ABSTRACT
The 4/1oth century did not lack for individual creative thinkers in Sufism, such as al-Junaid’s pupil Abū Bakr al-Shiblī of Baghdad (d.334/946), Abū Bakr al-Wāsitī of Farghana (d.331/942), Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Jabbār al-Niffarī (fl.350/961) and Ibn al-Khafīf of Shiraz (d.371/982). Of these the most curious and interesting figure is al-Niffarī, who left behind him a series of “revelations” (Kitāb al-Mawāqif and Kitāb al-Mukhātabāt 1 ) purporting to haye been received from God in a state of ecstasy, possibly by automatic writing. While these are for the most part brief sentences, composed in general in a highly technical vocabulary and style, and require a commentary to be understood, certain passages have an authentic beauty and seem to possess the ring of genuine mystical experience. The writer pictures himself as standing before God (mauqif—a. term perhaps originally borrowed from the descriptions of the Last Day) in one or other spiritual state, and hearing God speaking to him. The pattern for this situation was no doubt borrowed from Abū Yazīd—we have quoted above an example pointing to this conclusion 2 —but the treatment is new.
He stayed me in Death; and I saw the acts, every one of them, to be evil. And I saw Fear holding sway over Hope; and I saw Riches turned to fire and cleaving to the fire; and I saw Poverty an adversary adducing proofs; and I saw every thing, that it had no power over any other thing; and I saw this world to be a delusion, and I saw the heavens to be a deception. And I cried out, ‘O Knowledge!’; and it answered me not. Then I cried out, ‘O Gnosis!’; and it answered me not. And I saw every thing, that it had deserted me, and I saw every created thing, that it had fled from me; and I remained alone. And the act came to me, and I saw in it secret imagination, and the secret part was that which persisted; and naught availed me, save the Mercy of my Lord. And He said to me, ‘Where is thy knowledge?’ And I saw the Fire. And he said to me, ‘Where is thy act?’ and I saw the Fire. And He said to me, ‘Where, is thy gnosis?’ And I saw the Fire. And He unveiled for me His Gnoses of Uniqueness, and the Fire died down. And He said to me, ‘I am thy Friend.’ And I was stablished. And He said to me, ‘I am thy Gnosis.’ And I spoke. And He said to me, ‘I am thy Seeker.’ And I went forth. 3
