The Kashf al-mahjúb: The oldest Persian treatise on Súfiism — John Shaqi
The Kashf al-mahjúb: The oldest Persian treatise on SúfiismHujviri, ‘Ali ibn ‘Usman
Islamic
The Kashf al-mahjúb: The oldest Persian treatise on Súfiism
Hujviri, ‘Ali ibn ‘Usman
Sufism -- Early works to 1800
And Abu ´l-Ḥasan Fúshanja[41]—may God have mercy on him!—says:
_Al-taṣawwuf al-yawma ´sm^{un} wa-lá ḥaqíqat^{un} wa-qad kána
ḥaqíqat^{an} wa-la ´sm^{an}_, “To-day Ṣúfiism is a name without a
reality, but formerly it was a reality without a name,” i.e. in the time
of the Companions and the Ancients—may God have mercy on them!—this name
did not exist, but the reality thereof was in everyone; now the name
exists, but not the reality. That is to say, formerly the practice was
known and the pretence unknown, but nowadays the pretence is known and
the practice unknown.
Footnote 41:
Generally written “Fúshanjí”. See _Nafaḥát_, No. 279.
I have brought together and examined in this chapter on Ṣúfiism a number
of the sayings of the Shaykhs, in order that this Path may become clear
to you—God grant you felicity!—and that you may say to the sceptics:
“What do you mean by denying the truth of Ṣúfiism?” If they deny only
the name it is no matter, since ideas are unrelated to things which bear
names; and if they deny the essential ideas, this amounts to a denial of
the whole Sacred Law of the Apostle and his praised qualities. And I
enjoin you in this book—God grant you the felicity with which He has
blessed His Saints!—to hold these ideas in due regard and satisfy their
just claims, so that you may refrain from idle pretensions and have an
excellent belief in the Ṣúfís themselves. It is God that gives success.
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE WEARING OF PATCHED FROCKS (_Muraqqa`át_).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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