and those who follow his course.
(Leaving Empowerment and Leaving Manifestation)
Leaving charismatic gifts may originate with God: He, Mighty and Majestic, gives this friend of God no power at all within himself over any such thing, although he is among His greatest servants. I mean outward breakings of customary orders, not knowledge of God.
Or God Most High may have given this friend of God power over such things within himself, and he leaves all of it for God, so that none of it appears upon him at all. We have seen a group who stand upon this footing.
Thus our master Abu al-Suʿud ibn al-Shibl, the wise man of his age, was asked by someone from whom he concealed nothing of his state, “Has God given you disposal, which is the root of charismatic gifts?” He replied, “Yes, fifteen years ago. We left it out of gracious refinement, and the Real disposes for us.”
He meant—may God be pleased with him—that he obeyed God’s command to take Him, Mighty and Majestic, as trustee. The questioner asked him, “What is there, then?” He replied, “The five prayers and awaiting death.” The man is like a bird going about its business: a busy mouth and a foot in motion. He used to say, “Nothing of what has been said has pleased me except his saying:
He planted his foot firmly in the pool of death and said to it: Beneath your arch lies the Gathering.
Such is the man; otherwise let him not claim to be a man. As I was recording this side of this copy, the Real addressed me in my innermost secret: “Whoever takes Me as trustee
Notes
Translator’s note TN4814-1: The verse’s min dūni akhmuṣika al-ḥashr is compressed. Akhmuṣ is the hollow or arch of the foot; the precise spatial relation expressed by min dūni (‘beneath,’ ‘before,’ or ‘on this side of’) remains uncertain.
