- _ _ _ _--....._ _ _ _ _ _="""..."""..,-=.,-=><._ _ _ _ _ _ _- .....

·- - _.....
-- -_w_ _ __
- .... c ____ _ __ _ _ • __ _ _ _ _ • __ _

-: .;

.~ .

·r::~lr.in, ,
i'n~y be
, Islamic
Ie a full
o copy-
ON for
Jscript.

~ r)
'T.
or
~ir
ISLAMIC CULTURE
A N ENG L I S H QUA R T E R ·L Y

er
:e,
of

EDITOR
SHAHID ALI ABBASI

:lex_

In·
of VOLUME APRIL
LXXIII, NO.2 }-Iyderabad I'J Deccan 1999
l ED
IN D I'A
, Trust,
:lia.
 l • . \.r, .:

;J:-;.~~~~~~~~~~t~~~tt~jz{~£:~~%:?-'tifi~~&~~~~~~:~3~i*1.ti~~~~~~t.~!~~~~~rt~IttJf~

LIST OF ERRATA TO

LeonardLewisohn, "The Way of Tawakkul: The Ideal of 'Trust in God' in Classical

Persian Sufism," Islamic Culture, LXXIII/2, April 1999, pp. 27-62,

Page 28, line 14 from the bottom. For: "ultra dependence" read: "utter dependence"

Page 28, line 3 from the bottom. For: "trust," (IX:5;" read: "trust," (IX:51;"

Page 28, line 20 from the bottom. For: "faith-despair-" read: "faith-as-despair-"

Page 29, lin~s 1-3 from the top. The citation of the verse "And put your trust in the
Almighty, the All-merciful." is repeated twice and both chapter and verse
references (XXV: 58 and XXVI: 117) given for this citation are incorrect. The
correct reading is: "And put your trust in the Almighty, the All-merciful" (XXVI:
217)."

Page 31, lines 12-13 from the top. For: "their argument becomes redundant and is
left unresolved by the poet." read: "their argument is left unresolved by the poet,
for upon reaching the coincidentia oppositorum of both, tawakkul, as we will see
below, itself becomes redundant."

Page 33, lines 8-9 from the top. For: "via purgative" read.: "via purgativa".

Page 34, last 5 lines. For: "he describes tawakkul paradoxically. It is simply that God
becomes the Advocate of one's every hope and desire, states al-Kharraz, for the
divine decree precedes our tawakkul: hence, the mystic's unceasing anxiety."
read: "he describes tawakkul paradoxically as "a restless anxiety which never
abates and a peaceful repose without any anxiety." Just because one trusts in God
and abandons one's will to Him doesn't automatically imply that God becomes the
Advocate of one's every hope and desire, states Kharraz, for the divine decree ·
precedes our tawakkul: hence, the mystic's unceasing anxiety."

Page 35, line 9 from the bottom. For: "Khi<;lr wish" read: "Khi<;lr wished"

Page 37, line 16 from the bottom. For: "fana cuisine" read: "fine cuisine"

Page 37, line 9 from the bottom. For: "fana passion" read: "vain passion"

Page 45, line 10 from the bottom. For: "via purgative" read: "via purgativa"
THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL
THE IDEAL OF 'TRUST IN GOD'
IN CLASSICAL PERSIAN SUFISMl

LEON ARD LEWISOHN

SCHLEIERMACHER'S judgment that "religion is the feeling of

absolute dependence" perhaps best expresses the basic
spiritual attitude of 'trust in God' (tawakkul) in Islam, The
concept of tawakkul expresses "in a condens,e d form, a
complete religious way of thinking or style of life (which is]
essentially untranslatable," Tor Andrae pointed out; " ... The
word means to 'trust someone in the same way as I would
trust my waHl', that is to say the person whom I have chosen
to be my procurator, myhomme d'affaires, to look after my
business and t() govern and dispose on my behalf."2 The great
Swedish orientalist'sillustration of the meaning of the word
drew largely on the etymological analysis of tawakkul in the
IJ:zya' 'Ularn al-Dfn where Abu Hainidal-Ghazali (d. 505/ 1111)
states that the term "is derived (mushtaq) from wakalah,
meaning power of attorney or deputyship/' and hence

one says that one entrusts one's affairs (wakala) to

someone, that is to say, one relies on him. The one
to whom one consigns one.'s affairs is called an
'agent' or 'trustee' (waHL). With respect
.
to . the one
in whom one trusts, one says that one abandons
oneself to one's agent; hence, one trusts one's soul
to him and depends firmly on him, without
accusing him of incompetence or negligence. Thus,
the word tawakkul expr~sses the heart's confidence
in the One Trustee {aI~wakfI wa~i4ah).3

In the ,earliest Sufi Writings one finds just .such a

conception :of'religion ,a stawakkul', that is, as ,the sum of all
'acts of pious de:votion:the essence of that feeling of "absolute
dependerice" which, asSchleiermacher observed, itself is
religion. As Sachiko . Murata and William Chittick have
observed: ~'The Islamic way has always been rooted in a
hermeneutics of trust ... trust directed not at human beings,

27
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

however, but at God."4 Abu Mul;1ammad Sahl's dictum: "All

knowledge (al- 'ilm) is but a subdivision of worship (al-
ta 'abbud) and all worship is but a subdivision of abstinence (al-
wara '), and all abstinence is but a subdivision of renunciation
(al-zuhd) and all renunciation is but a subdivision of trust in
God (tawakkul) and trust in God has neither limit nor finite
end"S - perhaps best sums up this comprehensive view of
tawakkul as constituting the 'whole of religion' or 'pith of
faith;' That the lynchpin of all piety is 'trust' in the Almighty
is a sentiment which ,h as pervaded Islamicate civilization
since its inception, and is the inspiration of so much of its art,
poetry and. mysticism. 6 As I/afiz, the supreme Persian
mystical lytic poet, put it:

In the way of the Sufi it's total infidelity

to put your trust in knowledge and piety;
Although a pilgrim boast a hundred arts,
just the same, he must have trusV

The Muslim's consciousness of his faith-despair-in-self-

volition, and commitment to the way of tawakkul, casting all
but ' God aside, is found in Abu Mul)ammad Jar.airi's (d.
311/923-24) reply to the question: "What is trust in God?" ~'It
is," he said, "realization of one's desperate needfulness
, (i~tirar). "8 As a spiritU!il condition, needfulness denotes both
one's ultra dependence on 'God as well as Divine compulsion
which makes the devotee conscious of his deprivation of all
wherewithal and being other than God, despairing of
'Selfhood.

Tawakkul in the Qur 'an, Qur 'anie Exegesis, and J:ladtth

, Trust in God lies at the heart ,of the message of the

Qut'an whererefer.ences . to;.fhe' word .tawakkulabound; the
term is mentioned.alt()gether; some 60 •dIfferent, times, among
which may be mentioned "So Pll,t,yourtrustin God if you are
believers" (V: 23); "And how should we not put our trust in
God when God has shown us our various ways?" (XIV: 12);
"In God let the believers place their trust," (IX:5; LVIII: 10;
LXIV: 13); "for one whoplaces his trust in God, Hesuffices."
(LXV:3); "And trust in the Living One who does not die, and
28
 "'-':." " -.-,- --.-.;.~

VOL.LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

extol his praise" (XXV: 58); "And put your trust in the
Almighty, the All-merciful" (XXV: 58); "And put your trust in
the Almighty, the All-merciful" (XXVI:117).9

The virtue of tawakkul also frequently features in the

ljadfth, as, for example: "If you trust in God Almighty as it
truly demands, He certainly will supply your daily bread just
as He provides the birds who fly forth with empty stomachs
in the morning but return surfeited at dusk. "lO

In early Qur'aniC exegesis (taJsfr) one ' of the most

interesting references to tawakkul is found in Sulaml's text of
the Qur'anic Tajsfrascribed to Ja'far al-~adiq(d. 148/765V 1
justly ' described by its .e ditor as "un document primordial
pourl'etude de la formation du langage technique mystique
en Is~am."12 Ja'far's description of the interior topography of
the heart anticipates the contemplative bias of later Sufis tic
speculation which regarded tawakkulas a spiritual attitude
rather than an external practice. Glossing the reference to "the
heavenly mansions of the stars" in Qur'an XXV; 61, aJ-~adiq
notes that " the hec)'rt is a heaven since it ascends by faith and
gnosis withotlt limit or restriction .. .. In the heart there are
constellations, and these are the constellations: Ii] of faith
(fman), [ii] gnosis (ma'rifah), [iii] intellect ('aql), [iv] certpinty
(yaqfn), {v] submission (islam), [vi] beneficence (i~san), [vii]
trust in God (tawakkuO, [viii] fear (khauj), .[ix1 hope (raja '), [x]
love (ma~abbah), [xi] yearning (shauq), and [xii] raVishing
(walah) . "13 Tawakkul '5 relC),tively high degree among the stages
of the heart in this categorization indicates its p re-eminent
position in mystical psychologyeven in this very early period
of Islam ' s ascetic piety. The idea of trust as primarlly an
interior attitude and secondarily .an asc'etic practice (which
came to dominate later IslamiC ' views ·bfthis · virtue) is
reflected in ].a'fa:r'sinterpretation of the ~·Qiy~e inNnction to
the Prophet {in Qur"an XXIlI: 159): . ;~~n:4:: wh~n you h ave
decideduponacours€ oJ action,thentiu"§Un "Gocl (ja-taw(lkkcH
'ala AUdh)/' which he glosses as signifylli't "'a·corrimand to be
steadfast with people in one's outer comportment (istiqamat
al-!-ah i rf rna 'a 'l;,khalq) while detached in one's inner being
through God (tajrfd bCipinihf Ii 'l~1j(J.qq)."14

29
 ......
:----

APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

Early debates in Sufism on the propriety of tawakkul in

the spiritual life also often focused on Qur'Anic exegesis. Abu
Talib al-Makki, for instance, glossed the verse "No beast is
there upon the face of the earth but depends for its sustenance
upon God" (XI: 6), with this saying of Sahl al-Tustari (d.
283:896, from Shushtar in southwestern Iran, author of one of
the earliest mystical Qur'An commentaries): "As long as one
who trusts in God (al-mutawakkil) perceives secondary causes
(al-asbab) he is a false claimant."15

Opinion of the Sufi Schools of Khurasan

and Baghdad on Tawakkul

From the earliest days of Islam, heated debates were

conducted about the respective virtues of 'earning a living'
(kasb, takassub, iktisab) versus pure 'trust in God' (tawakkul).16
Such debates, in fact, can be traced back to the)ifetime of the
Prophet who was said to have rebuked someone for failing to
tie his camel .s ecurely, when the man wondered, "Should I
hobble iny camel or trust in God alone/' the Prophet
.commanded him to "First hobble your · camel, then trust in
God" (l 'qil ba'Traka thumma tawakkal).17 In Christian popular
piety, one recalls Cromwell's famous advice: "Trust in God
and keep your powder dry."

Like debates about other technical terms in Islamic

thought, discussions of tawakkul partook of the parity
phenomenon - where ideas were discussed in terms of
linguistic pairs of opposites representing contrary
philosophic-theological or mystico-theosophical positions.
Debates on . tawakkul/kasb (trust vs. personal 'earning') thus
were often · paired withsiinilar discussions relating to jabr-
ikhtiyar (determinism Vs. freewill). ·Jalal i:ll-Dln ,Rumi's (d.
672/1273) tale intheMathnawf of the 1ionari.d the beasts of the
chase best typifies these . scholastic debates;18 Heteithe Sufi
poet uses the symbol of the fearless lion, advocate of freewill
(ikhtiyar), to personify the merits of individual striving and
effort (kasb), and contrasts him with the symbol of the 'beasts
of the chase' - advocates of determinism whopr~ach the
virtues of passive necessitarianism (jabr) and .stress the
uselessness 6f all activity except tawakkul. The lion objects to
30
 --- -- ' .o-~: .,
., ; '- , . . ..1 '-. -... .:_ :._: "
.: ' "', ~' "

- ,

VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

the beasts' quietist attitude of reliance on Providence

(=tawakkul) to supply their needs and protests that this
attitude contradicts the activist Sunnah of the Prophet,
espousing the virtues of work and action (as in the ~adfth:
"The worker is loved by God," al-kasib habib-Allah).' "If you
apply tawakkul/' the lion exhorts them, "then do it while
labouring: sow first, then rely on the Almighty,"19 but the
beasts retort: "There is no endeavour (kasb) better than
tawakkul; what is more desirable than submission to God
(taslfm)?"2o Perhaps because he understood that the truth
underlying this debate lay in transcending the boundaries of
such trite dualism, their argument becomes redundant and is
left unresolved by the poet.

Nonetheless,the disparity between contemplation and

action, the - often latent, often unconscious - conflict between
pure spiritual trust and physical economic exertion, seems to
have remained ever-present in, albeit on the sidelines oC Sufi
ethical thought. As in Christian debates on contemplation and
action, quietist 'sloth' was contrasted to the active morality of
. action in the world, aswe can see in the following admonitio.n
given by the Safavid Sufi poet ~a'ib Tabrizi (d . 1081/1669-70):

Bfkarf u tawakkul dar-ast az muruwwat

bar dush-i-khalq majkan zunhar Mr-i khwud ra

WlieffltW;Fin.;God sits next ·to s10thfulinactivity

indeed, ~ow far away that is from chivalry.
Beware you never make another man
the porter of a burden that's your own. 21

It was the 'IraqLSch60lof Baghdad -followers of Abu'l-

Qasim al-J unaid's · (d.2981910}advb:c'a~cy ; of "reliance for
sustenance on Providence alone ('ala "l~'ta'iiiakkul) .~ which had
been the principal 'exponent oftheaocltiheof tawakkul in
early Sufism. The Junaidian ,perspectlv'e ';'s food in contrast to
the Nishapuran School of Khutasan ""ho, following the
teachings cifAbu Yazid Taifur al-Bistami (d. 260/874), based
their doctrine on malamah (blame) and advocated the activist
virtues of kasb. However, such divisions on school lines are
merely approximate; they are general tendencies rather than
31
 APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

clear-cut scholastic divisions. 22 Ruwaim (d.298/910), a leading

member of the Baghdad School, was opposed to pure trust in
God (at least in its excessive forms) and confessed to Ibn
Khaflf (d. 371/981) that he rejected tawakkul if this was
interpreted as disregarding the material needs of his own
family,23 and one of the main founders in Sufism of the
'School of Khurasan',Shaqiq al-Balkhi (d. 194/810), as LOUis
Massignon points out,24 was the first person to describe
. tawakkul asa mystical ' state (~al). (However, Shaqiq's
understanding of tawakkul combmes at once ' the effort to
renounce all reliance on individual effort.;. characteristic of a
station - and the grace given by God to renounce all reliance
on individual e.fiort -chara(;t~ristic of a state, as J?aul Nwyia
points ciut,25 and this terminological distinction between
maqam and ~al is a later development.) Similarly, Abu Turab
Nakhshab1. (d. 245/859), although a member of the Khurasan
school, Was also famed for his tawakkul in the annals of
Sufism. 26

Ruwaim's concern not to engage in excessive tawakkul

and respect for , the Prophet's Sunnah which espoused the
virtues of kasb was , meant to counter the literal and exoteric
interpretation of the doctrine maintained by certain Sufis of
the Baghdadi School. Excesses in its practice abounded and
debates on the limits of tawakkul and its spiritual efficacy
flourished among the ninth - and tenth-century mystics. Abu
I:Iarnzah al-Khurasani, an early advocate of the virtue of
ttiwakkul reportedly fell into ,a pit and refusec!' to callout to be
rescued by a party of travellers lest he be thought to have
committed himself to ' aught but GOq;27 'In later classical
Persian Sufi textsl,especially inthe ,p oetryofRumi and 'A~tar,
·one · finds regular sections devO'ted to the subJectofptlre '
. tawakkul;, how~verl by thisst'? ge, it has become ' a comITlon
mystical topos/ an'asset to the stock and wares of thesuprerne" '
mystic's karamat;rather than an extremist position to be
aVoided and distrusted. The '· Persian '. SufipoetSana'i (d.
525/1131), for instance, devotes an entire section of his
mystical mathnawf epic l:Jadfqat al~l:Jaqfqah28 totlle example of
tawakkul al-'ajuz (an old woman's trust in God) where a
woinan who travels to Makkah without any wherewithal
becomes the supreme example of unconditional trust in God,
32
VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

a tale which recalls the same motif in the biography of

Rabi'ah. 29

Other early debates are expressed in (if such can be said

to exist) an Islamic eremitic theology, constituting almost a
separate literary genre. Scholars such as Tor Andrae and
Roger Arnaldez ' have drawn attention to the numerous
affinities which exist between Christian and Muslim
mysticism - especially regarding similar descriptions of the via
purgative in the mystical theologies of both faiths. 30 In
particular, several tales concerning the Sufi ideal of trust in
God related by 'A~tar in his Memoirs of the Saints seem to
furnish direct Islamic parallels to the antimaterialistic
theology of Jesus who polemic;allyattacked the wealthy and
the wise of the world,31 The literary genre in which such
debates are expressed centre around what. might be called a
topos of 'Trust in the Desert', featuring several recurring
themes: the solitary Sufi, the journey without provisions
through a barren desert landscape, and the Sufi's often
unsuccessful struggle to trust in God.

One such story32 concerns Dhu'l..;Nun al-Mi~ri (d.

245/859) who related how he once ascended a mountain, on
various slopes of which he encountered ascetics of differing
degrees. Arriving at a slope too high to climb, on the heights
of which an ascetic of great repute reportedly dwelt, Dhu'1-
Nun asked someone to tell him of the man's character. ' His
companion related how the mCln had been worshipping on the
top of the mount?in for some time now, until ...

one day a man got into an argument with him, and

reproached .'. him, saying .lhafthe, cause .of one's
daily bread is the sttu,ggl~ .madeforitsa.cquisition
(kasb). The ascetic respon.ded by vowing ,to eat
nothing stemmirlg 'from any source associated
with the acquisition of any creature. Soa few days
passed. He ate nothing. Then God Almighty sent
bees to him which whirled around him and fed
him honey. "When I saw these things," reflected
Dhu'l-N-G.n, "I then understood that God will

33
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

arrange all the affairs of one who trusts in Him,

and will never let his work go to waste."

I set out on my way. Seeing a small blind bird on a

tree, I wondered, "Who will feed and provide
water for this wretched creature?" All of a sudden,
the bird flew down from its branch and struck its
beak on the ground and two bowls appeared, one
golden and the other silver, the first with white
sesame seed in it and the other having rosewater.
The bird ate the seed and drank the rosewater and
then flew back up to his perch. Both bowls
vanished. Dhu'l-Nun said: "When I saw this,
confidence in [the reality of] trust in Cod (I'timad
bar tawakkul) was manifested to me."33

It is evident that this story is an echo, perhaps even a

Sufi paraphrase of, the New Testament's message found in
Luke XII, 24: "consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor
reap; which neither have storehouse nor . barn; and Cod
feedeth them: how much more are yebetter than the fowls?"
Several other stories which utilize 'Trust in the Desert' tapas
and debate the principles of Sufi eremitic theology are
discussed later on, situated in the tarfqah context of Sufism in
which they developed.

Abu Sa'id al-Kharraz (d~277/890 or 286/899), an

important Sufi in the School of Baghdad known for his minute
analysis of the vocabulary or the varieties of mystical
experience, was one mystic who attemped to provide a
definition of tawakkul which could transcend the superficial
polarity of kasb/tawakk1-il. In hisKitababl:Iaqa:iq, al-Kharraz
held that "He [the mystic] trusts intheheaitonthe Advocate
[al·Wakil, a Divine name],wailir,lgaIjdIll,darting without
cease." Elsewhere,lnhis Kitabat-?idq,a~!eIl1ptmg to counter
the crude Sufi understanding ·bf relianceOil. ;Providence as a
kind of a deus ex. machina, he describes tawakkulparadoxically.
It is simply that God 'b ecomes the Advocate of one's every
hope and desire, states al-Kharraz, for the Divine decree
precedes bur' tawakkul: hence, the mystic's unceasing
anxiety.34
34
VOL.LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

Yef, despite differences in emphasis, all Sufis concurred

that the question of tawakkul was inextricably connected with
that ofka5b. f:Iakim al-Tirmidhi (d. ca.295/908), in fact,
consecrated his entire Kitab Bayan al-Kasb to another problem
proposed by al-Kharraz in his Kit&b al-~idq: "Does reliance on
God include or exclude secondary causes {bi' l-a5Mb au bi-qa(
al-asbab)?" Al-Tirmidhi contrasts those who renounce
everything of their bwn accord (qa 'adu 'an al-k4sb) with those
fOTced by circumstances to renounce ( 'uq 'idu) their
possessions. The first group wishes, from the beginnirig of
their quest, to traverse all the stages at once and thus ' they
renounce work in the spirit of tawlikkul. Such tawakkul
vouchsafes them experiential certitude (yaqfn) which they
obtain only through spiritual struggle (mujahadah) - one of the
main compone'Iits of which is, however, precisely earning an '
honest living ,(kasb ~al&I). Those of the second category have
purified their hearts of all desire for the blessings of this '
world and have attained a certainty (yaqfn) in which they
experience total confidence in God filling their hearts with
serenity (puma 'nfnah). Encouraged by this confidence and
certainty, they live in tawakkul, waiting for God to bestow on
them that 'portion of His bounties destined and allotted to
them. 35

Perhaps the best known exponent of tawakkul in the

Baghdadi School was Ibrahim al-Khawwa~ (d. 290/903), who
carried the. doctrine of self-abandonment to God to its farthest
extreme. In fact, so remarkable was his commitment to trust
in God, that Junaid commented that "the expanse of taw4kku/
on the surface of the earth has been rolled up" upon his
death. 36 It was said that Ibrahim al-Khawwa~ often wandered
the desert while trusting in God, and once ·wheI:l Khiqir wish
to accompany him, Ibrahim even declinedbec:'ause he felt
consorting with Khiql.r would tarnish theptiiityofhis
tawakkul. 37 An associate ofaFKhawwa~lwho ' d:e rided such
behaviburas hypocritical: ("How long will you boast that I
went out into the de,s ert ,through triist[alone}, bi.;. tawakkul
raftam; when this [Sufi] attire you wear belies your claim,
silently petitibnirig for alms from meh?"), forced him to wear
sumptuous attire and then go out in the desert again. 38

35
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

Another story which illustrates the radical extremes to

which the eremitical ideals of tawakkul were advanced
concerns Bishr ibn I:Iarith I:Iafl (d. 227/842), a Persian Sufi
from Merv in Khurasan, but who dwelt in Baghdad.
Described by 'Attar as "the wildest man of his age (shurfda-yi
ruzigar)",39 Bishr I:Iafl was asked by a group of travellers from
Syria if he cared to make the pilgrimage to Makkah in their
company. "Bishr replied, 'Yes, but with threecohditions. One,
that we take no provisions. Two, that we ask nothing of
anyone. Three, ·if anyone gives us anything, we refuse it,'
They said: 'We cart fulfill the first two conditions but the last
one: that we refuse anything and everything given to us, that
we are unable · to do'. 'So your trust in God (tawakkul),'
retorted Bishr, 'is just an excuse for reliance on the provisions
of your fellow pilgrims'." Reflecting on the morality of this
ideal, 'AHar comments that it constitutes a good exposition of
the Sufi principle that "if you have resolved in your heart to '
accept nothing from any created being, then that is trust in
God (tawakkul bar khuda)."40

A similar story is told in the biography of Ibrahim ibn

Adham (d. 161/778), a semi-legendary prince who, once he
converted to Sufism, renounced his palace and kingdom in
Balkh for the staff and begging bowl of the wandering
dervish.

Once I went through the desert depending on God

alone. Several days passed but I still found
nothing to eat Though I had a friend travelling
with me, I reflected that if I were to go and ask
him for anything my trust in God would be
annulled. Sb instea,d I went into a mosque and
reCited: "I trust.iri the LiviIlg One who never dies." .
A .hidden voice cried out: "Exa1ted be the Most .
High God who has deansed:the face of the earth of ·.
all those who trustin God (mutawakkilan)!" , "Why's
that?" I asked. The vOice .replied: . "f{ow canan
adept in trust in God be one who, for the sake of a
morsel of 'bread given him by a fake friend, sets
out on a long road, and finally reckons: 'I trust in

36
VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

the Living One who never dies'. And then he calls

such a lie 'Trust in God'!!??"41

Exactly the same moral is found in an autobiographical

vignette of Ibrahim al-Khawwa~ related by 'AHar. Al-
Khawwas testified:

Once I was on the outskirts of the city of Rayy

[modern-day Tehran] and felt hungry. In my heart
I reflected, "Well, when I get into town, the
notables of the city will all bring me plenty of
food." So I continued onrny way. I encountered an
unbeliever and took him to account for his
religious beliefs, but he and his comrades
thoroughly thrashed me. I reflected, "With such
hunger that I am enduring, was this beatiI1g also
necessary?" The voice of my conscience cried out:
"The beating you received was due to that desire
which you nurtured to be feted and feasted when
you arrive in the town . . "But, my Lord!" 1
beseeched, "1 trusted in' You!" The same voice
replied: "Exalted be God Most High who has
cleansed the face of the earth of those who t.rust in .
God (mutawakkilan)! He mulls over the ~ cuisine r''''~
of Rayy yet talks of tawakkul!"42

Abu Mu}:lammad Muita'ash Nishapurl (d.348/939-40), a

companion of Abu I:1af~ and Junaid, related how he went on
pilgrimage "while trusting in God" (i.e.' taking no provisions)
thirteen hmes. However, "when I doselyexainined my
conduct," Murta'a.shreflected, "1 saw that all my trips were
motivated ·'by Jana pas~ionandselfishness '{bar ,·hawa".yinafs
bud)." "How ,did you know that?" he .wasasked. "\\tell," he
replied, "anc'e [following rnyreturn] my mother askesI me to
hand her . a pitcher afwater/and I felt .this reque~tto be too
burdensome to endure. 1 then realized that all ' those
pilgrimages had been motivated by mY own greedy selfish
passion ($harar-i-nafs)."43

Such stories reflect an increasing awareness of the

subtlety of the tawakkul doctrine, literal interpretation of
37
,.

APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

which was considered by most Sufis to indicate spiritual

niiivity. In this context, Man~ur a1-.f:1allaj (d. 309/922), for
instance, found it quite objectionable that a1-Khawwa~ had
based his entire mystical doctrine on tawakkul, thus ranking it
as "real faith."44 Al-J:Iallaj once asked him: "During these forty
years of your connexion with Sufism, what have you gained
from it?" Ibrahim al-Khawwa~ replied: "1 have made the
doctrine of trust in God particu:larly my own." Al-Ijallaj said:
"You have wasted your life in cultivating your spiritual
nature: what has become of annihilation in Unification (al-
fana' fi 'l-tau~fd)?"45 Another version of the same story features
the encounter of al-.f:1allaj . with Ibrahim al-Khawwa~ in a
wasteland~ "What are you dQing?" al-J:IaWij challenges. "I am
rectifying my cond.u~t in the station of trust/' ·replies al-
Khawwa~; "You have devoted your life to gluttony!" quips al-
.f:1all.lj. "When do you wish to annihilate yourself in Divine
Unity (tau~fd)?" "The basis of tawakkul," 'A!tar comments on
this exchange, · "lies in not eating, but you (al-Khawwa~) -
spending your lifetime in the stomach's tr\lst - when will
occasion for an annihilation in Divine Unity ever arise?"46
Upon, al-Khawwa~'s death, an eminent Shaikh was invited to
say the funeral prayers. Entering his home and seemg a crust
of bread under al-Khawwa~'s bed, he exclaimed indignantly:
"If I hadn't seen this crust of bread beneath his bed, I would
not have said obsequies for him at all, for that would have
indicated that he'd passed away in tawakkul and never
transcended that condition. As long as a man traverse the
way, he should not come toa halt anywhere, neither at the
waystation of tawakkul, nor any other stage."47 As Massignon
points out, al.,Khawwa~'s fascination with tawakkul was ohen
perceived by his critics to have '~reduced the mystic vocation
to _a cult of self'-renuncia·tion, to ,t he idolatry ofcivirtue."48

However, such exchanges ' reveal just how sophistiCated

and refined the terms of this ·subtle psycho'-ethicaldeb'ate -haC1
become; Bothal-~allafs cavil1ingandcritique6fal-Khawwa~
and Murtci'ash's rigorousself'::exam:ination underline a major
thesis in Sufi ascetic theology: since the sincerity of one's
devotion isblernished by consciousness of one's own reliance
it is clear that the notion of annihilation of the self in God
<lana ') underlies true realization oflawakkul. From numerous
38
VOL.LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

anecdotes it is clear that most of the Baghdadi Sufis had also

adduced the subtle connection between jana' and tawakkul. In
the fo1lowing story, for example, Abu'l-Qasim Na~rabadj (d.
368/978-9), a disciple of Shibli, sends a student to Bu 'Ali
Siyah to ask him how far in acquiring the virtue of tawakkul he
had progressed. "Tell him that Bu 'Ali is unemployed and idle
and knows nothing of tawakkul, but he is so engaged by this
idleness that he has no time for people," Siyah retorts.

. On this exchange, Rashid aI-Din Maibudi opined: "All

the leaders of Sufi Path concur that no other wayfarer on the
via mystica has ever said anything as conclusive and apt as
this remark. The complete realization of servitud.e and
devotion to . God, which lies in perceptionol one's own
ineptitude, is not the business of every sluggard orbawd, for
if you wish to be a Muslim in reality you must, in your own
eyes, be a heretic. "49 . Since the practice of trust is engage with
the 'Transcendent' Being, its nature is inexpressible except
through a purely apophatic discourse. 50

The classical SuJis, of course, emphasized the practice

and achievement of the reality of trust over merely theoretical
comprehension of the idea. Hence, the wry comment6f Junaid
that "Tawakkul in the earlier days used to be a $piritual reality
(J:zaqfqat). Today it's become merely another intellec~ual theory
(,ilm)."51 And the sage adage of Junaid's follower Abu Ja'lar
al-Farghani: "Tawakkul on the tongue .leads to grandiose
claims (al-da'wa). Tawakkul in the heart has alone real meaning
(al-ma 'nt1),"52 This contrast between the theory and practice of
tawakkul is also one of the cential issues in al-GhazaH's'Book
of Divine Unity and Trust' (Kitabal-Tau~fd wa 'l~Tawakkul) in
the Ihya " discussed below.

Apophatic Tawakkul
, ,
As can be seen fro·: m.theabove debates between al-J:1allaj .
and al-Khawwas and Siyah and Na~rabadii because of the
social, economic and hence 'worldly' connotations of
practicaUyearning one's ' living or kasb vis~a-vis idealistic
tawakkul, it was not long before many mystics began to
critique the classical concept of tawakkul as wanting in
39
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

spiritual sophistication. Abu Bakr al-Wasitt (d. 320/931), of

Khurasani origin, a native of Farghana but a member of the
Baghdadi School, whom Abu Sa'ld bin Abi'l-Khair considered
to be "the chief unitarian of his day,"53 typified the (mainly
Khurasanian) attitude which had little regard for tawakkul. He
pronounced it to be one of four stations which he considered
as "unbefittmg of wisdom (rna 'rifat) " - the other three being
ascetic renunciation (zuhd), contentment (rida ') and
submission (taslfrn). In his commentary on the paradoxes of
the Sufis, Ruzbihan Baql1 (d. 606/1209) supported al-Wasi!!'s
view, e)(plaining that the reason it is "unbefitting of wisdom"
is because lawakkul is a quality of the human corporeal nature
(ashbah), and pertains to the stations of (merely) created
beings (khalq). While it is recessary, argues Ruzbihan, to
maintain "reverence in the inner nature (J;urmat-i-h~tin) . .. in
order to subjugate human nature (bashariyyat) and to rectify
one's' moral character" for '''all these are qualities of the
sincere heart of the mystic who trusts in God (rnutawakkil), the
gnostic ('arif), on the other hand, "transcends all these
qualities because he experiences direct revelation and
contemplation through the light of divinity and the beauty ·o f
Lordship and the thebphany of Eternity without any causal
intermediaries." When, as Ruzbihan puts it, the gnostic
reaches a degree where he transcends the "trial of the
waystations (irnt*an+rnaqarnat)," then he also surpasses

the serrnonern et responsarn of reason and the

GabrieLof knowledge in the School of Inspiration
(rnaktab-i-ilham). . .. Here, he seats the stranger
Renunciation (zuhd-i~bfganah) at the door of the
House of Grief (bait-i-abztin)1 of '~I expose my grief
and anguish ' only 'taCod" · [Qur:,an,XII:861 and
calls ' back .into contemplative 'vision the camel-
litterofC<I find the breath of Joseph"[Qur'an, XII:
93]., So in that passion ,helthegnostic] would not
exchange one breath which he exhales ,there fora
thousand years of the life of the masters Who
preach trust in God (pfran-i-tawakkuI)."54 '

However, such depreciation of tawakkul - as suitable only

for dull pedestrians on the Path - was largely ignored by later
40
 VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OFTAWAKKUL NO,2

Sufism; the dominant attitude which prevailed among the

mystics was merely that it is the interior reality of tawakkul,
rather than its external paraphernalia, which alone matters,
The great Sufi poet Baba Tahir (fl, 5th/11th cent.) devoted the
twenty-sixth chapter of his Aphorisms to the topic of trust, and
voices this idea in a paradoxical saying: "Trust in God is
negation of trust in God" (Al-tawakkul nafi al-tawakkul), which
is explained by a commentator as meaning that "the one who
truly trusts in 'God denies himself any attachment to tawakkut
'in the sense that he has neither confidence in, n'or attention to,
his own truSt."55 Here j of course, Baba Tahir, without saying
so directly" approaches al-:WasitJ:'s view tha:t tawakku/ is
"unbefitting of wisdom." In another aphorism,he states that
"the mystic who trusts in God (al-mutawakkil) is one who owns
nothing while ,nothing 9wns him." An anonymous
comm.entator (ascribed to - but probably not - 'Ain al-Qu9at
Hamadhani) on this saying stated that "this means that
despite the fact that both the renunciation and use of outer
material conveniences are one and the same for the mystic
who genuinely trusts in God (al-mutawakkil al-~aqfqi),
nonetheless he is not an owner of property. However, his
exterior poverty and non-ownership Cif worldly property is
only for the sake of the welfare ,and expedienCy of others, not
because the one who trusts in God is actually restricted to
haVing no material possessions. "56

A similar emphasis, to the point of apophasis, on

tawakkul's interior reality is apparent in an early anonymous
dictum related by Abu Talib al-Makki concerning "some of
those intimate with God." Such saints, when asked about the
"reality of trust(~aqfqataz-tawakkul)/" retodedthat "it is t.o flee
from ' trust (aI-JaTar min ' al-tawakkul}."However, al-.Makkt
interprets this paradoxical statement to mean:

They renounce taking rest at the ' station of

tawakkul, or in other words, while they trust in
God, they do not behold their own trust-Therefore
for them, whether they are nurtured sufficiently,
abstam or are granted fulfillment [of their needs],
their gaze is focused solely on atawakkul above
and beyond their own tawakkul which demands
41

./
 APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

that they flee from their own tawakkut so they

constantly contemplate the One Trustee (at-Wakfl
wa~id) Who is without any shortcoming. Thus,
they rise to bear witness to Him through Him
without flagging, and nothing comes' between
them and the Trustee. 57

Tawakkul as Degree ofTauJ:ltd and Pillar oJrman

"Tawakkul in its interiorized sense," Prof. Annemarie
Schimmel observes, "means to realize taubfdi for it would be
shirk khaft, 'hidden associationism', to rely upon or be afraid
of any created being. This aspect of tawakkul is one of the basic
truths in Sufi psychology: as soon as every feeling and
thought is directed in perfect sir'tcerity towards God, without
any secondary causes, neither humans nOr animals Cc,Ii any
longer harm the mystic. Thus tawakkul results inperfed inner
peace. "58 In the exordium of his study of taubfd and tawakkul
in the Ibya', al-Ghazail underlines this inter-connection
between the two ideas, asserting that everything "mentioned
. in the Qur'an about tauhfd constitutes an admonition to man
to cut off his attention ftomaught but God and place his trust
in tl}e OmIiipotent One (tawakkul 'ala'I-wahid al~qahMr)."59 Al-
Makki also emphasizes the connection between Divine
Oneness. and human trust in God in the beginning of his
chapter on trust, cHing the maxim of "some of the early
followers of the Prophet" that "tawakkul is the harmonious
order of Divine Unity (al-tawakkul rii~am al~tau~fd). "60 Since the
theological orientation of human tawakkulinlslam is, in fact,
toward One Power which sustains and nurtures all secondary
forces of nature ahd man, itsbasicrnetapDYS!calpresumption
is the perception of hu~an dependehce 'on :Provi~ence, that is}
the realization that all sustenartce ..(ri~q)is .deriyegsolely from
the One Source: GOd. 61 This favQurite 'and funclarrtentaJ theme
about fawakkul was elaborated by manyQf :t.he'i~ter Persian
Sufi poets. SanaJ{d. -525 /1131), Jorinstanc~, reIN'tiks: ~'.If you
totally trust in Him, you will realize that ali'sustenance (dzcf)
comes from Him. "62 The same uhitarian basis ahd bias of the
ideal of trust i:h God is also evident in Fakhr aI-Din 'IraqI's
(610/1213-688-1289) definition of tawakkul as "considering in
heart that the scarCity or plenty of one's material sustenance

42 .
- VOL.LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

(rizq) is one and the same, neither rejoicing at the presence of

one's sustenance nor grieving at its dearth or absence."63

While debates flourished about the . degrees and

authenticity of tawakkuI, all the classical Sufis nonetheless
generally concurred that it was a moral quality which
involved abandonment of freewill and volition while
beholding God as the Supreme Source of Causality. When
confronted wIth apparently activist positions which stressed
the value of Worldly exertions, such 'as the saying of the
Prophet: "my material sustenance lies beneath the shadow of
my sword" (fa 'ala rizqf ta~t ~ill saifi), the Sufis usually ·
managed to interpret them from a contemplative perspective.
One master - Shibli - went so far as to interpret this ~adfth to
mean that "the Prophet's ' sword was his trust in God
Almighty."64 The follOWing definitions by various other
masters, including Shiblt cited by An~art, unanimously affirm
this position:

Ya'qub Ma~hkuri was asked: "What is trust?" He

said: "Abandonment of freewill (ikhtiyar)." Sahl
Tustart was ilsked [the same question]. He said:
"Abandonment . of manipulations of self-will
(tadbfr)," Bishr
. Haft
. [d. 227/841J was asked [the
same question]. He said: "Contentmen,t (rig.a ')."
Abu ~:Laf~I:Iaddad [d. ca.265/878] was asked [the
same question.]. He said: "To acquit oneself of
one's own power." J:I all aj was asked [the same
quest~on]. He said: "To behold the Cause of
Causes (Musabbib)." Fatl) Maw~ili fd ~ 220/835] was
asked . [the . samequestibn].Hesajd: < "T~)weary of
secondaty causes (sabab}." Shaqtq : I3~Jl<hi was
askedfthe same question]. He .saId;' ,:'[:to realize
thatone;s own] vision' [ofGodisfdI'owneCl in
impotence' [to behold . Him]." Shibii[d:' 334/945]
was asked: "What is" trust?" He said: "In the
heart's vision [of God] to forget all people."65

In these definitions, human force and will is negated in

favour of absolute Divine Providence and Power,tawakkul
abolishing itself in the supremely omnipotent WaHL. As Abu
43
 APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

Ya'qub aI-Sus! cbserved: "If cne who. trusts in Gcd discerns a

seccndary cause [beside Gcd] whether by way cf censure cr
praise, he is an idle pretender whcse trust is as yet
unrectified. The beginning cf trust is the abandcnment cf
vcliticn, and · the genuine mystic who. trusts in Gcd has
already dispelled whatever [intermediary] lies between
himself and the rest cf creaticn. He neither gives .thanks fcr
anything that anycne pcssesses, ncr blames anyone [for its
lack therecf] inscfar as he perceives both the bestowal and the
withhclciing of bounty as stemming from One scurce."66 In
the same fashicn, 'Izz aI-Din Mahmud Ka:shani (d. 735/1334)
underlined that "The genuine my~tic' who trusts in God is cne
who. dces not let his any cther being except the Existence cf
the Causa causans enter his visicn - and this type cf tawakkuI is
only realized by cne who. has attained to. the highest station of
Unity (tauhfd). "67

The ccntrary mystico-thecscphical positicns and debates

maintained by the schccls cf Baghdad and Khutasan cn
tawakkul and kasb were linked not cnly to. theclcgical
. discussicns which contrasted jabr to .ikhtiyar but also.
ccnnected to. wider arguments ccncerning the normative
value of the Prcphet's Sunnah vis-a.-vis exclusive mystical
ccncentraticn cn tau~fd. Just as "whoever vilifies earning a
living (takassub) vilifies the Prcphet's custcm (Sunnah), so,
whcever vilifies 'abandonment cf earning a living; (tark al~
takassub) vilifies Divine Unity (aI-tauhfd)," affirms al-Makk!
paradcxically.68

At the same time, to. have faith in Gcd is to. trust Him
utterly, and thus tawakkul carne to. be ccnsidered . akey
ccmpcnent of religicus 'faith (fman);'for "whoev"er vilifies trust
in Gcdalsb 'YilifiesfaithmGcd(al-fmqn)"(againal-1yfakk!69).
Luqrrtah, the . sage ' cf pre;;.!slamic Arabia celebrated in the
Qur'an,was ' said to. have admonished ' his :'son to consider
trust as the fundamerital pillar offa ith in God:

There are fcur pillars to faith, and :just as the bcdy

is unbalanced without two arms and legs, likewise
faith will nct be rectified until these pillars are set
aright: (i) trust in Gcd (al- tawakkul 'ala Allah), (ii)
44
VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO,2

submission to His Ordainment (al-taslfm li-

qa~a 'ihf),
(iii) consignment of one's affairs to God
(al-tafwfd ila Allah) and (iv) contentment with
Divine destiny (al-ri~a' bi-qadar).70

The same emphasis on ·tawakkul as an essential pillar to

religious faith is also expressed in a definition of fman and
tawakkul related by Abu Sa'id bin Abi'l-Khair (357/967-
440/1048), the great ecstatic Sufi Shaikh and founder of the
khO.naqah institution, as being an adage of Abu'1-I:iasan
Bushanji (d. '348/959).71 "Tell us what is meant by 'faith' and
'trust-in-Cod';" Bushanjt was asked. "It is simply," he replied,
"that you eat your bread by yourself, chewing it morsel by
morsel, with utter peace of heart; ' ~nd that you know that
whatever belongs to you cannot be taken away from yoU."72
And several centuries later, one again finds exactly the same
sentiment expressed by ' Izz al-:Din Mahrnud Kashanl in his
assertion that ~ 'Tawakkul is the result of Reality of fa,i th
(fman) " , a faith which has reached the degree of certainty
(yaqfn). "73 Si:nce th~ practice of tawakkul was understo'od to
rpanifest the highest degree of faith : the conquest of Doubt by
Certitude, the victory of Gnosis over Ignorance, it is easy to
comprehend the theological context of Sahl al-Tustari's
statement that "three things are vouchsafed to adepts in
tawakkul: true Certitude (~aqfqat-i-yaqfnf), visionary disClosure
of the Unseen (mukashcifa-yighaibf), and contemplation of
God's proximity, (musMhada-yi qurb). "74

The celebrated Sufi theologian Abu Ifarpid al-Ghazali (d.

505/1111) ' brought his formidable powers of philosophical'
analysis to bear upon the problem and place of tawakkul in the
M uslirti 'rriYSlie'5 via purgative,devoting ,over forty hefty pages
of Book xXXV ·of the :J~ya "UlUmal-Dfn, ",his "monumental
attempf to,' reviveIslamicJaithan'd ;pietYi":to the subject of al-
tauhfd wa'l:...(awakkul. AI-GhazaH also 'affirmed tawakkul to be
"on'e ofthe pillars of faith (fman), " and like the other pmarsof
faith, he subdivides it in'to 1) its foundation: 'knoWledge'
('Um); 2) its purpose:'tontemplative consciousness' (~al)and
3) its fruit: 'action' ('amal). While the foundation of tawakkul is
obViously the Divine Unity, any deep knowledge of tau~fd is
only reveal'ed through the "sciences of mystical unveiling"
45
 APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

('am al-mukashafah). There are four basic degrees to tauMd, al-

Ghazali professed: i) exoteric, or verbal Unity, which is a
matter of rote learning and imitation (=taqlfd); ii) mesoteric,
or heart-verification ' of Unity (=ta~dfq); iii) esoteric, or
visionary Unity (=kashf); and finally iv) supra-formal
consciousness of Unity by way of self-annihilation (=fana' fi 'l-
tau~fd),75 AI-Ghazall here speculates that , al-l:1allaj's
reprimand of al-Khawwas.'s exclusive concentration on
tawakkul was "because al-Khawwas. was trying to stabilize
himself in the third station of Unity whereas al-f:Iallaj was
trying to make him ascend to the fourth station." According to
al-Ghazall's' schema, we may deduce that the apophatic
discourse of tawakkul (such as, for rnstance, was expressed by
Abu Bakr al.;Wasitl, Baba Ta}:tir and Ruzbihan Baql1) is directly
related to a hierarchical theory of ascending degrees of Unity,
the ,fourth and last stage of which constitutes the
transcendence of tawakkul through absorption (lana ') in God
Himself - also recalling the linking of fana' to tawakkulin the
exchange between Shiblt's student and , Bn 'Ali Siyah
mentioned earlier on. However, al-Ghazali takes pains to
explain that "the objective consciousness, 9f trust in God (~al
al-tawakkul) can only be attained thro'ugh the third degree of
tau~fd" (kashj), for "even the 'most elect of adepts' (khawa?),
are not permitted to explain more than this about the fourth
degree of Unity, nor is tawakkul founded on that degree."76
The fourth degree, however, was already known and
commented upon by numerous Sufis, and, as noted above,
might best be termed 'apophatic tawakkul '.

A similar description of ascending degrees of tauhfd -

with tawakkul corresponding to One of these degree - is found
' in the Sufi ,syrnbolistpoet Mal:\n1udShabistar.ts (d. after
740/1339) short Persian philosol'hkaltreatise}:Jaq/l al~ YaHfn,7l
which classifies ' thepsycho~spi:ritualdevelopment 6(mystics
towards n~alization of taubfdinto fivest,a ges:l) tllei3.b'rHtion of
the illusion of persor'iidfreewill , (ikhtiyar),with ,coI)sequent
realization of ' the virtue , ofconterttrneht(r'id&\ " ii) 'the
abdication of human power (qudrat) in favour of Divinely
determined power, where the Sufi becomes endowed with the
actual virtue of tawakkul; iii) the annihilation of particular
knowledge in universal knowledge ('ilm-i-kullf), so that the
46
VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO,2

mystic realizes the reality of submission to God (taslfm); iv)

the annihilatIon of the illusion of personal being, or the stage
of 'annihilation in Divine Unity' ([ana' dar tau~fd) v) the
'station of Muhammad' which is termed "subsistence after
annihilation (baqa' ba'd ai-fana ')" at which point the mystic
experiences for himself the truth of the verse "God suffices for
the one who places his trust in Him.78 " Shabistarl's theory of
the place of tawakkul in what he calls "the mystical
progression towards Divine Unity (tartfb-i-suLUk-i-tau~fd)"
culminating in total annihilation in the Unity, recalls al-
Ghazal1;s schema (especially ' note ,the similarity ~f his
emphasis to that of Cj.l-Ghazali onfana' in the penultimate and
ultimate stages of tau~fd), But it was in fact influenced by the
sophisticated philosophical Sufism of Ibn' ArabV9

Ultimately, for all the authors discussed above, tawakkul

is both a moral virtue, a psycho-ethical trait of character and
the central spiritual attitude whichehables the devotee to
realize tauhfd, whereupon "' whether through annihilation
([ana,) in, or by the unveiling (kashj) 6f, Unity - he realizes that
the Truster, his trust and the Trustee, are somehow,
paradoxically, but One. How the latter is known, however,
only 'Um al-mu~ashafah can reveaL80

The Stati?ns (Maqamat) 6JTawak,kul in Classical Persian S'f-Lfism

In general, while manuals of Sufism enumerate the

stations in different orders, nearly aU schemes list tawakkul as
characteristic of the initial stage,s of the Way, being
immediately preceded by asceticism (zuhd) , 'AU bin 'U thman
jullabl Hujwlrl (d. 463/1071), Jor instance,pla¢ec;i it a~Jhe
fourth station ' of the Sufi Path intb:e following , of:p er:
repentance (taubClt) --+ conversion (inabat) '~asceficisin (~j~hd)
--+ ' tawakkul. 81Most Sufisc1assified it 'among 'the' spi:r{tual
transactionso<mu ~am~ldt)ormoralVirtues (akhIaq) of the see,ker,
.while :almost none located it a'm ong .the mystical states (aJ:zivJl)'
or spiritual realities (J:zaqa 'iq) , '

In his Nahj aZ-Khfi$$, Abu Man~ur I~fahani (d. 417/1026),

the J:Ianbal1 preacher, Sufi Shaikh and important member of

47
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

the Baghdadi School, thus divides trust into three stations

(maqamat); as follows :

(i) Trust in the midst of plenty (tawakkulbi-wujud

al-kifayah); (ii) trust conditioned by safeguards and
guarantees (tawakkul bi-shaft al-~aman); and (iii)
trust in God (tawakkul'ala 'l-ljaqq). Trust in the
midst ·of plenty is obvious. Trust conditioned by
guarantees involves the soundness of accepting
the guarantee from the Guarantor. Trust in God is
particular to all mystical states. The danger in trust
in the midst of plenty is that it is only in the midst
of plenty; the ' danger intrust conditioned by
guarantees lies in avarice; and the danger of trust
in God lies in insufficient knowledge of God
(ma 'rifat bi 'l-ljaqq) .Hz

In I~fahanl's categorization, tawakkul is featured. as

number eight of forty spiritual stations. The first fifteen of
these stations occur ' in the following order: repentance
(tail bah) ~ devotion (iradah) -7 sincerity (~idq) ~ truthfulness
(ikhla~) ~ self-examination (muIJasabah) ~ abstinence (wata I) -7
renunciation (zilhd) -7 trust (tawakkul) -7 spiritual poverty
(jaqr) ~ patience (~abr) -7 contentment (rida ') -7 fear (khauf) -7
hope (raja ') ~ spiritual transaction (mu 'amalah) -7
watchfulness (ri 'ayah).

Isfahanl's schema here might be suitably compared to

the views of Sahl bin'Abd-Allah al-Tustari who, sqme two
centuries earlier, had placed taw'akkuI as third in place among
seven stations (wara 1-7 zuhd-7tawakkuI-7ma 'rifat-7qana 'at-7ri~a '
~ muwafiqdt), stating that .

Abstirtence(wara ') is the ,beginning of renunciation

(zuhd), and :renunciation .lsthe beginning of trust
inCo.d {tawdkkul), and trust is thegn()stiC's first
degree. Now gnosis (ma'rifat) isthe -beginnmg of
resignation (qana 'at) and resignation is the
renunciation oJ sensual passion (tark-d-shahwat).
Renunciation is the beginning of contentment

48
 VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

(rida ') and contentment is the beginning of

co~ciliation (rnuwafiqat)."83

In both schemes, that of I~fahani and al-Tustart

however, tawakkul is positioned among - or rather, placed at
the zenith of - the category of mu 'amalat (external transactions
and social contracts) immediately preceding the manifestation
'of mystical gnosis.

In similar fashion, Abu'l-Najib al ..Suhrawardi (d .

563/1168) in his Adab al-Mutfdfn classified tawakkul as the
zenith of his fourteen "Stations of Devotion" (!ibadat), coming
after the moral virtues (akhlaq), in the following order:
vigilance (intibah)~ repentance(taubah)~ penitence (inabah)--,)
piety (wara'),,-+ self-examination (muhasabah)--,) devotion
(iradah)--') , renunciation (zuhd)--,) spiritual poverty (jaqr)--')
sincerity (~idq) --') pa tien t self-restraint (ta$abbur) --') pa Hence
(sabr)--') contentment (ri~a')~ truthfulness (ikhlas)--') trust
(tawakkul),84 While its position of reference on the via mystica
) altered from Sufi to Sufi, tawakkul remained basically the
mea~ure by which the pilgrini.assessed the truthfulness, i.e.
I Godliness, of his conduct (mu 'amalah) with God ahd mah. It
{ should be noted, however, that the close connection between
tawakkul and patience, as exhibited in al-Suhrawardl's schema,
was a feature common to the ascetic theologians of the School
of Baghdad, for, as Junaid had remarked: "The farthest degree
of patience (~abr) is trust. God Almighty says: Those who have
patience and put their trust in God."Bs

Khwajah 'Abd-Allah An~ari of Herat (396/1006-

481/1089) in his c;:elebrated Sufi manual on the Stages of the
Sufi Wayfarers (ManazilaL-Sti'irfn), composeci ,in475/1082, a
few decades after the Nahj al~Kha~~, itemized the Sufi pa th in to
100 stages. In each shlge, apparently folloWing ternary
structure initiated ' by Isfahanl,he categorizeshis5ubjects 'ih
tripartite fOrni.. Tawakkulis ' feahiredbyAn~ariin the Man6zil
as Stage no. 27, being placed in the third chaptertbab) on the
'spiritual transactions' (mil 'amalat - exactly as in al-Tustari's
schema) undertaken by the wayfarer, in the order of: [21]
watchfulness (ri 'ayah)~ contemplative vigilance (muniqabah)--')
reverence (l:zurmah)~ truthfulness (ikhla~)--') correction
49
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

(tahdhib) -) steadfastness (istiqamah)-) trust (tawakkul)-)

consignment (tafwf~)-) confidence (thiqqah)-') [30] submission
(taslfm).86 In his Persian treatise $ad Maidan,87 also devoted to
the mystical stations, An~arl features tawakkul as the twenty-
first station following the field of discrimination (ba~frat).
Recalling AbO. Mart~o.r I~fahani's threefold schema in the Nahj
al-KMss, Ansari desCribes the field of tawakkuI as comprising
three' degrees: i. trusting by experiment , (tajtubah)i ii. by
necessity (ganlrat); and iii. with genuine and real trust
(~aqfqat). The third and final degree of tawakkuI allows one to
understand that the presence orwithdra.wal of God's grac~ is
all wisdom, and although the mystic "on the path is
continually confronted with bewilderment (~aiTat), here he
realizes serenity and contentment."

With these descriptions, An~ari m~sterfully sums up the

realization ofthe major masters ofthe' School of Baghdad: that
genuine tawakkul brings serenity only when it approaches the
blinding light of gnosis - before the rays of which dull human
reason is dazzled and b~wildered. His view that the mystic,
despite ' serene tawakkul, also experiences intense
bewilderment, neatly panillels al-Kharraz's description of the
trusting mystic who moans and wails without ceasing and
whose tawakkul grants him "a restless anxiety Which never
abates and peaceful repose without any anXiety." His
tripartite categorizati6n of the degrees of tawakkul (tajrubah-)
ejarurat-') ~aqfqat) also paraphrases ,Isfahani'sschema (al-
kifayah-) al-4aman ~ al-ljaqq) both in form and content.

Tripartite Typologies ofTawakkul

At this ,juncture it will be l:lsefulto ,examine more

systematically,the early Islamk'c att;?gorizationof tawakkul and,
particularly, the Sufis' ,fascination witbtdpattite diviSIons of
this concep't, Thehiei:archical 'modeof thinking 'is very much
in ,accord with the Sufis' lovebfallegory :ariddesireto view
the Real underlying the apparent, perceive the anagog'ic truth
behind the literal tale. In this context; one might recall Sahl
bin 'Abd-Allah al-Tustari's claim that the best company a man
may keep are the gnostics ('arifan) because "they d.o not take
anything too gravely/since with thein, every action which
50
 VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

occurs has an allegorical interpretation (ta 'wfl). For that

reason, they forgive you in whatever condition you are."88

Tripartite divisions of tawakkul abounded in Sufi

literature. The earliest such typology is found in Abu Na?r al-
. Sarraj's (d. 378/988) Kitab al-Luma' fi 'I- Ta~awwuJ9 which
contairis a separate chapter on the "station of trust"90 where
three degrees of tawakkul are propounded: i. trust of the
common believers (mu 'mintzn); ii. of the elect (khawass); and iii.
of the most elect (khti~~ al-khti~~). Commo~ believers, explainS
al-Sarraj, still keep themselves in mind while trusting in God.
They submit to God's will, exercising patience in deprivation
and contentment with Providence. On the second level of the
elect, however, one trusts in God with' little or no self-
consciousness, while the third level intensifies, in degree but
'not in kind, one's sense Of utter contentment w.ith God's will,
regardless of consequences, whether good or ill.

In his Qur'an commentary Rashid ai-Din Maibudi (d.

520/1126) offers a ternary division between modulations of
trust in God, nearly identical to that of al-Sarraj, citing with
approval Qushairi's father-in-law Abu 'All al-Daqqaq's
(d.412/1021) opinion that tawakkul comprises three stages: i.
tawakkul, ii. submission (taslfm) and iii. consignment (tajwfc!),
again respectively corresponding to the common believers
('awamm), the elect (khawa~$) and the most elect (kha~~ al-
kha~~) . . According to al-Daqqaq/Maibudl, whereas all the
prophets in general can be said to possess tawakkul,
submission was Abraham's particular characteristic, whereas
consignment (Le. of all
one's ways and means to God) was the
specialqua1i~y ·of Mul:tammad. "One with 'Trust' seeks grace;
the myslicwith 'Submission' awaits encounter with God,
while the adept who stands in (the station of) -'Consignment'
rests in contentment, ' enjoying ,perfed' spiritual peace and ·
cheer.91" .. .

Although the arguments presented by Maibudi's

contemporaryal-Ghazall in Book XXXV of the I~ya' 'U/umcil-
. Dfn for the centrality of tawakkul in Muslim piety relied ·
heaVily on al-Mul:tasibl and al-Makkl, his occasionally quite
original organization of its mystical degrees in this chapter
51
 APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

and description of its theological aspects had a profound

impact on all later speculation on the theme. 92 The
abandonment of the self to God or trust in Him, states al-
Ghazali, is analogous to the state of a man wrongly accused of
. a crime, and so, hiring his closest friend - who happens also
to have discovered the falsity of his accuser's claims - assigns
to him the full power ofattomey to argue his case against
those accusations. On the condition that his friend possess the
right traits of charader necessary to argue his case ("rectitude,
energYi eloquence and compassion"), he is to be completely
and utterly 'trusted'. Extending the metaphor into spiritual
practice, when, either by illumination (kashfJor decisive
conviction (I'tiqad), one is convinced ' that God is the sole
Agent in creation; when one also has firm faith in His Power
and Knowledge to respond to on~'s needs, conscious bf His
const,a nt Mercy and Grace towards all worshippers, that there
is nothing higher than His Power and Knowledge in the
world, your heart wm then, of course, rely utterly and solely
upon God" exactly as the client trusts ,h is lawyer to argue his
case. 93 Reaching this degree of trust, one's confidence in God
strengthens or w~akerts according to the intensity of one's
faith in Him . . Expanding on this description, . al-Ghazali
describes three basic degrees of tawakkul:

(1) Trust as described above - the spiritual attitude of

which is basically that of the confidence (thiqqah) of a client
towards his cHosen legal agent or proxy. AI-Ghazall criticizes
this first degree 'of trust as being'characterized by exaggerated
efforts (takallufJ and acquisition .(kasb), saying that the mystic
is so preoccupied with his own trust that he forgets to consider
to Whom he has entrusted himself.

(2) A stronger kindoLtrustis ' ,that of .the " absolute

reliance of an infant upon his m6therJfbelieyingtHaf~he alone
can fulfill .a ll his needs. This reliance ,and c,o:hfidence' in her is,
however, completely unconscious and " lacl<.sany
comprehensive or analytical knowledge of her abilities. The
difference between the first and the secondde'greesliesin the
spiritual profoundity of the second stage - where the mystic is
"so annihilatedifanf) in his trust from his trust that his heart

52
 VOL.LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

does not even attend to its own trust, but only focuses upon
Him in Whom he trusts."94

To illustrate the difference between the first and second

degrees of trust, al-Ghazali cites Sahl al-Tustari's dict~m on
tawakkul (also quoted before him by al-MCikki in the Qut al-
QuLUb,95), who when asked to define tawakkul, replied: "It is to
renounce personal security (tark a'l-anulnf)." "And what of its
most elevated degree?" they asked. "None knows it," he
replied, "except by the actual means of tawakkul itself and the
renunciation of volition." The first degree of tawakkul (that of
the client and his agent), explains al-Ghazali, corresponds to
al-Tustarl's tark al-amanf, while his second degree (that of the
infant with his mother) to al-Tustari's tarkal-ikhtiyar.

(3) To describe the third and highest stage of tawakkul al-

Ghazali again (without revealing his source) has recourse to
the famous metaphor, again first coined by al-T ustari,96 tha t
the devotee must trust in God mathala al~mayyit baina yadi al-
ghasstil: "The first station in tawakkul is that you become in
God's Omnipotent Will like a corpse in the hands of a
washerman, which he turns to and fro as he wills without any
.motion or volition on its part." However, the . mystic is not
entirely lifeless; he perceives his soul as moved by the eternal
Will of Divine Power while fully conscious and certain of the
fact that he is beiTIg moved by Divine Willartd Knowledge. At
this elevated stage, the devotee "abandons petition and
supplication" (tark al-du 'a' wa 'l-su 'al) since he beholds "that
what God had given him in pre-Eternity thro.u gh His Grace
and GEmerosity is fat better than anything he can possibly
demand of Him now."97 .

. Al,;Ghazali's tripartite typology oftawakkul proved very

I .
popular and was often taken as a:nio~el of exposition by later
. Sufis -ascanbe 'Seen in the greafChishti saint Ni~am ai-Din
AuHy<'l'{d.725/1325), · whodelineate'd · three stages of trust'
using these saine 'Ghazalian 'c oncepts (i. client-lawyer; ii.
infant-mother; .iii. corpse-undertaker) down' to the very
letter.98 Muhy aI-Din ibn 'Arabi (d, 638/1240), while ignoring
its tripartit~ character, also basically adopted al-Ghazali's
typology, noting that there are five levels of trust: i) child to
53
 )

t
"i
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999 I.
. t
I
i.
father; ii) slave to master; iii) agent to employer; iv) corpse- 1
undertaker; and v) ineffable: "of such a high degree that it t
I
cannot be :mentioned."99 1
One wonders if perhaps the Shaikh al-Akbar's
mysterious last stage of tawakkuI was a reprise to the fourth
degree of Unity (lana' fi 'l-tauhfd) which al-Ghazali had
refused to explain?

ENDNOTES

(1) This article grew out of a study in preparing the article on

Tawakkul for the Encyclopedia of Islam (2nd ed.), vol. x,
forthcoming 1999. I am deeply grateful to Dr Muhammad Isa
Waley of the British Library and Mr . Terry Graham for
considerable assistance in editing the final version of this
essay.

(2) Tor Andrae, In the Garden of Myrtles: Studies in Early Islamic

Mysticism,tr. B.:Sharpe (Albany: SUNY, 1987), p . 110.

(3) Abu I:Iiimid al-Ghazau, I~ya' 'UZam al-Dm (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr,
n.d., rprt. of Cairo 1352/1933 edition), IV, p. 223.

(4) Murata and Chittick, The Vision of Islam (New York: Paragon;
1994), p. 116.

(5) Abu Talib al-Makki, Qat al-QulUb(Beriut: Dar ~adir, n.d.),

pt.2,p.3.

(6) Darshan Singh ,i n his "The Nature and Meaning of Tawakkulin

Sufism," isiamicCuUure, LVI/4 . (1982),pp. 265,-74, also
provides a useful .b ut quite limited survey of its meaning in
early Islamic mysticism.

(7)~afi?: ShIraZI, Dfwi1n, ed P.N. Khanhlri (Tehran: Shirkat-i-Sahami-yi

'am, 1359 AJsh.j1980), p. 559.

(8) Farid aI-Din 'AHar, Tadhkirat al-Auliya " ed. M. Isti'lami

(Tehran: Zawwar, 1993) p. 581.

54
VOL,LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

(9) Some of the key references are:II 256, 283; III: 75, 122, 159-61;
IV: 58,81,105; V; 12, 26, 47; VI: 89;VII: 68, 89; VIII: 2,27,49, 61;
IX: 51, 129; X: 71, 84-5; XI: 56, 70, 88, 123; XII: 11, 64, 67; XIII:
30; XIV: 11-12; XVI: 42, 99; XXIII: 8; XXV: 58; XXVI: 107, 125,
143, 162, 178, 217; XXVII: 39, 79; XXVIII: 26; XXIX: 59; XXXI;22j
XXXIII: 3, 48, 72; XXXIX: 38; XLII: 10,36; XLIV: 18; LVIlI: 10;
LX: 4;LXIV; 13; LXV: 3.

(10) AI-Ghazall, I~ya,' IV, p. 211.

(11) Ed. P. Nwyia, in Melanges de 1'Universite Saint-Joseph, L XLIII;

Ease. 4,1967, pp. 181-230.

(12) Ibid., p . 183.

(13) Melanges, P' 213.

(14) Ibid.

(15) AI-Makki, Qut, U, p . 5.

(16) A good summary of these debates is found in al-Makki, Qat at-

. QulUb, II, pp. 5-6); Benedikt Reinert, Die Lehre vo~ tawakkul in
der iilteren Sufik (Berlin, 1968), and Andrae, op.cit., pp. 110-15.

(17) Abu'l-Qasim al-Qushairi, al-Risalat al-Qushairiyyah, ed.

Zariq/Balt.aji (Beirut, 1990), p. 164.

(18) JaMl aI-Din' Rftmi, MathnaWi, tr./ed. RA. Nicholson (London:

Luzac & Co. 1924:.40); I: vv. 900-1200; 1263~1371.

(19) Ibici.,I: 947.

(20) Ibid~i I: 916.

(21) Kulliyyat-i-Sa'ib Tabrfzf, ed. Amiri Firuzkuru (Tehran: Khayyam

1373 A;Hsh./1994), p. 127.

(22) For a good conspectus of various positions on tawakkul in early

Sufism, see J.Nftrbakhsh's chapter on "Tawakkul", in his Ma 'o'rij

55
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

al-~afiyyah (V London: KNP, 1986), pp. 59-84; a generalized

outline is also found in 'Ali Akbar Dihkhuda, Lughatnamah,ed.
M.Mu'm, J.Sharudi (Tehran: Intisharat-i-Darushgah-i"Tihran,
1993-94); V.pp. 6267-68,. S.v. "tawakkul."

(23) Abu '1-I:Iasan Dailaml, Sfrat Shaikh-i-Kabir Abu 'Abd-Alldh ibn

Khafif Shfrazf, trans. into Persian by Rukn al~Din Junaid Shirazi,
ed.A. Schimmel (Tehran: Intishanlt-i-Babak, 1984), p. 85.

(24) Massignon, Essai sur les origines du lexique technique de la

mystique musulmane (Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin,
1954), p. 258.

(25) Paul Nwyia, Exegese Coranique et Langage Myst(que (Beirut: Dar

el-Machreq Editeurs, 1970), pp. 225-27; 0I:\ Shaqiq's doctrine of
inkar at-kasb, see also Massignon, Essai, pp. 258-59.

(26) 'Abd al-Ral;unan Jami, Nafa~fltal-Uns, ed. Mahmshad 'Abidi

(Tehran: MU'assasa-yi It~ila'at, 1370/1991), p.49.

(27) 'Ali Hujwiri, Kashf al-Ma~jub,trans. RA.Nicholson (London:

Luzac & Co. 1959 rprt.)iP. 146ifor other similar stories, d.
Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (London: RKP, 1975 rprt.), pp.
41ff.

(28) Sana'i, ijadfqat al-J:laqfqah wa Sharf 'at al-Tariqah,ed. Mudarris

Radawi (Tehran: 1359 A.Hsh./1980), pp. 117-19.

(29) As mentioned, for instance, by Yusuf h. Isma'il al~Nabahani in

his Jiimi' Karamat al-Auliyii '(Egypt, 1911), p. 143.

(30) See Andrae, OP.cit.i pp.1l0~15; R Arnaldez, Three Messengers for

One God,tr.GW. Schlabach ·etal.,(Notre Dame/London: ·.
University of Ndtre Da~e Press; 1994), pp. 91-98.

(31) On which, see R.J.Hoffmann, "Wealth," in Morton Smith and

R.J.Hoffmann (eds')i What the Bible Really Says (San Francisco:
Harper Collins, 1993), pp. 181-86.

56
 VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

(32) For another story along this line concerning Ibrahim ibn
Adham's tawakkul, see 'A~~ar, Tadhkirah, p. 122.

(33) • AHar, Tadhkirah, p. 138.

(34) Cited by Nwyia, Exegese, p.292-93.

(35) Nwyia, begese, p. 294.

(36) •Abd-Allah Ansari, Tabaqat al-~aftyyah, ed. M.S.Mawlayi

(Tebr~n: 1362 A.Hsh./1983), p. 348.

(37) Hujwiri, Kashf, p. 153.

(38) Dailami, Sfrat . . . Ibn Khafif Shfrazf, p. 105.

(39) • A~~ar, Tadhkirah, p. 128.

(40) Ibid., p.132.

(41) Ibid., p.n8.

1 .
(42) Ibid., p.606.

(43) Ibid., p.S1S.

(44) Hujwiri, Kashf, p. 290.

(45) Ibid., p. 205; also d. al-Risalat al-Qushairiyyah, p. 165.

(46) •Attar, Tadhkirah, p.S88; for further commentary of this

exchange in the ,c ontext of early mystl,calth~ory ·of the spiritual
stations .(maqamat), seeLMassignQil, The Passion of al-IjaIlfij:
Mystic and Martyr of Islam,trans. H. ,Mason (Princeton:
Princeton University Press,1982), I, pp. 120~1.

(47) 'A~~ar, Tadhkirah, p. 609.

(48) The Passion of al-fJallfij, I, p. 121.

57
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

(49) Rashid aI-Din Maibudl, Kashf al-Asrar wa 'Uddat al-AbTi1T, ed.

'A.A.Hikmat (Tehran: Intishanlt-i" Danishgaht, 1952-60), IV, p .
325.

(50) Stories like the following, related by An~arl <TabaqtU, p. '110),

are characteristic of the paradoxical ineffability of the tawakkul
doctrine when pushed to the farthest extreme of ascetic self-
denial. "Abu Musa Dabill said that he asked Bayazid to define
tawqkkuI.'You tell me', he retorted. Dabill said: 'Well, the
Shaikhs declare that if snakes and dragons surround you on .,
the left and right, you don't tum your head.' Bayazid retorted:
'That's too facile. Rather, if one Were t o behold all the
inhabitants of hell suffering torment and all the denizens of
heaven basking in its blessings and still allow one's heart to
distinguish between the two, such a person does not trust in
God (mutawakkil nabashad), ." .

(51) 'A~~ar, Tadhkirah, p.445.

(53) 'Attar, Tadhkirah, p. 735.

(54) ,Rfrzbihan Baql1,Shar~-i-Shat~iyyat, p: 299.

(55) Baba Tahir, Kalimat~i-Qisar, ed. Javad Mashkur in Shath-i-Alrwul wa

. AtMr ' wa Du-baitfM-yi BaM Tahir (Tehran: Silsila-yi' In~harat-i­
Anjuman~i-Athar-i.;.Milli, no. 113, 1354 A.Hsh.j 1975), p. 590.

(56) Ibid.

(57) Qat al-Qulab,II,p. 6.

(58) Annemarie Scrummet Mystical Dimensions ' of Islam (Chapel

Hill: University of N;Carolina Press, 1975), p. 119.

(59) I~ya ', IV, p. 210.

(60) Qat al-QulUb, II/p. 2.

58
 VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

(61) I~yii', IV, p. 213.

(62) Ijadfqah, p. 117.

(63) From his treatise on Sufi' terminology, published in Sayyid

Hamid Tabibiyan, 'Irllqinamah : Ta~qfq dar Dfviin-i 'Iraqf
(Tehran: Intisharat-i-Rawzana 1374 A.Hsh./1995), p. 244.

(64) This is
the interpretation given by Junaid's companion Abu
Bakr Shibui 'cited by J.Nurbakhsh, Shiblf: Mast-i-lJaqq wa
Majdhub;..i-J:Iaqfqat (London: Khanaqc1h-i Ni'mat-Alla.hi, 1376
A.Hsh./1997), p. 119.

(65) An~ari, Tabaqat, p. 338.

(66) Qat al-QulUb, II, p. 4.

(67) Kasha.nl, Misbah al-Hidiiyah wa Miflii~ al-Kifiiyah, ed. Jala! aI-Din

Huma'i (Tehran 1325 A.Hsh./1946, 2nd ed.), p. 397.

(68) Qat al-QulUb, II, p. 6.

(69) Ibid., II, p. 3.

(70) Ibid., II,p. 5.

(71) This saying is also repeated by 'Attar in his account of

Bushanji (Tadhkirah, p. 522).

(72) Ibn Munawwar, Asrar al-Tauhfd,ed. Dh. Safd (Tehran: Amir

Kabil 1354 A.Hsh./1975; 3rd printing), pp. 256.;57.

(73) Mi~bah, p. 396.

(74) 'At~ar, Tadhkirah, p. 318.

(75) I~yii',IV, p. 212.

,
I
(76) Ibid., p. 213.

i
59
1
~
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

(77) Haqq aZ-Yaqfn, in Samad Muwahhid(ed.), Majmu'ah-i-AtMr-i-Shaikh

Milhmud Shabistarf Tehran: Kitabkhana-i-Tahfiri, 1365 A.Hsh./
1986), pp. 310-11.

(78) AI-Qur'an, LXV:3.

(79) Cf. Ibn •Arabi, al-Futu~at al-Makkiyyah, III, p. 351: 21-22, where
a mysterious "fifth tawakkul" is mentioned as pertaining to the
.
"Muhammadan. Station".

(80) Cf. al-Ghazal1, l~ya', IV, 95; 212.

(81) Kashf al-Mtl~jab, p. 181.

(82) Abu Man~ur I~fahanl, Nahj al-Kha~~, ed. N.Purjavddi, in

Ta~qfqat-i-lslamf (1367 A.Hsh., Nos. 1 &2), p. 136.

(83) •A~~ar, Tadhkirah, p. 320. This statement is also cited in another

form by KasMnl, Mi~ba~, p. 373; "Abstinence, wara', is the
beginning of renunciation, zuhd; renl,lnciation the beginning of
trust, tawakkul; trust the beginning of resignation, qana 'at; and
resignation the beginning of contentment, ri~a'."

(84) Abu 'l-Najib al-Suhrawardi, Addb al-Murrdin, ed. N.M.Harawt

Arabic text with a ' Persian translation (Tehran: Intishar/1t-i-
Maula 1363 A.Hsh./1984), pp. 74-5;

(85) •A~~ar, Tadhkirah, p. 445; aI-Qur'an, XVI: 42.

(86) •Abd-Allah An~ari, Manazil aI-Sa'irfn, Arabic text ed. with

Persian trans. R.FarMdi (Kabul: 1911/ rprt. Tehran: Maula 13(,1
A.Hsh.j1982).

(87) •Abd-All§h An~an "The Hundred Fields/' in ibid., p. 28.

(88) •A~~ar, Tadhkirah, p. 321.

(89) Abu Na~r al-Sarraj, ' Kitab al-Luma' fi ' '/- Ta~aWwuf, ed.
R.A.Nicholson (London/Leiden: Luzac, Gibb Memorial Series,
no. 22, 1914), p. 51.

60
 VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2

(90) This chapter has been translated into English by Michael Sells,
Early Islamic Mysticism: SuA Qur 'an, Mi'raj, Poetic and
Theological Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1996), pp. 208-
09.

(91) Kashf al-Asrar, II, p. 330. (u kai ba tawakku1-asLtalib-i--'aM-ast; a

kai ba taslfm-ast muntazir-i-liqa' ast; wa a kat ba tafwfd-ast dar

I majma '-i-ruh u rai~an asada-yi ri4a!ast.) Apparently relying on

the same source, 'A~~ar (Tadhkirah, p. 656) described al-
Daqqaq's exposition of these three stages as follows: "tawakkul

I
is the quality of prophets: Submission (tasZfm) the quahty of
Abraham, and ConSignment (tajwftf.) the quality of our
Prophet. The master in tawakkulis content with God's
promises; the possessor of Submission content with
knowledge '('ilm), and the possessor of Consignment content '
with the Diyine decree (~ukm). Trust is the primary degree,
Submission intermediary, and Consignment the final degree ."

(92) See also Louis Gardet, "L'Abandon a, Dieu (tawakkul): text d'al~
al-Ghazalf," IBLA 13 (1950), pp. 37-48, a partial translation of
al-Ghazali's Kitt~b aI-Timhfd wa '1- Tawakkul from the I~ya '.

(93) Ihya', !V, p. 224.

(94) Ibid., p. 225.

(95) Qat al-Qulab, pt. 2, p. 4.

(96) 'Attar (Tadhkirah, p. 318) quotes al-Tustari as the author of

this statement.

(97) I~ya', !V,P. 225.

(98) See AInu · !:lasan 'Ala' ,Sijzi, Fawa'id aI-Fu 'ad, trans.
B.B.Lawrence, Nizam ad~Dfn Awliya: Morals for the Heart (New
York: Paulist Press, 1992), p. 143.

(99) Denis Gril, "The KWib al-Inbah 'ala TarIq Allah of 'Abdallah
Badr al-J:1abashl," Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society,
XV, 1994; p. 18. See also Ibn 'Arabi's discussion in his al-
61
~;.
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999

Futa~at aI-Makkiyyah (Cairo: Dar al-Sadir, n.d.), II, pp. 199-201,.

on the maqam aI-tawakkuI where he claims that "the levels of
tawakkul for the true gnostics are 487."

.!

62