path. I have seen none like him in striving upon his path.
He said to me: “The men are four kinds. ‘Men who have been true to what they pledged to God’ [al-Ahzab 33:23] are the men of the outward. ‘Men whom neither trade nor sale distracts from the remembrance of God’ [al-Nur 24:37] are the men of the inward, the companions in the presence of the Real Most High; counsel belongs to them.
“Then there are the men of the Heights, who are the men of the limit. God Most High says: ‘Upon the Heights are men’ [al-Aʿraf 7:46]. They possess scenting, discernment, and freedom from attributes, so they have no attribute. Abu Yazid al-Bistami was among them. There are also men who, when the Real calls them to Himself, come to Him on foot in haste to answer, without riding: ‘Proclaim the pilgrimage among the people; they will come to you on foot’ [al-Hajj 22:27]. These are the men of the vantage point.”
(The Men of the Outward and Relinquishing Disposition)
The men of the outward are those who possess the power of disposition in the world of dominion and the visible. They are those to whom Shaykh Muhammad ibn Qaʾid al-Awani used to refer. This is the station that the discerning shaykh Abu al-Suʿud ibn al-Shibl al-Baghdadi relinquished out of courtesy toward God.
Abu al-Badr al-Tamashki al-Baghdadi, may God have mercy on him, told me: “When Muhammad ibn Qaʾid al-Awani, who was one of the Individuals, met this Abu al-Suʿud, he said to him, ‘Abu al-Suʿud, God has divided the kingdom between you and me. Why do you not exercise disposition within it as I do?’ Abu al-Suʿud replied, ‘Ibn Qaʾid, I have given you my share.
Notes
Translator’s note TN749-1: The passage plays on rijāl, “men,” and rijālan, “on foot,” in the pilgrimage verse. “The Heights” translates al-Aʿrāf; its relation to a boundary or isthmus is developed below. “Disposition” renders taṣarruf, the exercise of influence or governing power, which Abu al-Suʿud chooses to relinquish.
