journal of Sufi studies 5 (2016) 140–155

brill.com/jss

The “Doctrine of Love” in ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s

Manāzil al-sāʾirīn with Critical Paraphrase of
ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī’s Commentary
Mukhtar H. Ali
Claremont McKenna College (USA)
mukhtarhali@gmail.com

Abstract

This article represents a preliminary inquiry into a little known and understudied com-
mentarial tradition upon ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s classic work on the stations of Sufism,
the Manāzil al-sāʾirīn (Stations of the Wayfarers). After briefly taking stock of the con-
siderably late commentarial tradition which this important text engendered, we will
take as our case study one of the Manāzil ’s key topics, namely its sixty-first chapter on
the station of love. This pivotal section on love gives profound insight into early Sufism
and into the minds of two of its greatest exponents. Anṣārī discusses the station of
love in detail, as he does with every chapter, in three aspects, each pertaining to the
three types of wayfarers: the initiates, the elect, and the foremost of the elect. Then,
we shall turn our attention to perhaps the most important Sufi commentary upon this
work by an important follower of the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī,
offering a guided reading of his commentary upon Anṣarī’s chapter on love in the
Manāzil. A complete English translation of this chapter will be offered and appropri-
ately contextualized.

Keywords

ʿAbd Allāh Anṣārī – ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī – himma (aspiration) – maḥabba (love) –
Manāzil al-sāʾirīn – mysticism – philosophy – spiritual wayfaring – Sufism

With a lineage tracing back to Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī, the venerable companion
of the Prophet, Abū Ismāʿīl ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī (396–481 / 1006–89) is con-
sidered one of the greatest Islamic thinkers, Sufi saints, and key figures in the

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi 10.1163/22105956-12341288

The “ Doctrine of Love ” in ʿ Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s Manāzil al-sāʾirīn 141

f­ ormation of early Sufism. Anṣārī was not only a gifted scholar, having trained in
the traditional religious disciplines but also a prolific writer and literary savant,
composing masterful prose and poetry in both Persian and Arabic. While ear-
lier hagiographical sources such as Jāmī’s Nafaḥāt al-uns and ʿAttār’s Tadhkirat
al-awliyā contain detailed information on his life and works, in modern times
Anṣārī’s importance is revisited by Ravan Farhadi’s biography, ʿAbdullah Anṣārī
of Herāt, and the works of Serge de Beaurecueil who spent much of his life
studying the works of Anṣārī.1
The classical period of Sufism saw the burgeoning of lexicons and works
devoted to the technical terminology of Sufism. These works were written with
a view to vindicate its doctrines to the exoterically-minded, explain the path
to the novice or instruct in detail a spiritual curriculum for the adept. One
such example is Abū l-Qāsim al-Qushayrī’s (d. 465/1074) Risāla al-Qushayriyya
which fulfills all three objectives. Complementing the work of his predeces-
sors, Anṣārī produced two important works in this genre: Ṣad maydān (The

1  See, respectively, Serge de Laugier de Beaureceuil, “ ʿAbdallāh Anṣārī,” in Encyclopædia

Iranica, 15 vols. to date (London, Boston, Costa Mesa, Calif., and New York: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, Mazda, Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation, 1982–; hereafter EIr), 1:187–190, and,
A.G. Ravan Farhadi, Abdullah Ansari of Herat (Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996). In addition to the
sources cited in the notes below, the following were consulted in the course of preparing this
study: ʿAbd Allāh Anṣārī, Manāzil al-sāʾirīn. trans. Hisham Rifa’i as Stations of the Wayfarers
(Paris: Albouraq, 2011); Farīd al-Dīn ʿAttār, Tadhkirat al-awliyā, ed. Mirzā Muḥammad Khān
Qazvīnī (Tehran: Intishārāt-i-Markazī, 1321 sh. / 1942–3); Serge de Beaurecueil, Khwādja
ʿAbdullāh Anṣārī (396–481 H./1006–1089): mystique hanbalite (Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique,
1965), trans. (Persian) by Ravān Farhādī as Sarguẕasht-i Pīr-i Hirāt: Khvāja ʿAbdullāh Anṣārī
(Kabul: Bīhaqī, 1355 sh. / 1976–7); Ḥasan Hamadānī Durūdābādī, Sharḥ al-asmāʾ al-ḥusnā
(Qum: Bīdār, 1379 sh. / 2000–1); Ḥamza Fanārī, Misbāḥ al-uns (Tehran: Intishārāt Mawlā,
1379 sh. / 2000–1); Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī, al-Maqṣad al-asnā fī sharḥ maʿānī asmāʾ Allāh
al-ḥusnā (Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1971); Ibn al-ʿArabī, Kashf al-maʿnā (Qum: Manshūrāt
Bakhshāyish, 1419/1998); Ibn Manzūr, Lisān al-ʿarab, 18 vols. (Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1996); ʿAbd
al-Raḥmān Jāmī, Lawāʾiḥ: A Treatise of Sufism, trans. E.H. Whinfield and M.M. Kazwīnī
(London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1906); idem., Nafaḥāt al-uns min ḥażarāt al-quds,
ed. Mahdī Tawhīdīpūr (Tehran: Kitābfurūshī Saʿdī, 1336 sh. / 1957–8); ʿAbd al-Karīm Jīlī,
al-Insān al-kāmil (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1418/1997); E. W. Lane, An Arabic-English
Lexicon, 2 vols. (Cambridge, UK: Islamic Texts Society, 1984); Rashīd al-Dīn Maybūdī, Kashf
al-abrār wa ʿuddat al-abrār, 2 vols., ed. Ḥ. Āmūzigār (Tehran: Iqbāl, 1347 sh. / 1968–9); ʿAlī
Shirvānī, Sharḥ Manāzil al-sāʾirīn (Qum: Intishārāt-i Zahrāʾ, 1373 sh. / 1994–5); Javād Aghā
Mālikī Tabrīzī, Risāla-yi liqāʾ Allāh, ed. Ṣādiq Ḥusaynzāda (Qum: Āl-i ʿAlī, 1381 sh. / 2002–3);
Muḥammad Ṭārimī, Anīs al-ʿĀrifīn: Sharḥ manāzil al-sāʾirīn (Tehran: Intishārāt-i Rūzna,
1377 sh. / 1998–9); and, ʿAfīf al-Dīn Tilimsānī, Sharḥ manāzil al-sāʾirīn (Qum: Bīdār Press,
1413/1992).

journal of Sufi studies 5 (2016) 140–155

142 Ali

Hundred Fields) in Persian and Manāzil al-sāʾirīn (Stations of the Wayfarers)

in Arabic, both outlining the spiritual states and stations of the wayfarer, or
one who traverses a spiritual path to God. The purpose of writing these works
is clear from the outset in Ṣad maydān when Anṣāri writes, “It has been men-
tioned that Khiḍr, peace be upon him, said, ‘There are one thousand stations
(maqāmāt) between the servant and his Lord,’”2 and in Manāzil al-sāʾirīn
he professes, “A few devoted seekers wanted to learn about the waystations
(manāzil) of the people who take the journey towards God . . . So I wrote this
book in chapters and doors . . . and arranged these waystations into one hun-
dred stations (maqāmāt), and divided the book into ten sections.”3 There is an
excellent study of Ṣad maydān by Nahid Angha who has produced an anno-
tated translation into English and has provided a generous introduction on
the subject where she writes that the purpose of this treatise, “concerns eso-
teric training in the disciplines of Sufism known as sulūk,” and as noted by
Leonard Lewisohn in the foreword, sulūk “refers to proper spiritual ‘progres-
sion’, ‘method’, ‘behavior’, ‘comportment’, ‘demeanor’, ‘wayfaring’, ‘conduct’, or
‘manners’ employed on the Sufi Path.”4 Written some thirty years later, Manāzil
al-sāʾirīn is a more complete and organized continuation of Ṣad maydān and
represents the culmination of Anṣārī’s place as scholar, sage and spiritual guide
par excellence; it is now one of the most widely circulated manuals of wayfar-
ing, unparalleled in form and content.

The Manāzil Commentarial Tradition

The Manāzil al-sāʾirīn is a comprehensive spiritual manual that contains both

theoretical aspects of Sufism as well as its practical dimension. It describes
concisely each stage of the mystical progression that the wayfarer experi-
ences towards the attainment to God. Anṣārī organizes the text in ten sections,
each comprising of ten stations, and dividing each station into three aspects.5
The ten sections are the mainstays of spiritual wayfaring while each station
subsumed therein is considered a branch. The three aspects pertain to the

2  ʿAbd Allāh Anṣārī, Ṣad maydān (Qum: Kitāb Sarā-yi ʿIshrāq, 1382/2003–4), 11.
3  ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī, Sharḥ manāzil al-sāʾirīn, ed. Muḥsin Bīdār (Qum: Bīdār Press, 1413/
1993), 2. I have used Nahid Angha’s translation here from Stations of the Sufi Path (Cambridge,
UK: Archetype, 2010), 50.
4  Angha, Stations of the Sufi Path, see forward by L. Lewisohn, 16; and idem, “Sulūk,” in The
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, 12 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1954–2004), 9: 861.
5  Anṣārī’s use of the ternary is a common feature of the Arabic language and hadith literature.

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The “ Doctrine of Love ” in ʿ Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s Manāzil al-sāʾirīn 143

three types of wayfarers, the initiates, the elect, and the foremost of the elect.
According to Anṣārī, the wayfarer traverses each of the one hundred stations
whereby some stations are preconditions for those that follow or completions
of those that have preceded. Quoting Junayd (d. 297/910) Anṣārī writes in the
introduction, “The servant may be transported from one state to a higher one,
though a remnant of the previous state may remain in him whereby he would
oversee the previous state and rectify it.”6 Anṣārī also mentions in the intro-
duction that the wayfarer need not necessarily follow the prescribed order of
the text, since each individual differs with respect to capacity, preparedness,
and determination. As such, the Sufi advances spiritually under the supervi-
sion of the Shaykh, in proportion to his individual nature and in keeping with
his own experiential knowledge.
Each chapter begins with a verse of the Qur’an, calling attention to the
revelatory basis for spiritual advancement and the fact that Sufi way is none
other than the explicit and implicit prescriptions in the Qur’an. The ten sec-
tions begin with “preliminaries” (al-bidāyāt), followed by “doors” (al-abwāb),
“interactions” (al-muʿāmālāt), “morals” (al-akhlāq), “roots” (al-uṣūl), “valleys”
(al-awdiya), “states” (al-aḥwāl), “saintly attributes” (al-wālāyāt), “realities”
(al-ḥaqāʾiq), and “ends” (al-nihāyāt).
As with many of classical texts of Islam there is a long-standing commentar-
ial tradition on the Manāzil, the most famous written by ʿAfīf al-dīn Tilmisānī
(d. 690/1291) and ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī (d. 730/1330). Kāshānī’s commentary
is largely based on Tilmisānī’s, at times expanding on some of his ideas and at
others summarizing them. Kāshānī’s commentary is more inclusive and pro-
vides the reader with a solid foundation to understand Anṣārī’s original.7 In
fact, without the aid of commentaries it would be quite difficult to understand
the Manāzil because Anṣārī has written it in extremely condensed rhymed
prose, likely for pedagogical reasons. In early Islamic scholarship it was com-
mon practice to use verse or rhymed prose to help students memorize a main
text. However, these texts were dense and required commentaries, often by the
authors themselves. Thus, the focus of this essay is not solely the text of
the Manāzil but also an inquiry into Kāshānī’s commentary, which proves to be
enormously useful in deciphering Anṣāri’s original.
Let us now turn our attention to the subject of love, which Sufi tradition
unanimously agrees is one of the key stations of attaining God, if not the ulti-
mate end, as al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) holds, “Love for God is the furthest goal
among the stations and the highest pinnacle of the degrees. After reaching

6  Kāshānī, Sharḥ manāzil al-sāʾirīn, 15.

7  Ibid., 34.

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144 Ali

love, later stations, like yearning, familiarity, and contentment, are among its
fruits and consequences. All of the stations before love—such as repentance,
patience, and abstinence—are preliminaries to it.”8 Although Anṣārī places the
station of love as the sixty-first chapter in the Manāzil, he states that it is
the “mark of the Tribe [the Sufis]” and affirms in the final chapter of Ṣad maydān,
“These one hundred fields are all drowned in the field of love (maḥabbat); the
one-hundred and first field is love: ‘He loves them and they love Him’ (Q 5:54).9
‘Say: “If you love God” ’ (Q 3:31) love is three stations: the first is truthfulness, the
middle drunkenness, and the last nonbeing.”10

The Station of Love

The love of God is the inherent love for perfection in human nature. This
love is also the driving force for the attainment of every degree that draws
him closer to the Absolute source of every relative perfection. Moreover, the
love of God is derivative of God’s essential love for His creation, as many Sufi
authors maintain citing the famous tradition, “I was a hidden treasure and I
loved to be known, so I created the creation that I would become known,”11
Then through wayfaring, or traversing spiritual stations, the inner reality of
the human being acquires a certain burnish and perfection. A person realizes
that God is the ultimate hope and desire, the sum of all perfections and the
true target of love.
The archetypal spiritual journey in Islamic lore is the Prophet’s spiritual
ascent (miʿrāj), where he is reported to have conversed with God saying, “My
Lord, You have made Yourself known to me, and because of it I have become
independent of the creatures. By Your Majesty and Might, if you desire that
I am cut into pieces or violently killed, Your good pleasure is still more lovable
to me.” God replied, “By My Majesty and Might, I will not place a veil between

8  Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Hādī, 1993), 4:427.
Selection translated by William Chittick in idem, Divine Love: Islamic Literature and the
Path to God (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), 293.
9  Translations of the Qurʾān are my own.
10  Ṣad maydān, 113. See Chittick, Divine Love, 293.
11  This saying is attributed to one of the prophets, although not found in the standard had-
ith collections. Ibn al-ʿArabī states, “This hadith is sound on the basis of unveiling, but
not established by way of transmission” (Futūḥāt 2:399, line 28) as quoted in William
Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Metaphysics of Imagination (Albany:
State University New York Press, 1989), 391, n. 14.

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The “ Doctrine of Love ” in ʿ Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s Manāzil al-sāʾirīn 145

Myself and you so that whenever your heart desires, you may call on Me. The
same will hold true for My lovers.”12 Even if God’s love is the theophany of
the “hidden treasure” the spiritual wayfarer needs to arrive at perfection will-
fully to be receptive of that love. It may be asked that if God already loves His
creation, what need is there for a person to exert effort through spiritual dis-
ciplines? The reason is that the human being has freedom to stray from origi-
nal nature, which according to Islamic doctrine is pure and divine, “So turn
your face to religion, in pure faith—with God given nature ( fiṭra) upon which
He has fashioned mankind; There is no altering of God’s creation. That is true
religion but most people do not know” (Q 30:30). The human being cannot
become perfect simply by existing, and thus it becomes necessary that perfec-
tions are attained through striving, effort and the return to original nature.
Love is only realized when the aspirant acquires perfection through spiri-
tual discipline, and removes any property in himself causing separation from
his beloved. Since God is perfect, the wayfarer must remove every imperfec-
tion within himself so as to bring about affinity, then union, between lover and
beloved. In this regard, Ṣadr al-dīn Qūnawī, (d. 673/1274) the foremost student
of Ibn al-ʿArabī—the greatest spiritual master—writes,

It is inconceivable that one thing should love another thing in the respect
that that thing differs from it. It can only love that thing as a result of the
property of some meaning shared between the two of them, in respect of
which an affinity is established between them. As a result of knowledge
and awareness of this affinity, the person who has this knowledge and
awareness will seek to remove totally the properties of separation and to
manifest the dominating force of ‘that which brings about unification.’
Then complete union will definitely follow.13

These ideas are explored in Ansārī’s sixty-first chapter in Manāzil al-sāʾirīn, on

the station of love. In this section he discusses the degrees through which the
wayfarer must pass in order to partake in the reciprocal love, mentioned in
the verse, “Whom He loves, and who love Him” (Q 5:54).

12  Fayḍ al-Kāshānī, al-Wāfi, 3 vols. (Qum: Maktabat Ā yatullāh al-ʿUẓmā al-Marʿashī al-Najafī,
1404/1983–4), 3: 38–42 (s.v. abwāb al-mawāʿiẓ, bāb mawāʿiẓ allāh ṣubḥānahu).
13  Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, al-Nafaḥāt al-ilāhiyya (Tehran: Intishārāt Mawlā, 1375 sh. / 1996–7),
64–5. See Fakhruddin ʿIraqi: Divine Flashes, trans. William C. Chittick and Peter Lamborn
Wilson (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 18.

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146 Ali

He first discusses the station of love in the section of “states” (aḥwāl). Love
is the first station after he has traversed the ten “valleys” of spiritual wayfaring.
He writes,

Most spiritual wayfaring takes place in the valleys and the greatest effort
is exerted here. It is the stage where the role of the intellect is ever present,
the influence of Satan persists, and acquisition of excellences remains.
This being the case, the wayfarer is vulnerable to destructive influences
and fears, as well as doubts arising from the intrusion of the intellectual
powers. Satan’s deception is heavily at work creating perils and advanc-
ing delusional claims made by the imagination. Were it not for divine
assistance and guidance, most of the wayfarers would perish here due to
the great number of pitfalls. But God guides with His light whomsoever
He wills, “Whomever God guides, none can misguide him” (Q 39:37).14

The valleys are characterized by dependence on the acquisition of excellences,

rather than divine bestowal. In these stations, the wayfarer is preoccupied
with effort, struggle and acquisition, and divine bestowal has not overtaken
his efforts. Gradually, divine bestowal and human effort are in equal propor-
tions until divine bestowal outstrips acquisition, as in the case where tranquil-
ity (ṭuma‌ʾnīna) surpasses aspiration (himma). Those stations that are called
“states” (ḥāl) are from sheer bestowal.
Ḥāl, in its verbal root suggests change and mutability. Once it becomes per-
manent it is no longer a state but becomes a “station” (maqām). The wayfarer
arrives at a station by pure divine bestowal, and it is neither dependent on
his will nor connected to his effort. In other words, once a state takes perma-
nence in his heart through effort, it is considered a station. Since the valleys
are the mainstays of spiritual wayfaring, the wayfarer needs to prepare
the heart to receive divine effusion by relinquishing reliance on personal
effort. State is a reality received by the heart from the purity of remembrance
(dhikr). State is attached to the heart not the limbs, and it appears from the
unseen after remembrance.15
The station of love is the first state mentioned by Anṣārī and refers to both
God’s love for His servant and the love the servant has for God, even if the

14  Kāshānī, Sharḥ manāzil al-sāʾirīn, 320.

15  Chittick explains these terms as the following: “The “state” (ḥāl) or present spiritual situ-
ation of an individual is by definition transitory, while a “station” (maqām) may have the
same attributes as a state except that is fixed quality of the soul. States are “bestowals”
while stations are “earnings” (idem, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 278–9).

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The “ Doctrine of Love ” in ʿ Abd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s Manāzil al-sāʾirīn 147

origin of love itself is divine love. One of the early Central Asian Sufi masters
of the thirteenth century ʿAzīz Nasafī, describes the various types of wayfarers
in his Maqṣad-i aqṣā, “Know that when one man is overtaken by the Truth’s
divine attraction ( jadhb) and that person arrives at the level of love in the love
of God, it is more likely that he will not return from that level but will live and
die there . . . If a person performs spiritual wayfaring and completes it, but the
divine attraction does not over take him, then such a person is called way­
farer.”16 One of the most influential Islamic philosophers of Qajar Persia, Hādī
Sabzawārī (d. 1298/1878) in his Sharḥ al-asmāʾ expresses a similar idea that way-
faring originates either in the servant or in God. There are two types of wayfar-
ing, wayfaring initiated by the Beloved, and wayfaring of the lovers. The first
type is one in which the wayfarer attains God such that his arrival is without
effort, struggle, discipline, piety and the guidance of a master. It is sheer divine
providence and essential primordial guidance alluded to by the verse, “Those
to whom the best has already been bestowed by Us” (Q 21:101). The second
type of wayfaring is one whose attainment to God is based on personal effort,
struggle, discipline, abstention, piety, and the guidance of a master, alluded to
by the verse, “As for those who strive for Our sake, We shall surely guide them
in Our ways” (Q 29:69). As for the former, it consists of the lovers among the
prophets, saints and their followers due to their primordial truthfulness and
utter sincerity. Their attainment to God is without effort and cause; rather it is
a result of pure divine bestowal, assistance and decree before the creation of
the world and everything within it, as referred to by the verse, “Their Lord has
given them a pure drink” (Q 76:21).17 Describing those saints Imām ʿAlī says,

Verily God Almighty has a wine for His friends, so that when they drink
it, they become intoxicated, when they become intoxicated they delight,
when they delight they melt away, when they melt away they become
pure, when they become pure, they seek, when they seek they find, when
they find they attain, when they attain they unite, so when they unite,
there remains no difference between them and their Beloved.18

16  ʿAzīz Nasafī, Maqṣad-i aqṣā, appended to Jāmī’s Ashiʿʿat al-lamaʿāt, ed. Ḥ. Rabbānī (Tehran:
Kitabkhāna-yi ʿIlmīyya-yi Ḥāmidī, 1973), 226. Selection translated by Lloyd Ridgeon in
idem, ʿAzīz Nasafī (Richmond: Curzon Press, 1998), 128.
17  Mullā Hādī Sabzawārī, Sharḥ al-asmāʾ al-ḥusnāʾ, ed. Najaf-Qulī Ḥabībī (Tehran: Intishārāt-i
Dānishgāh-i Tihrān, 1375 sh. / 1996–7), 534.
18  Ibid., 534.

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148 Ali

It is the second type of wayfaring to which Anṣārī is referring in the station of

love, that Kāshānī describes as the station between aspiration and intimacy.
His description of love is one in which divine attraction preponderates over
the will and effort of the wayfarer. “Whoever embarks on the path of love, his
striving will be effortless and without hardship, since he is led by attraction
from the Beloved’s command. His wayfaring will be infused with delight and
bliss, carried by love and driven by divine assistance and guidance.”19
Aspiration, the last valley in wayfaring, is the power that motivates the
servant to obtain the desired goal, whereby his seeking is tainted neither by
the hope of reward nor the fear of chastisement; his seeking is purely for the
sake of God. Due to the intensity of his desire, he does not remain stationary
nor can he withstand separation. His fervent desire prevents him from pay-
ing attention to anything besides God and impels him to rush headlong into
the ranks of the lovers. Although aspiration contains remnants of acquisition,
which is hidden in the light of attraction, it is associated with love since it is
the utter extremity of seeking (ṭalab). In fact, its proximity to love is due to its
casting away acquisition and relying on divine bestowal, once having entered
the station of the lovers.
Intimacy, on the other hand, is the repose and comfort of divine proxim-
ity because it is the source of unity, both outwardly and inwardly. Happiness
is found solely in proximity and unity, while distance and separateness are
the source of pain and sadness. Anṣārī writes in his Maḥabbat-nāma (Book of
Love), “The reality of togetherness is the mark of unification, and unification is
the mark of love. Dispersion is the mark of duality, and duality is the mark of
estrangement.”20 Intimacy is the wayfarer’s melting away in the light of unveil-
ing, or the beauty of manifestation, and the initial level of annihilation.

A Case Study of the Manāzil Commentarial Tradition: Kāshānī on

Ansārī’s Treatment of the Station of Love

What follows is a guided reading of the sixty-first chapter of the Manāzil on

the station of love with Kashānī’s commentary.21 While meditating on the mys-
tical doctrine of love as expressed by Anṣārī, one also gains insight into the

19  Kāshānī, Sharḥ Manāzil al-sāirīn, 384.

20  Cited in Chittick, Divine Love, 262.
21  Kāshānī, Sharḥ manāzil al-sāʾirīn, 385–96.

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c­ ommentarial tradition of classical Islamic learning where text and commen-

tary are seamlessly woven into a unified tapestry of ideas.
Anṣārī begins the section citing the verse, “Whoever among you turns back
from his religion, God will bring a people whom He loves and who love Him”
(Q 5:54), then writes,

Love is attachment of the heart, connecting aspiration and intimacy,

sacrificing oneself and turning away from all others.

Kāshānī states that love is the attachment of the heart to the beloved, which
is governed by aspiration of the lover. It is seeking without recompense and
having singularity of purpose, while intimacy is governed by the theophany
(tajallī) of His beauty. Through absolute attachment one sacrifices himself for
the beloved, turning away from all others and becoming annihilated ( fanāʾ) in
His beauty. As His beauty is manifested to the heart of the lover, his annihila-
tion is, in effect, sacrificing himself for Him, while at the same time, attain-
ing intimacy with the divine acts, attributes, and essence. Were it not for the
aspiration of the wayfarer to attain the beloved, he would not be able to with-
stand the trials and tribulations of the path. This requires absolute devotion
and single-mindedness on the part of the wayfarer, which is alluded to by the
term “sacrificing oneself.” After crossing this station, however, the wayfarer
has the preparedness to enter the station of love, which shares with aspiration
absolute devotion and with intimacy being absorbed in none other than the
beloved. Anṣārī writes,

Love is the first valley of annihilation, and the mountain pass from which
one descends to the stations of effacement.

Love necessitates union through annihilation. That is, being absorbed in the
divine attributes and acts due to turning one’s thoughts away from creation.
Anṣārī has used “pass” metaphorically for love and “valley” for annihilation
because valleys are formed from the flowing of water. Water is also symbolic of
the light of manifestation, such that what flows from the elevated place
of love is the light of manifestation into the valley of annihilation, devastat-
ing everything in its path. Annihilation in the attributes and acts is consid-
ered effacement of the wayfarer in each, respectively. Thus, the first station
among the stations of annihilation is effacement in attributes, acts, and finally
the essence. This is the general outline of annihilation in God, although there
are innumerable specifics according to the state of the wayfarer, his capacity,

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150 Ali

will and knowledge. It is in the annihilation of the essence that the wayfarer
witnesses the particulars of His goodness and beauty.

It is the last stage where the foremost among the common meet the weak
among the elect. What is prior is ends and recompense.

The common are those who are veiled from witnessing God due to their pre­
occupation with their customs. Those who strive in the way of God, and reach
the station of aspiration, begin to see the light of manifestation and conse-
quently arise to the station of love. This is true for only the foremost among the
common folk and those who depart from them and join the ranks of the weak
among the elect. They remain in the first valley of annihilation. The station
of love is the last stage of the common, such that if they advance further they
enter the ranks of the elect, which is then the first degree for the elect.
In the station prior to love, the wayfarer pays attention to achieving ends
and hopes for the reward of his striving. They are, in effect, traders who per-
form works in order to receive divine bounty and favors, while the lovers
act for the sake of their Beloved, neither hoping for reward, nor trading with
God for his bounties. Sincerity in this station is acting purely out of love for
Him, as Imām ʿAlī has stated, “There are those who worship God out of hope
for His reward, and their worship is like that of traders. While there are those
who worship God from fear of His chastisements, their worship is like that of
slaves. But there are those who worship Him out of love, they are indeed free
men, and theirs is the best worship.22

Love is the mark of the Tribe (Sufis), the sign of the path (ṭarīqa), and the
bond of relation.

Among the signs of the wayfarers on the path to God is love. It is a distinguish-
ing characteristic through which they are recognized and known. As for its
being a sign of the path, a sign is that which if displayed outwardly indicates an
inward reality. Love is a reality that is seen in the outward states of the people
of the path (ṭarīqa), whether it is in the movement of their limbs, their breaths,
the tears in their eyes, or the expressions on their tongue. Characteristics such
as paleness of face, emaciation, weakness, agony, thinness, gentleness, and
constant remembrance of the beloved cannot be kept hidden by the wayfarer
and ultimately revealing the inner disposition.

22  Muḥammad Kulaynī, al-Uṣūl min al-kāfī, 2 vols. (Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islamiyya,
1388/1968), 2:84.

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As for the bond of relation, it is the relationship between servitude

(ʿubūdiyya) and lordship (rubūbiyya), mentioned in the verse, “Prostrate and
draw near” (Q 96:19), as well as the saying of the Prophet, “I seek refuge in Your
pardon from Your punishment, and I seek refuge in Your satisfaction from
Your displeasure, I seek refuge in You from You.”23
Anṣārī writes that love has three degrees:

The first stage of love is that which severs temptations, brings delight in
service, and provides consolation during tribulations. Love grows from
awareness of blessings, is secured through following the Prophetic way
(sunna), and augmented by the acceptance of indigence.

The initial stage of love impedes temptation because the lover sees noth-
ing except his beloved, and is not distracted by anything so as to cause any
doubt. Satan has no access because the wayfarer has made himself pure and
sincere for his beloved. In light of this, the Qur’an states, “By Your Might,
I will certainly lead them all astray except Your sincere servants among them”
(Q 38:83), referring to the Satan’s vow to lead mankind astray. In turn, God
replies, “As for My servants, you will not have any authority over them”
(Q 15:420). The sincere servants of God have set right their relation to God
through love and utter sincerity.
Delight in service is due to the lover’s veneration of his beloved and humil-
ity towards Him. The greater the humility towards the beloved, the greater the
service and pleasure derived for the lover. Have you not seen how a lover wor-
ships the ground of his beloved, so much so that he prefers kissing the ground
more than kissing the feet? The pleasure derived from service is due to extreme
humility and veneration and preference of the beloved over himself.
Furthermore, the exertion of fulfilling responsibilities and obedience to His
commandments is abated, unlike the love that emanates from the lower self.
For this type of love is temptation which arises from the mind after assess-
ing the good qualities of outward forms. It is, in fact, worship of the lower self
through securing its pleasures. If, however, the wayfarer does partake in tran-
sient pleasures, whatever beauty he witnesses, he ascribes it to absolute beauty
and perfection.
Since the lover is neither attached nor loves anything but the beloved, he
does not feel the pain of tribulation. Tribulations are weighed in accordance
with one’s attachment, so the one who is detached from everything feels no pain
in either having been deprived of things nor losing them once having had them.

23  
Saḥīḥ Muslim, kitāb al-ṣalāt, no. 486.

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152 Ali

Love is cultivated from awareness of His favors, as in “He has showered upon
you His blessings, the outward and the inward,” because if the servant comes
to realize the magnitude of His grace and its subtleties that he has received
undeservedly, he comes to love Him, as stated in the ḥadith qudsī, “I created the
world and made Myself lovable by bestowing favors.”
This is the origin of love and its source, which is to love His acts and their
effects, after having witnessed His beneficence, and inward and outward bless-
ings towards him, such as his origination, his sustenance and continual pro-
tection, his sensory faculties, his knowledge, his guidance towards faith and
certainty, and all of the innumerable bounties expressed by the verse, “If you
count God’s favors, you cannot enumerate them” (Q 14:34).
Following the Prophetic way (sunna) is to maintain one’s obedience to the
beloved (Prophet), that is, to adhere to his knowledge and acts, while emulat-
ing his states and statements so as to make one’s inward similar to the Prophet’s
inward, illuminate one’s heart, and witness the beauty of the Beloved from
the light of love. By following the Prophet, one becomes receptive to divine
love, as mentioned in the verse, “Say ‘If you love God, then follow me; God
will love you” (Q 3:31). Love then becomes firmly established for the wayfarer
and he becomes the object of the verse, “He loves them and they love Him”
(Q 5:54).
The final aspect of the first stage is acceptance of indigence since indigence
is an essential property for the contingent and the initial stage of non-being.
Accepting indigence is acknowledging the underlying neediness of creation
towards God. It is to be completely consumed by His acts, attributes and
essence so that He manifests the beauty of His acts and attributes through the
agency of the wayfarer, increasing the wayfarer’s love for the source of his own
goodness. To the extent that the wayfarer responds to the call of essential pov-
erty towards his beloved, the more he becomes absorbed in His acts, attributes
and the lights of His manifestation; love for Him increases. The wayfarer’s
annihilation is brought about by assuming the character traits of his beloved
so that even his own actions are but actions of the beloved and his identity is
subsumed under the identity of the beloved.

The second stage of love is to prefer God over all others; It is to engage in
His remembrance on the tongue; It is to attach one’s heart in witnessing
Him; It is a love that appears by awareness of His attributes, gazing at His
signs, and striving within stations.

As mentioned previously, preferring the beloved to all others is equivalent to

renouncing everything other than Him. As for continuous remembrance of

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the beloved, it is a natural consequence of the condition of the heart. This is

because the tongue only utters that which preoccupies the heart. Thus, it
is said, “One of the signs of love is the constant remembrance of the beloved,”
and love does not accede to restraint.
One of the inseparable manifestations of love, which arises from aware-
ness of the beloved’s beautiful attributes, is for the wayfarer to seek theoph-
anies and visions of the splendor of His beauty. So, whoever gazes upon the
signs, which are markings of the perfect essence written on the tablet of cre-
ation reads,

For everything there is a sign

indicating that He is one24

As for striving within stations, it refers to the stations prior to the station of
love. Satisfaction (riḍā) necessitates effacing one’s will in the will of God, and
surrender (taslīm) necessitates effacing one’s knowledge in the knowledge of
God, so the wayfarer becomes the manifestation of His will and knowledge.
These stations originate in the awareness of divine attributes discretely, for
most stations are attained by wayfaring within the attributes and their details.25

The third stage of love is that which robs one of explicit expression,
refines allusion, and cannot be exhaustively described.

The third stage of love is one which overwhelms the intellect when it moves
from the valley of multiplicity of attributes to the collectivity of the essence.
Since the light of the beauty of the essence is no longer unveiled by the

24  Abū l-ʿAtāhiya, al-Anwār al-zahriyya fī Dīwān Abī l-ʿAtāhiya, ed. Louis Cheikho (Beirut:
al-Maṭbaʿat al-Kāthūlīkiyya 1914), 70. Another version is cited by Abū Naṣr al-Sarrāj,
“And in everything there is witness (shāhid), indicating that He is one” (idem, Kitāb
al-lumaʿ, ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd and Ṭāhā ʿAbd al-Bāqī Surūr [Cairo: Dār al-Kutub
al-Ḥadīthiyya, 1970], 53).
25  As mentioned in the famous ḥadith qudsī, “My servant draws near to Me through noth-
ing I love more than that which I have made obligatory for him. My servant never ceases
to draw near to Me through supererogatory acts until I love him. Then, when I love him
I am his hearing through which he hears, his sight through which he sees, his hand
through which he grasps, and his foot through which he walks” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī [Riyadh:
Maktabat Dār al-Salām, 1996], no. 2117, 992).

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154 Ali

s­ plendor of the majesty of His attributes, there remains no otherness and trace.26
“Robbing explicit expression” is negating the role of the intellect, because of
the fact that the intellect expresses reality through concepts and then words.27
After negating explicit expression, the wayfarer “refines allusion”, which is
by way of God alluding to His own reality, transcending perception and con-
cepts. God makes Himself known to the heart of the wayfarer and for the lov-
ers, allusions remain in the realm of contingency. After this point the wayfarer
enters “endless description” which is to know His reality through experience
and witnessing, rather than expression and allusion, since the experience of a
thing dispenses with the need for definitions and terms.

This love is the pivot of this affair. What is proclaimed by the tongues is
inferior, professed by the creatures, and that which the intellect deems
necessary.

The third stage of love is the axis of spiritual wayfaring because by abandon-
ing ends and recompense one seeks God for His own sake. Only those who
seek this reality are truly the lovers of God, for the luminosity of the light of
this love leads them to attain their supreme ambition.
The wayfarers in the previous two stages speak of love and are capable
of describing it but do not partake in its reality. This is because what can be
described is connected to ends and recompense, subsistence, benefit and plea-
sure, and not annihilation.
Love professed by the creatures is an assertion that remains in realm of
acquisition. Nonetheless, it engenders noble stations, such as the qualities
that arise from the purity of the heart and the subtlety of the spirit. As for
the love related to actions, such as righteousness and goodwill the intellect
deems it necessary, because one is able acquire ancillary benefits. The intel-
lect seeks advantages and does not move towards actions without the expecta-
tion of recompense. It exhorts one to love the benefactor and deems necessary
the expression of gratitude in recompense for favor. These types of wayfarers
are concerned with obtaining rewards and consequently do not attain pure
love because of their preoccupation with divine rewards and favors. They
are directed by the intellect whose purpose is to seek out ends and benefits,
while the foremost are those who have transcended the influence of the intel-

26  In this state of effacement, the intellect has no capacity to grasp its reality, since the role
of the intellect is limited to concepts and ideas that pertain to creation.
27  Whereas the reality of beauty of the essence can neither be entertained by the mind, nor
spoken of with words, since there is even no longer the multiplicity of attributes.

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lect entirely. This is because rewards and favors are still in the realm of created
existence, while annihilation is “melting away all realities other than the reality
of God Himself.”
As for the third stage of love, it is outside the realm of the intellect and
whose light overwhelms the intellect extinguishing the dictates of reason.
There is no proof for this love except itself, and its evidence is to be found in a
state of witnessing. Through abandoning ends and recompense, the wayfarer
attains the reality of love, which is indeed one of the stages of his perfection.
By attaining to this station, the wayfarer embraces the divine attribute, “the
Loving” (al-wadūd), which is the essence and the goal of spiritual wayfaring.

Conclusion

ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s seminal work Manāzil al-sāʾirīn is a masterpiece of

Islamic literature and spirituality, aiming at the practical dimension of Sufism
it is one of the most detailed works of its kind amongst manuals of spiri-
tual wayfaring,. This consideration of the text has presented two key figures
of Sufism, Anṣārī, the author, and Kashānī, the commentator. In beginning
with a brief overview of Anṣārī’s life and then proceeding to an outline of the
Manāzil, it has focused on the chapter on love, illustrating the importance
of the commentarial tradition in relation to it. In considering the text through
the interplay between text and commentary, it is as if we are witnessing the
conveyance of spiritual knowledge from master to student. Without Kashānī’s
nuanced commentary, it would be virtually impossible to convey Anṣārī’s con-
densed original to students of the path. There are other important themes
implicit in this essay as well, such as Ibn al-ʿArabī’s influence on Kashānī’s writ-
ings, certain features of classical Islamic pedagogy, and of course, that out of
one hundred stations Anṣārī considerd love to be the hallmark of the Sufis.

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