Quotes from A Collection of Sufi Rules of Conduct
A Collection of Sufi Rules of Conduct
by Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami
Islamic Texts Society, London, England, 2010 165 pages
121. The Sufi must endure hardship and tribulations as much as he can for the benefit of people . . .
122. The Sufi must be compassionate toward his friends, have a good opinion of them, and give them advice . . .
123. The Sufi must observe the teachings of his masters, and guard the blessings of the education he receives when he stays in their company and follows their adab . . .
124. The Sufi must endeavor not to eat anything that he has not paid for. I once heard . . . Abu Turab al-Nakhshabi say: ‘I never let my nafs have the better of me except one time, when I felt a craving for some bread and eggs while I was traveling. So I turned off to a village, but when I arrived, a man jumped at me and seized me, and he said ‘This man was one of the robbers!’ So they threw me on the ground and gave me seventy lashes. Then a man recognized me and said [to them]: ‘Woe unto you, this man is Abu Turab!’ So they lifted me up and apologized to me. Then, the man took me to his house and offered me bread and eggs. And I said to my nafs: ‘Eat them, after seventy lashes!’ (pp. 40-41)
From the Glossary:
Nafs: self; the soul; the subtle reality of the individual; the lower soul, the ego. The term nafs is used in Arabic to mark reflexive grammatical constructions, such as ‘he saw himself’; it’s also used to refer to a man’s soul or to his personality as a whole. In Sufi literature, and in works on ethics in general, the word comes to mean the ego-self, the lower soul, as the locus of blameworthy traits and of self-centered life . . . In many passages of the Jawami, the Sufi is called to fighting his nafs, the seat of his baser inclinations, and humbling his self, so as to pass away from the attributes of his own individuality and see God as the only reality. (p. 110)
-- quote submitted by Matt M.
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