The adept, then, who has attained the perfection of saintship takes the right course when he invests the novice with the _muraqqa`a_ after a period of three years during which he has educated him in the necessary discipline. In respect of the qualifications which it demands, the _muraqqa`a_ is comparable to a winding-sheet (_kafan_): the wearer must resign all his hopes of the pleasures of life, and purge his heart of all sensual delights, and devote his life entirely to the service of God and completely renounce selfish desires. Then the Director (_Pír_) ennobles him by clothing him in that robe of honour, while he on his part fulfils the obligations which it involves, and strives with all his might to perform them, and deems it unlawful to satisfy his own wishes. Many allegories (_ishárát_) have been uttered concerning the _muraqqa`a_. Shaykh Abú Ma`mar of Iṣfahán has written a book on the subject, and the generality of aspirants to Ṣúfiism display much extravagance (_ghuluww_) in this matter. My aim, however, in the present work is not to relate sayings, but to elucidate the difficulties of Ṣúfiism. The best allegory concerning the _muraqqa`a_ is this, that its collar (_qabba_) is patience, its two sleeves fear and hope, its two gussets (_tiríz_) contraction and dilation, its belt self-abnegation, its hem (_kursí_)[47] soundness in faith, its fringe (_faráwíz_) sincerity. Better still is the following: “Its collar is annihilation of intercourse (with men), its two sleeves are observance (_ḥifẕ_) and continence (_`iṣmat_), its two gussets are poverty and purity, its belt is persistence in contemplation, its hem (_kursí_) is tranquillity in (God’s) presence, and its fringe is settlement in the abode of union.” When you have made a _muraqqa`a_ like this for your spiritual self it behoves you to make one for your exterior also. I have composed a separate book on this subject, entitled “The Mysteries of Patched Frocks and Means of Livelihood” (_Asrár al-khiraq wa-´l-ma´únát_), of which the novice should get a copy. Footnote 47: This conjectural translation of _kursí_ was suggested to me by Colonel Ranking. The dictionaries give no explanation of the word as it is used here.