since you cannot gain wealth except by renouncing “other”, your “you-ness” is a veil between you and wealth: when that is removed, you are rich. This saying is very subtle and obscure. In the opinion of advanced spiritualists (_ahl-i ḥaqíqat_) it means: _Al-faqr an lá yustaghná `anhu_, “Poverty consists in never being independent of poverty.” This is what the Pír, i.e. Master `Abdalláh Anṣárí[30]—may God be well-pleased with him!—meant when he said that our sorrow is everlasting, that our aspiration never reaches its goal, and that our sum (_kulliyyat_) never becomes non-existent in this world or the next, because for the fruition of anything homogeneity is necessary, but God has no congener, and for turning away from Him forgetfulness is necessary, but the dervish is not forgetful. What an endless task, what a difficult road! The dead (_fání_) never become living (_báqí_), so as to be united with Him; the living never become dead, so as to approach His presence. All that His lovers do and suffer is entirely a probation