"Those signs have flown, and those expressions faded, and those sciences perished, and those forms passed away. And what availed us were the brief prostrations we made in the pre-dawn hours."
— Junaid al-Baghdadi, spoken after death, in a dream to Ja'far al-Khuldi

Biography

His Names, Title, and Origin

He is the Master of the Two Orders and the Jurisconsult of Both Companies, their imam and their crown, the peacock of worshippers, the axis of learning and the learned: Abu al-Qasim Junaid ibn Muhammad ibn al-Junaid al-Khazzaz al-Qawwari, may God sanctify his soul and illuminate his tomb. His father sold glassware, hence the appellation al-Qawwari — the glassmaker; while Junaid himself was a leather-worker by trade.

Imam Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri called him in his Risala: Master of the Path and their imam. A number of the shaykhs bestowed on him, in one account, the title Crown of the Gnostics.

The Shaykh al-Farghani said: "Junaid and Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri were called in Baghdad the peacocks of the worshippers."

Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili said: "Junaid was an axis in knowledge. His origins were from Nahavand, a city in the mountain district said to have been built by the prophet Noah, peace be upon him. He was born and raised in Iraq, and was the master of his age and the singular figure of his era — among the greatest imams and lords of the Sufi company, accepted by all sides, his speech on the divine realities renowned."

His Learning

He studied law under Abu Thawr, the companion of Imam al-Shafi'i, and would give legal opinions in his circle. Some say he followed the madhhab of Sufyan al-Thawri. He accompanied his maternal uncle Abu al-Hasan al-Sari al-Saqati, and al-Harith al-Muhasibi, and other shaykhs. He was issuing legal opinions at twenty years of age.

Abu al-Abbas ibn Surayj, the Shafi'i jurist, was his companion, and whenever Junaid spoke on principles and branches with speech that amazed all present, would say: "Do you know where this comes from? It comes from the blessing of my sitting with Abu al-Qasim al-Junaid."

Ahmad ibn Ja'far al-Munadi said: "Junaid ibn Muhammad had listened to a great deal of hadith from the shaykhs, had observed the righteous and the people of ma'rifa, and had been granted such quickness of mind and correctness of answer across the disciplines of learning as was not seen in anyone of his generation or those older than him — combining the inward and outward sciences with chastity and renunciation of the world and its children."

Ja'far al-Khuldi reported that Junaid said one day: "God has not opened a single branch of knowledge and made a path to it for His creatures without giving me a share and portion in it."

Ibn 'Ajiba said: "He was the Shaykh of the Gnostics, the exemplar of those who walk the path, and the standard of the awliya' in his time. His daily litany was three hundred rak'as and several thousand repetitions of the tasbih."

His Chain of Transmission

Junaid accompanied al-Harith ibn Asad al-Muhasibi; al-Muhasibi accompanied his master Bishr ibn al-Harith al-Hafi; Bishr accompanied 'Amir ibn Shu'ayb; who accompanied al-Hasan al-Basri, may God sanctify all their souls. Bishr al-Hafi also accompanied Fudayl ibn 'Iyad, who accompanied Ja'far al-Sadiq. The chain passes back through the ancestors of the path.

His Death and Departure

He died, may God sanctify his soul, on a Saturday — it was the Nawruz of the Caliph in the year 277, or according to some accounts 278 — at the last hour of Friday in Baghdad. He was buried on Saturday at the Shuniziyya cemetery beside his uncle and master al-Sari al-Saqati, may God be pleased with them both. His grave there is known and visited by the noble and the common alike.

At the hour of his death he had completed the reading of the entire Quran, then began again from Sura al-Baqara and read seventy verses, then he died.

Abu Muhammad al-Jurayri said: "I was with Junaid at the moment of his passing. It was a Friday, the day of the Nawruz, and he was reading the Quran, and he completed it. I said to him: 'In this state, Abu al-Qasim?' He said: 'And who is more deserving of it than I, when here now my scroll is being rolled up?'"

When he was told at his final moments: "Say: There is no god but God," he answered: "I have not forgotten it, that I should need to remember it."

Abu Bakr al-'Attar said: "I was present at Junaid's death with a company of his companions, among them Abu Muhammad al-Jurayri. Al-Jurayri looked at Junaid where he was occupied with his recitation of the Quran and his bowing and prostrating, and said to him: 'Abu al-Qasim, be gentle with yourself.' He replied: 'Abu Muhammad — this is the state by which I reached God Most High at the beginning of my affair. I will not depart from it until I join God.' Then he said: 'Abu Muhammad, I have a need of you: when I die, wash me and shroud me and pray over me.' Al-Jurayri wept, and we all wept. Then he said: 'And another need: prepare a funeral feast for our companions, so that when they return from the funeral they may gather there and not scatter.' Al-Jurayri wept with violent weeping, and said: 'By God, if we lose these two eyes, no two of us will ever gather again.' Abu Ja'far al-Farghani said: By God it was so — no two of them gathered after his death. It was by the blessing of the Shaykh and the sight of him."

Ja'far al-Khuldi said: "I saw Junaid in a dream after his death. I said to him: 'What has God done with you?' He said: 'Those signs have flown, and those expressions faded, and those sciences perished, and those forms passed away. And what availed us were the brief prostrations we made in the pre-dawn hours.'"

He was asked: "From whom did you receive this knowledge?" He answered: "As for the beginning, from my uncle al-Sari al-Saqati. Then from my courtesy with God Most High, subhanahu wa ta'ala, over thirty years beneath this station." He informed the questioner first of the line of inheritance, then secondly of what that inheritance rightly produced: the courtesy that necessarily yields tasting and finding — for the knowledge of the people of realization is received by inheritance and inspiration, by learning and tasting and finding.

Sixty thousand people prayed over him.

The Chapters of the Tradition

Selected sayings of Junaid al-Baghdadi, organized by the terms that circulate among the Sufi company.

On the Moment (al-Waqt)

One night Junaid attended a gathering of companions, invited to a house. When he entered he saw a stranger among the group. He summoned the man, gave him his cloak, and said: "Take this to the market and pledge it for two ratls of sugar for the poor." When the man had gone out, Junaid closed the door behind him and called out: "So-and-so — take the cloak, and do not return here." When asked about this he said: "I bought with my cloak the purity of the Moment for you this night, by removing from among you one who does not belong."

The Moment is precious. When it passes, it cannot be recovered.

Abu al-Abbas ibn Masruq said: "I was walking with Junaid through one of the streets of Baghdad when we heard a singer singing:

The dwellings you loved and frequented —
in the days when you held the days in your hand.

Junaid wept bitterly, then said: 'Abu al-Abbas, how sweet are the dwellings of familiarity and intimacy, and how desolate the stations of opposition. I am still longing for my state at the beginning, the freshness of my striving, when I rode the terrible things in hope of arrival — and here I am now in the days of a lull, regretting the Moments that have passed.'"

Junaid told his companions one day: "Do you know where you are being taken? Do you know for what you were created, and to what you will become? Fear God, mighty and glorious. Guard your Moments and your hours, for they are passing away from you and will not return. The sorrow at their loss in heedlessness — were one of you to give everything he had to give, he could not bring back a Moment that is gone. Complete your litanies and you will find their benefit in the abode of permanence. Let not the little of this world distract you from God Most High — for the little of this world distracts from the great abundance of the next."

On Arrival (al-Wusul)

He was asked: "What is union (al-wasl)?" He said: "The abandonment of following desire."

He also said: "One who reaches Him reaches by the measure of what has been granted to him particularly — otherwise, between God Most High and human beings there is no tie, no kinship, no union."

He wrote to a brother of the path:

"Know that arrival — if you ask after it — consists of deadly wildernesses and ruinous watering-holes that cannot be traversed without a guide, and cannot be crossed without sustained effort and journeying. I will describe for you one such wilderness; understand what I describe, halt where I indicate, and hear what I say.

Know that before you lies a waste. If you are one intended for something within it — may God protect you in that — then the danger in traveling it is immense and the matter witnessed in passing through it is grave. For among the first things that will happen is that you will be plunged deep into a void without limit, thrown headlong into it, sent loose into its abyss, then abandoned in it to yourself — left to it alone. And then: who are you, and what is wanted with you, and what is wanted from you?

In this place its safety is terror, its intimacy is desolation, its light is darkness, its ease is hardship, its witnessing is absence, its life is death. No seeker finds his way there, no traveler accomplishes his purpose, no fugitive escapes. Its first encounter is annihilation; the opening of its marvels is domination; its passages are awesome.

If its deeps overwhelm you, its onrush will sweep you away. You will be carried down and drowned, sinking without any depth to reach, no place of rest to find. Who then will rescue you? Who will draw you out from those wastes?

Be warned, then be warned — how many a one who ventured was seized, and how many a striver was swept away, destroying himself by complacency, bringing his own ruin by haste. May God make us and you among those who are saved, and not deprive us and you of what He has granted the gnostics.

Know that what I have described of these wildernesses is an indication toward a knowledge I have not fully described. Its full disclosure is far off; the one who dwells in it is lost. Restrict yourself to describing what you recognize of the states, what description and questioning can reach — for that is closer to your attainment. Beware of direct encounter with the heroes and storming headlong at the hour of combat, and exposure to the places of the perfected, before you have died from your life, then been given life from your death, been created with a new creation, and become solitary and alone."

He said: "The Arrived One is the one who has attained his Lord."

On the Indication (al-Ishara)

Junaid said: "Whoever points toward other than God Most High, and finds peace in other than Him, will be tried with afflictions. God will veil His remembrance from his heart and cause it to run on his tongue. If he wakes and cuts himself off for God alone, God will lift from him the afflictions. But if he continues resting in other than God, God will strip from the hearts of all creatures their compassion for him, and dress him in the garment of covetousness toward them — so his demands from them will increase while compassion has vanished from their hearts. His life becomes helplessness, his death wretchedness, and his end regret. We seek refuge with God from resting in other than God."

A man came to Junaid with a question. Junaid gestured with his eyes toward the sky. The man said: "Abu al-Qasim — do not indicate toward Him in that direction. He is nearer to you than that." Junaid said: "You speak truth." And he laughed.

Junaid said to another man: "You there — you are the one who keeps pointing? How long will you point toward Him? Let Him point toward you."

On the Station and the State (al-Maqam wa-l-Hal)

Junaid said: "In the path to God there are a thousand obstacles barring the way — they must all be crossed. A thousand palaces, in each palace a highwayman assigned to the traveling seeker, each guard with his own cunning and treachery. When the traveler comes, the guard offers him something to hold him back from the path and veil him from God. This being so, there is no alternative to a guide who knows the saving and the destroying, who can make clear the secrets of the stations and open the road of escape from the afflictions."

He also said: "The State is a visitation that descends upon the heart and does not endure." And: "The State descends upon the servant in the moment — settling in the heart as contentment, or surrender, or other things — and purifies his moment, and then passes."

Ja'far al-Khuldi said: "Among all our shaykhs I saw no one in whom knowledge and state were united except Abu al-Qasim al-Junaid. Among the others, one would have great knowledge without state; another would have abundance of state with little knowledge. But Abu al-Qasim had a weighty state and abundant knowledge — when you looked at his state you would judge it greater than his knowledge, and when you looked at his knowledge you would judge it greater than his state."

On Contraction and Expansion (al-Qabd wa-l-Bast)

Junaid, may God sanctify his soul, said: "Contraction and expansion mean fear and hope. Hope expands toward obedience; fear contracts away from disobedience."

On Awe and Intimacy (al-Hayba wa-l-Uns)

He was asked about intimacy with God. He said: "It is the lifting of self-consciousness while awe remains present."

He said: "Al-Harith al-Muhasibi would come to our house and say: 'Come out with me, let us walk in the open.' I would say to him: 'You are drawing me from my solitude and my safety with myself into the roads and their dangers and the sight of the appetites.' He would say: 'Come out with me — you have nothing to fear.' So I would go out with him, and it was as though the road were empty of everything — we would see nothing we disliked. And when we settled in the place where he would sit, he would say: 'Ask me.' I would say: 'I have no question to ask you.' He would say: 'Ask me what arises in you.' Then questions would pour from me, and I would ask them, and he would answer them at once — then go home and turn them into books."

On the Secret (al-Sirr)

Junaid often recited these two lines:

And beyond this, his qualities are too fine to speak —
what is kept secret is dearer to Him and more just.

Know: the Compassionate has a secret He entrusts
to those who belong among the secret — and concealment is more beautiful.

He said: "Access to the guarding of rights is only through the protecting of hearts. Whoever has no secret is one who persists in open sin — and the persistently sinning one has no sound good deed."

On Natural Disposition (al-Taba')

Junaid said: "A person is not blamed for what is in his nature. He is blamed when he acts according to what is in his nature."

On the Real (al-Haqq)

Junaid said: "For twenty years I have not pressed anyone toward the Real and had him return to me."

He also said: "When you find one who can endure the Real, hold fast to him — and how rare that is. Bring me one who will patiently hear the Real without flinching."

When he was told that Abu Yazid al-Bistami said: "Glory be to me — I am my Lord Most High," Junaid replied: "The man was overwhelmed; he spoke from the state that overwhelmed him — his being lost in the Real, his ceasing to witness himself within the Real, so that he witnessed nothing within the Real but the Real."

Al-Shibli said to Junaid: "What do you say of one for whom the Real is his sufficiency — in attribute, in knowledge, and in finding?" Junaid replied: "Abu Bakr — divinity is exalted and lordship is too great for that. Between you and the greatest of the company there are a thousand ranks. In the very first rank, the name disappears."

On the Intellect (al-'Aql)

Ja'far al-Khuldi said: "I asked Junaid about a question concerning the intellect. He said: 'Abu Muhammad — one who cannot protect his intellect by his intellect for his intellect will perish by his intellect.'"

He was asked: when is a person described as possessing intellect? He said: "When he is one who distinguishes among things, examines them, and investigates what the intellect requires of him — seeking thereby what is most fitting, to act on it and prefer it over all else. Such a person will be characterized by taking the excellence in every state, after firmly discharging what is incumbent on him. It is not the characteristic of the intelligent to neglect what is most rightful and most fitting, nor to accept deficiency and falling short. Whoever is this way — after firmly discharging his obligatory works — will abandon occupation with what passes away and abandon working for what perishes and ends, for that is the description of everything the world contains. Likewise he will not accept occupying himself with something small and transient that would distract him from the matters of the next world, whose good endures and whose benefit is permanent. God says: Those who listen to the word and follow the best of it — those are the ones God has guided, those are the ones possessed of understanding (Quran 39:18)."

He also said: "The intelligent person should not be without one of three stations:

A station in which he knows his condition — is he advancing or diminishing?

A station in which he withdraws to discipline his self and require of it what it must fulfill, examining his knowledge of it.

A station in which he calls his intellect to presence by observing the flow of the divine governance over him — how the decrees turn in him through the hours of the night and the edges of the day.

The intellect will not be clear for one who has not first established the right ordering of the first two stations."

On Bewilderment (al-Hayra)

Junaid said: "One of my brothers from among the wise of Khurasan wrote to me: 'Know, brother — O Abu al-Qasim — that the intellects of the intelligent, when they have reached their furthest limit, reach bewilderment.'"

He was asked about the Quranic verse And We gave Abraham his right guidance from before (Quran 21:51): "When was he given it?" He replied: "At a time of no-when."

On Wisdom (al-Hikma)

He was asked: What does wisdom forbid?

He said: "Wisdom forbids every act that would require apology afterward, and every act whose knowledge, were it hidden from others, would shame you in yourself."

The questioner said: And what does wisdom command?

He said: "Wisdom commands everything whose trace will be praised in what endures, whose report will be received well by people in general, and whose outcome holds no harm in the end."

The questioner said: Who deserves to be called wise?

He said: "Whoever, when he speaks, reaches the furthest mark in what he undertakes to describe — with few words and slight indication — and for whom nothing of what he wants to say is difficult, for it is always present and ready in him."

The questioner said: With whom does wisdom feel at home, and where does it rest?

He said: "With one whose ambitions have been cut off from everyone, whose demands for excess in needs have ceased, whose concerns and movements have gathered in his Lord alone, and whose benefits flow back to all the people of his age."

On Knowledge (al-'Ilm)

Junaid said: "When you seek to be honored by knowledge — to be attributed to it and counted among its people — before you have given knowledge what it holds over you, its light will be veiled from you while its mark and appearance remain upon you. That knowledge becomes yours to bear, not your possession. For knowledge points to its application, and when it is not applied according to its degrees, its blessings depart."

He said: "Knowledge has a price — do not give it until you have received its price." He was asked: "And what is its price?" He said: "Placing it with one who knows how to carry it and will not waste it."

He was asked: from whom did you receive this knowledge? He answered: "As for the beginning, from my uncle al-Sari al-Saqati. Then from my courtesy with God Most High over thirty years beneath this station." He informed the questioner first of the line of inheritance, then secondly of what that inheritance rightly produced — the courtesy that necessarily yields tasting and finding. For the knowledge of the people of realization is received by inheritance and inspiration, by learning and tasting and finding.

He said: "Knowledge commands its application. If you do not apply it in its proper degrees, it will destroy you in the end."

And: "This world has two kinds of tyranny: the tyranny of knowledge and the tyranny of wealth. What saves from the tyranny of knowledge is action; what saves from the tyranny of wealth is renunciation."

He said: "The tongue is the outward, and belongs to the kingdom (al-mulk). It is the storehouse of outward knowledge. The heart is the storehouse of the divine sovereignty (al-malakut). It is the storehouse of inward knowledge. The excellence of inward knowledge over outward knowledge is as the excellence of the malakut over the mulk."

Someone once said to Junaid while he was speaking to the people: "Abu al-Qasim — God is not satisfied with a scholar for his knowledge until He finds him within his knowledge. If you are within your knowledge, remain where you are. Otherwise, step down."

Junaid rose and did not speak publicly for two months. Then he returned and said: "Were it not that I heard from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, that 'in the last age the leader of the people will be the most contemptible among them,' I would not have come out to you."

On Repentance (al-Tawba)

He was asked about repentance. He said: "It is to forget your sin."

On the verse A sincere repentance (Quran 66:8), Junaid said: "Sincere repentance is to forget the sin and never recall it — for whoever's repentance is sound becomes a lover of God, and whoever loves God forgets all that is not God."

Junaid said: "I heard al-Harith say: 'I never said: O God, I ask You for repentance. Rather I say: I ask You for the desire for repentance.'"

Junaid said: "I entered one day upon al-Sari al-Saqati and found him troubled. I said: 'Master, I see trouble upon you.' He said: 'Just now someone knocked at my door. I said: Come in. A young man in the early stages of aspiration entered and asked me about the meaning of repentance. I told him. He asked me about its condition. I explained. Then he said: That is its meaning, and that is its condition — but what is its reality?

'I said: The reality of repentance, according to us, is that you never forget what occasioned the repentance.

'He said: That is not how it is according to us.

'I said: Then what is the reality of repentance according to you?

'He said: The reality of repentance is that you never remember what occasioned the repentance. And I am still pondering his words.'

Junaid said: 'How excellent is what he said!' Al-Sari said to me: 'Junaid — and what is the meaning of his words?' Junaid said: 'Master — if I was with You in a state of estrangement, and You transferred me from estrangement to clarity, then my remembering the estrangement in the state of clarity is heedlessness.'"

Junaid said: "I entered upon al-Sari another day and found him changed. I said: 'What is the matter?' He said: 'A young man came to me and asked me about repentance. I said: That you never forget your sin. He opposed me and said: Rather, repentance is that you forget your sin.' Junaid said: 'The matter, according to me, is as the young man said.' Al-Sari said: 'Why?' I said: 'Because if I was in a state of estrangement and He transferred me to a state of fidelity, then remembering the estrangement in the state of clarity is itself estrangement.' Al-Sari fell silent."

Junaid said, on the meaning of the Prophet's words, peace and blessings be upon him — Seek God's forgiveness and repent to Him, for I seek God's forgiveness and repent to Him a hundred times a day: "They said: the Prophet's state with God Most High was in increase at every breath and blink of the eye. Whenever he was raised to an increase of state nobler than his state in the preceding breath, he would seek God's forgiveness for that and repent to Him."

Junaid said: "Repentance has three meanings: the first is regret; the second is the resolve never to return to what God has forbidden; and the third is striving to restore rights that are owed."

Al-Shibli entered upon Junaid in a state of ecstasy. Junaid said: "If you see yourself in God's presence, this is bad manners. And if you are outside it — what have you gained that you should be ecstatic?" Al-Shibli said: "Repentance, O imam."

Abu al-Qasim said: "I heard al-Nuri say: 'We were on the night before Eid with Abu al-Hasan al-Nuri at the Shuniziyya mosque, and someone entered and said to him: Master, tomorrow is the Eid — what will you wear?'"

He recited:

They said: Tomorrow is Eid — what will you wear?
I said: the robe of the One who drove His servant to drink bitter draughts.

Poverty and patience — those are my two garments.
Beneath them, a heart that sees its Lord every Eid and Friday.

The finest garment to meet the Beloved in
on the day of visiting — is the garment He stripped away.

Time is a funeral for me when You are absent, O my hope —
and it is Eid, so long as You remain my sight and hearing.

And he said: "Whoever intends a sin but does not commit it will be afflicted with a grief he cannot name."

Junaid said: "Heedlessness of God is more severe than entering the Fire."

Abu 'Amr ibn 'Alwan related, in a lengthy account: "One day I was standing in prayer, and a desire passed through my heart. I entertained it with my thoughts until it grew into the lust of a man. I fell to the ground, and my entire body turned black. I hid in my house for three days and did not go out. I had tried to wash it in the bathhouse with soap and bleaching agents, but it only grew darker. After three days it lifted and I returned to my white complexion. Then I met Abu al-Qasim al-Junaid, may God sanctify his soul — he had sent for me and had me brought from al-Raqqa.

When I came to him he said: 'Were you not ashamed before God Most High? You were standing in His presence, and you entertained your self with a desire until it overwhelmed you in al-Raqqa and cast you out from before God Most High. Had I not prayed to God for you and repented to Him on your behalf, you would have met God with that color.' I marveled at how he knew of it while he was in Baghdad and I in al-Raqqa — and no one had seen it but God."

Abu 'Amr ibn 'Alwan said: "One day I went out to the market of al-Rahba on an errand and saw a funeral procession. I followed it to pray over it, and stood with the people while the dead was buried. My eye fell upon a woman whose face was uncovered — not intentionally — and I lingered in looking, then caught myself and sought God's forgiveness, and went home. An old woman said to me: 'My lord, why is your face black?' I took the mirror and saw my face was black. I returned to my inner state to find where I had been struck, and remembered the glance. I secluded myself in a place, seeking God's forgiveness and asking His pardon for forty days. Then it crossed my heart: Visit your master Junaid. So I went down to Baghdad. When I came to the room where he was and knocked on the door, he said: 'Come in, Abu 'Amr — you sin in al-Rahba, and we seek forgiveness for you in Baghdad.'"

The Master of the Community, Abu al-Qasim al-Junaid, may God have mercy on him, used to say: "A servant should seal every act at every moment with seeking forgiveness — for God Most High says: God would not punish them while you are among them, and God would not punish them while they seek forgiveness (Quran 8:33)."

Junaid said: "Obedience is the immediate good tidings of what God has already decreed for them — and likewise disobedience."

Junaid said: "Do not despair of yourself while you grieve over your sin and regret it after your deed."

It is related that a girl from the noble families, raised in the palaces of kings, passed by the hut of Abu Shu'ayb al-Barathi — the first to settle in Baratha in a hut where he worshipped — and she was struck by his state and became as a captive to him. She resolved to strip herself of the world and join him. She came and said: "I want to be your servant." He said: "If you want that, change your appearance and strip yourself of everything you are in, until you are fit for what you want." She stripped herself of everything she owned, put on the garments of the ascetics, and presented herself. He married her. When she entered the hut she saw a piece of matting under Abu Shu'ayb protecting him from the moisture. She said: "I will not stay here until you remove what is under you — for I heard you say: The earth says: O son of Adam, today you put a barrier between me and you, and tomorrow you will be in my belly. I will not put a barrier between me and it." Abu Shu'ayb took the matting and threw it away. She stayed with him many years, worshipping in the most excellent manner, and they died that way, helping each other.

Junaid said: "I have reflected on the sins of the people of Islam and found no sin among them greater than heedlessness of God Most High."

On Self-Reckoning (al-Muhasaba)

Junaid said: "I heard Ibn al-Karanbi say: 'One night I was in a state of ritual impurity and needed to wash, and it was a cold night. I found in myself reluctance and slackness. My self urged me to delay until morning — heat the water, go to the bathhouse, and not trouble myself. I said: How marvelous! I have been dealing with God my whole life, and when a right falls due to Him I find hesitation and delay instead of haste? I swore I would not wash except in this patched robe of mine, and I swore I would not remove it, nor wring it, nor dry it in the sun.'"

Junaid ibn Muhammad, may God sanctify his soul, related that Abu Musa ibn 'Isa ibn Adam al-Bistami, the nephew of Abu Yazid Tayfur ibn 'Isa, said: "The beginning of Abu Yazid's turning and repentance was from his mother's womb and his father's seed — for he was a child of less than ten years when God awakened him to His affair and inspired him with the wisdom of action from His own presence, without instruction.

He said one day to his mother: 'Mother — I ask you by God: did you ever take anything unlawful on my account while you were nursing me? For I fear that something of it may have reached my heart without my knowledge, and that it veils me from my Lord.'

His mother said: 'I do not recall — except that one day I entered a neighbor's house while you were in my lap, and I took their oil flask and anointed your head without telling them. And another day I applied their kohl to your eyes without asking their permission.'

Abu Yazid said: 'God Most High reckons His servants for an atom's weight.' Then he said: 'Do you not see His words: Whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil shall see it (Quran 99:7-8)? And this is greater than an atom — I fear it will cut me off from my Lord.' Then he rose and inquired after those people and sought out their heirs, and obtained their pardon for himself and for his mother."

On Solitude and Withdrawal (al-Khalwa wa-l-'Uzla)

Junaid was asked about solitude. He said: "Safety accompanies whoever seeks safety by leaving opposition and ceasing to gaze at what knowledge has required him to abandon."

Junaid said: "The hardship of solitude is easier than the diplomacy of company."

He said: "Whoever wants his religion to be sound, his body and heart at rest — let him withdraw from people. For this is an age of desolation, and the wise man is the one who chooses to be alone."

He was asked: "When is solitude good?" He said: "When you have withdrawn from your self, entered your prison, and begun to study what you reaped yesterday."

He was asked: "When is seclusion sweet?" He said: "When you have a companion, and the companion in sitting is intimate."

Some of his companions saw him troubled and said: "What has saddened you, Abu al-Qasim?" He said: "I have lost my intimate in seclusion, and I have lost the brothers with whom I once found comfort. Beneath this alone is what breaks the body and occupies the heart."

On Piety (al-Taqwa)

Junaid was sitting with Ruwaym, al-Jurayri, and Ibn 'Ata, may God sanctify their secrets. Junaid said: "No one who was saved was saved except by sincerity in seeking refuge and shelter. God Most High says: And upon the three who were left behind, until the earth, vast as it is, was straitened for them, and their own selves were straitened for them, and they knew there was no refuge from God except in Him — then He turned to them that they might turn. God is the Relenting, the Compassionate (Quran 9:118)."

Ruwaym said: "No one who was saved was saved except by sincerity of piety. God Most High says: And God delivers those who were pious to their place of triumph (Quran 39:61)."

Al-Jurayri said: "No one who was saved was saved except by maintaining fidelity. God Most High says: Those who fulfill the covenant of God and do not break the compact (Quran 13:20)."

Ibn 'Ata said: "No one who was saved was saved except by realizing shame before God. God Most High says: Does he think that no one sees him? (Quran 90:7)."

Abu al-Abbas al-Farghani said: "I heard Junaid say: 'I heard al-Sari say: "I heard Ma'ruf al-Karkhi say: Lower your gaze — even from a female sheep."'"

On Scrupulousness (al-Wara')

Junaid said: "Scrupulousness in speech is harder than scrupulousness in earning."

Junaid said: "I heard al-Sari say: 'The scrupulous ones in their time were four: Hudhayfa al-Mar'tash, Yusuf ibn Asbat, Ibrahim ibn Adham, and Sulayman al-Khawwas. They examined scrupulousness closely, and when matters tightened upon them they took refuge in reducing their needs.'"

The Imam Abu al-Qasim al-Junaid used to say: "The carpet of scrupulousness was rolled up years ago. People now speak only of its fringes and traces — imitating the scrupulous of the past."

A man invited Junaid and his company to a meal. One of the poor men hesitated to eat. The host said: "Eat, and set your heart at ease — every morsel the poor man eats in my presence is dearer to me than a thousand dinars." Junaid said: "Lift your hands from this food. Our friend is base-minded. How does he equate feeding a poor man a morsel for God's sake with worldly currency?"

Junaid said: "Al-Muhasibi's father died leaving great wealth, and al-Muhasibi did not take a single grain of it. He said: 'Two religions do not inherit from each other.'"

Junaid used to say: "By the purity of food, clothing, and dwelling — all affairs are set right."

Junaid ibn Muhammad said: "I heard al-Sari ibn al-Mughallas say, when the subject of people was raised: 'Do not do anything for them, do not leave anything for them, do not give anything for them, do not reveal anything for them.'" Junaid said: "He meant by this that all your works should be for God alone."

He said: "I heard him say: 'If I sense that someone is about to enter my room, and I pass my hand over my beard like this' — and he passed his hand over his beard, as though tidying it for the one entering — 'I fear that God would punish me for that with fire.'"

Junaid said: "I went to al-Sari one day and he said to me: 'Let me tell you about a sparrow. It used to come and land on this ledge every day. I had prepared a morsel of bread, and I would crumble it in my palm, and it would land on my fingertips and eat. But one time it landed on the ledge and would not come down to my hand as before. I searched within myself: perhaps it is wary of me. Then I found that I had mixed spiced salt into my food. I said in my heart: I am repentant of the spiced salt and will not eat it again. And the sparrow landed on my hand and ate, and flew away.'"

Al-Khuldi said: "I heard Junaid say: 'Children are the punishment of lawful desire. What then do you suppose is the punishment of unlawful desire?'"

On Renunciation and the Shortening of Hope (al-Zuhd wa Qasr al-Amal fi al-Dunya)

He was asked about renunciation. He said: "Renunciation is the emptiness of the heart from what the hand is empty of — the belittling of the world, and the erasure of its traces from the heart."

He was asked about renunciation. He said: "The emptiness of the hand from possessions, and of the heart from greed."

Junaid said: "Renunciation is the emptiness of the heart from what the hand is empty of."

He was asked about renunciation. He said: "Renunciation has two meanings — one outer and one inner. The outer is the loathing of possessions in the hands and the abandonment of seeking what is absent. The inner is the removal of desire from the heart — the finding of distaste and turning away from its memory. When a person has realized this, God Most High grants him oversight of the hereafter and seeing of it with his heart. Then he finds vigor in work by the shortening of hope and the bringing near of death — for worldly causes are severed from his heart, and the heart stands alone with the hereafter, and the reality of renunciation has purified it, and it fills with the pure remembrance of his Lord, exalted be He.

Renunciation, in its reality, comes from faith and the witnessing of the hereafter. After renunciation, all things become equal — their absence is as their presence after the witnessing, because the heart has leveled. And with this leveling, praise and blame become equal, because the self has fallen away and the seeing of creation has departed. At that point, pure sincerity reaches the heart through the purity of renunciation, and renunciation is established through the falling of the self."

Junaid said: "Al-Sari al-Saqati said to me: 'Strive that none of the vessels in your house be other than your own kind'" — meaning earthenware, for which there is no reckoning.

Junaid said: "I heard al-Sari say: 'I practiced everything of renunciation and attained what I wanted from it — except renunciation from people. That I could not reach and could not endure.'"

Junaid said: "If you can make all the vessels of your house earthenware, do so."

Junaid related: "Four of the Abdal gathered in the Mosque of al-Mansur on the night of Eid. When the pre-dawn came, one of them said: 'As for me, I intend to pray Eid in Jerusalem.' The second said: 'As for me, I intend to pray Eid in Tarsus.' The third said: 'As for me, I intend to pray Eid in Mecca.' The fourth was silent — and he was the most knowledgeable among them. They said to him: 'And you — what have you resolved?' He said: 'As for me, I have resolved today to abandon desires. I will pray nowhere but in this mosque where I spent the night.' They said: 'You are the wisest of us.' And they sat with him."

Junaid said: "I have never seen anyone who honored the world find peace in it. Only the one who despised it and turned away from it found peace."

Junaid said: "No heart is purified for the work of the hereafter unless it has been stripped of love for this world."

Junaid said: "What comes to me from the world does not shame me — because I have established a principle: this abode is an abode of grief and care and affliction and trial, and the world entire is evil, and its nature is to meet me with everything I detest. If it meets me with what I love, that is a surplus. Otherwise, the first principle stands."

Junaid saw Ruwaym after he had accepted a judgeship and said: "Whoever wishes to see one who hid love of the world in his secret for twenty years — let him look at this man."

Junaid said: "The surest way to fulfill any worldly need is to abandon it."

Junaid said: "I heard al-Sari al-Saqati say: 'God stripped the world from His saints, withheld it from His chosen ones, and removed it from the hearts of those who love Him — because He did not consider it worthy of them.'"

He was asked: "What is the world?" He said: "What comes near the heart and distracts from God."

Junaid said: "Whoever shares in the sultan's worldly honor will share in his humiliation in the hereafter."

Junaid said: "You will not fulfill what you owe until you have left everything you own. And nothing is dearer than the world."

He was asked about one from whom not even a date-stone's worth of the world remains. He said: "The contracted slave is a slave so long as a single dirham remains upon him."

Junaid said: "Guard your hours — they are passing and will not return. The sorrow at their loss in heedlessness is real. Complete your litanies, and you will find their benefit in the abode of permanence. Let not the little of this world distract you from God — for the little of this world distracts from the great abundance of the hereafter."

On the verse And they sold him for a paltry price (Quran 12:20), Junaid said: "Everything that falls under counting and reckoning is paltry — even if it were all that is in both worlds. Let not your portion from your Lord be the paltry, inclining toward it and accepting it instead of your Lord, mighty in majesty."

Junaid related that Solomon, peace be upon him, said to the chief of the ants: "Why did you tell the ants, Enter your dwellings (Quran 27:18)? Did you fear our injustice?" The chief said: "No — but I feared they would be distracted by the sight of your kingdom, and that it would occupy them from the obedience of God."

On the verse Captives — you ransom them (Quran 2:85), Junaid said: "Captives of worldly causes — you ransom them by cutting the attachments."

On Silence (al-Samt)

Junaid said: "I saw with Abu Hafs al-Naysaburi, may God sanctify his soul, a man who was always silent and never spoke. I said to his companions: 'Who is this?' They said: 'This is a man who accompanies Abu Hafs and serves us. He spent a hundred thousand dirhams on him, then borrowed another hundred thousand and spent that on him too — and Abu Hafs does not permit him to speak a single word.'"

On Permission to Speak (al-Idhn bi-l-Kalam)

Junaid said: "All rightness is speech by permission."

He said: "I did not speak to the people until thirty of the Abdal indicated to me and said: You are fit to call people to God, mighty and glorious."

Junaid said: "I said to Ibn al-Karanbi: 'What of the man who speaks on knowledge whose practice does not match his learning — would you prefer that he be silent, or speak?' He bowed his head, then raised it and said: 'If you are the one — then speak.'"

Junaid said: "My uncle al-Sari al-Saqati said to me: 'Speak to the people.' I was reluctant, accusing myself of being unworthy. Then one night — it was a Friday night — I saw the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, in a dream, and he said to me: 'Speak to the people.' I woke and went to al-Sari's door before dawn and knocked. He said: 'You did not believe us until you were told.' The next day I sat for the people in the mosque.

Word spread that Junaid was sitting and speaking to the people. A Christian boy came to me in disguise and said: 'Master — what is the meaning of the Messenger of God's words: Beware the insight of the believer, for he sees by the light of God?' I said to him: 'Accept Islam — for the time of your Islam has come.' And the boy accepted Islam."

He said: "Were it not for the report that in the last age the leader of the people will be the most contemptible among them, I would not have spoken to you."

On Speech (al-Kalam)

Junaid said: "The Quran is the speech of God — it is difficult to grasp. The ruba'iyyat are the speech of created lovers."

He said: "The speech of the prophets is report from Presence. The speech of the truthful is indication from witnessing."

He said: "The least harm of speech is the falling of the Lord's awe from the heart — and when the heart is stripped of awe, it is stripped of faith."

He said: "I asked God not to punish me for my speech."

It is reported that Junaid said: "I have been speaking to God for thirty years, and the people think I am speaking to them."

Abu 'Amr al-Anmati said: "We were with Junaid when al-Nuri passed by and greeted him. Junaid said: 'And peace be upon you, O Commander of Hearts — speak!' Al-Nuri said: 'Abu al-Qasim — you deceived them, so they seated you on pulpits. I was sincere with them, so they threw me on the rubbish heaps.' Junaid said: 'I never saw my heart sadder than at that moment.' Then the next Friday al-Nuri came out to us and said: 'When you see a Sufi speaking to the people — know that he is empty.'"

On Fear and Hope (al-Khawf wa-l-Raja')

Junaid said: "I heard al-Sari say: 'I wish I could die in a land other than Baghdad.' He was asked why. He said: 'I fear the earth will not accept me, and I will be disgraced.'"

Junaid said: "I would not like to die in a place where I am known — I fear the earth will not accept me, and I will be disgraced."

He was asked about fear. He said: "It is the anticipation of punishment with every breath."

He said: "Fear is the expelling of the unlawful from the belly, and the abandonment of working by 'perhaps' and 'later.'"

Junaid said: "Fear of God contracts me, and hope in Him expands me. The Real gathers me, and the Truth scatters me.

When He contracts me with fear, He annihilates me from myself. When He expands me with hope, He restores me to myself. When He gathers me with the Real, He makes me present. When He scatters me with the Truth, He shows me what is other than me, and veils me from Him.

In all of this He moves me without stilling me, and estranges me without granting me intimacy. And I, in my presence, taste the flavor of my existence.

Would that He annihilated me from myself and gave me delight — or veiled me from myself and granted me relief."

Junaid said: "I heard al-Sari say: 'I look at my nose twice each day, fearing that my face has turned black.'"

It is said that the inscription on Junaid's ring read: If you hope in Him — do not feel safe from Him.

Junaid said: "O You who every day are upon some affair — make me part of Your affair."

On Grief and Weeping (al-Huzn wa-l-Buka')

Junaid was asked: "From what does the weeping of the lover arise when he meets the beloved?" He said: "It arises from joy in him, and from longing born of the intensity of yearning. I have heard that two brothers embraced — one cried: O my longing! — and the other: O my finding!"

It is related of 'Utba al-Ghulam — he was among the men of God — that he was elated one day. The master of that time, who was Junaid, said to him: "Are you elated, 'Utba?" He said: "I do not boast, Master — for He has become my Lord, and I have become His servant." Junaid said: "My son — joy is blameworthy, even if it is in God Most High. God loves the grieving heart. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: God loves every grieving heart."

On Hunger and the Abandonment of Appetite

It is related of Junaid that he said: Al-Harith al-Muhasibi passed by me one day, and I saw the mark of hunger upon him. I said: "Uncle, will you come into the house and have something to eat?" He said: "Yes." I went inside and looked for something to set before him. There was food in the house that had been brought from a wedding feast among our people. I set it before him. He took a morsel, turned it in his mouth several times, then stood, cast it into the vestibule, and left.

When I saw him some days later, I asked him about it. He said: "I was hungry and wished to please you and to guard your heart, but between me and God — glory be to Him — there is a sign: He does not let food of doubtful origin pass through me. It could not be swallowed."

The account in the Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya adds that al-Muhasibi said: "When food is not acceptable, a stench rises to my nose, and my soul will not receive it. Where did that food come from?" I said: "It was brought from a relative's wedding." Then I said: "Will you come in today?" He said: "Yes." I set before him dry crusts that were ours, and he ate. He said: "When you offer something to a poor man, offer him something like this."

Junaid said: "It is vile that a man should eat by means of his religion."

Junaid used to say: "One of them stands in prayer and places a basket of food between himself and God Most High, and then hopes to find the sweetness of intimate discourse, or to hear the understanding of divine address."

Junaid said: "A righteous man came to me on a Friday and said: 'Send a poor man with me to bring me some joy and eat with me.' I looked around and saw a poor man in whom I witnessed real need. I called him and said: 'Go with this sheikh and bring him joy.' He went. Before long the man came back to me and said: 'Abu al-Qasim, that poor man ate only one morsel and left.' I said: 'Perhaps you said something harsh to him.' He said: 'I said nothing.' I turned and saw the poor man sitting nearby. I said: 'Why did you not complete his joy?' He said: 'Master, I left Kufa and came to Baghdad without eating anything. I was ashamed that any discourtesy born of my need should appear in your presence. When you summoned me I was glad, since it came from you without my asking. I went, desiring nothing less than paradise for him. But when I sat at his table he shaped a morsel and said to me: "Eat — this is dearer to me than ten thousand dirhams." When I heard this, I knew he was base in ambition, and I disdained to eat his food.' Junaid said to the sheikh: 'Did I not tell you that you were ill-mannered toward him?' The sheikh said: 'Abu al-Qasim — repentance.' He asked the poor man to go with him and let him make amends."

On Awe

Junaid was asked about awe. He said: "It is the abasement of hearts before the Knower of the unseen."

On Humility

Junaid was asked about humility. He said: "The lowering of the wing to creation, and gentleness of manner toward them."

Ibrahim ibn Thabit the Ascetic of Baghdad said: I heard Junaid say: I heard Sari al-Saqati say: "I prayed my devotional portion one night and stretched my legs in the prayer niche. A voice called: 'O Sari — is this how you sit with kings?' I drew my legs together and said: 'By Your might, I shall never stretch them again.'" Junaid said: "He remained after that sixty years without stretching his legs, by night or by day."

Junaid used to say: "No one reaches the rank of the humble among the great knowers until he sees that his self is unworthy of God's mercy, and that God's mercy toward him is pure grace."

Spiritual Discipline and Striving

It is said that Junaid was once sitting with his companions in the practice of spiritual discipline. A traveler entered, and they went to trouble on his account and brought him food. The man said: "I need such-and-such a thing besides." Junaid said: "You should go to the marketplace, for you are a man of marketplaces — not a man of mosques and cells."

Ja'far ibn Nasir said: "Junaid gave me a dirham and said: 'Buy me the Waziri figs.' I bought them. When he broke his fast, he took one and put it in his mouth, then cast it away and wept. He said: 'Take them away.' I asked him about it. He said: 'A voice cried in my heart: Are you not ashamed — a desire you abandoned for My sake, and then you return to it?'"

Junaid said: "I went to Sari one day. He said: 'A sparrow used to come every day and I would crumble bread for it, and it ate from my hand. But one time it came down and would not land on my hand. I wondered what the cause was, and remembered I had eaten salt with spices. I said to myself: I will never eat that again — I repent of it. Then the sparrow landed on my hand and ate.'"

Junaid said: "I heard Sari al-Saqati say: 'My soul has been demanding of me for thirty — or forty — years that I dip a carrot in date syrup, and I have not obeyed it.'"

Junaid said: "I went to Sari al-Saqati one day and he was weeping. I said: 'What makes you weep?' He said: 'Last night the girl came and said: Father, it is a hot night — here is the water-jug; I shall hang it here. Then sleep overtook me. I saw a maiden of surpassing beauty descend from the sky. I said: For whom are you? She said: For the one who does not drink cooled water from jugs. I took the jug and dashed it against the ground and broke it.' I saw the sherds — he never lifted them or touched them, until the dust covered them over."

Ja'far al-Khuldi said: "I heard Junaid say: 'I have not removed my garment for bed in forty years.'"

Junaid said: "The one who wrongs his self is of two kinds. One wrongs his self by denying it its share of this world. The other wrongs his self by denying it its share of the next — not seeking paradise or reward for his own sake, since both are the self's portion. Rather, he seeks his Lord with no self-interest at all. This 'wrongdoer' in this sense surpasses both the moderate and the forerunner, for the moderate and the forerunner both seek their own portions and remain with their selves — one standing with his moderation, the other standing with his precedence — while this one has wronged his self by denying it all its portions. He is annihilated from his portions, and therefore he surpasses even the forerunners."

Junaid said: "I heard that a man among the scholars of Bistam said: Abu Yazid had a servant-woman of great striving and weeping, who did not sleep at night."

Junaid said: "No one seeks anything with earnestness and sincerity without attaining it. If not all of it, then part."

Junaid said, on the verse "Those who strive in Us, We shall guide them to Our ways": "Those who strive against their desires in Us through repentance — We guide them to the paths of sincerity. No one conquers the outer enemy unless he has first conquered these enemies inwardly. Whoever is given victory over them is given victory over his enemy; and whoever they conquer, his enemy conquers him."

The Self and Opposing It

Junaid says: "The commanding self is the one that calls to destruction, aids the enemies, follows desire, and is accused of every kind of evil."

Junaid said: "One night I could not sleep. I rose for my devotional portion but could not find the sweetness and delight I used to find in my intimate prayer. I was bewildered. I tried to sleep but could not. I sat but could not bear sitting. I opened the door and went out. There was a man wrapped in a cloak, cast down in the graveyard on the road, his head covered. When he sensed me he raised his head and said: 'Abu al-Qasim — to me, now!' I said: 'Master — without an appointment?' He said: 'Yes, I asked the Mover of Hearts to move your heart toward me.' I said: 'He has done so. What is your need?' He said: 'When does the disease of the self become its cure?' I said: 'When the self opposes its desire, its disease becomes its cure.' He turned to his own self and said: 'Listen! I have answered you with this seven times, but you refused to hear it except from Junaid. You have heard. Now leave me.' He departed, and I did not know him, nor did I find him afterward."

Junaid says: "Do not trust your self, even if its obedience to you in obedience to your Lord persists."

Junaid said: "Whoever aids his self in its desire has become a partner in the slaying of his self, for servitude is the steadfast practice of courtesy, and tyranny is the enemy of courtesy."

It is related of Ja'far al-Khuldi that he said: Junaid used to counsel a man, saying: "Put your self forward and hold back your resolve. Do not put your resolve forward and hold your self back, for that leads to great delay."

Junaid said: "Spiritual states are like lightning flashes. If they persist, they are self-talk."

Junaid said: "The foundation of disbelief is standing upon the desire of your self."

Yusuf ibn al-Husayn wrote to Junaid: "May God not let you taste your self — for if you taste it, you will never taste any good after it."

Junaid said: "Sustenance is of three kinds. Sustenance by food — and it breeds worldly traits. Sustenance by remembrance — and it lets them catch the scent of the divine attributes. And sustenance by the vision of the One Remembered — and it annihilates and obliterates." Then he recited:

If You are the sustenance of the soul, and then You abandon it —
the soul will not endure, You who are its sustenance.

It is told that 'Abdullah ibn al-Jalla' said: "I saw a Christian youth of beautiful face one day, and I was transfixed by his beauty and stopped before him. Junaid passed by me. I said: 'Master — will God burn such a face in the fire of hell?' He said: 'My son, this is the little marketplace of the self carrying you to this — not the gaze of contemplation. For when you look with contemplation at every atom of existence, this wonder is present.'"

Junaid says: "There used to come upon me the thought of making my self like Joseph, and being like Jacob — grieving over my self for what I had lost of it, as Jacob grieved over losing Joseph. I spent a time working in what I found along those lines."

Junaid said: "The self which God has honored with the reality of true wealth — the accommodations of need fall away from it."

Al-Shibli stood before Junaid and said: "What do you say, Abu al-Qasim, about one whose finding is a reality, not merely knowledge?" He said: "Abu Bakr — between you and the greatest of people are seventy steps, the nearest of which is that you forget your self."

On Backbiting

Junaid said: "I was sitting in the Shuniziyya mosque waiting for a funeral to pray over it. The people of Baghdad, of all ranks, were sitting and waiting. I saw a poor man showing the mark of asceticism, begging from the people. I said to myself: 'If this man did some work to preserve his dignity, it would be more fitting for him.' When I returned home — I had a portion of the night devoted to weeping, prayer, and the like — all my devotional acts became heavy upon me. I sat up, unable to sleep, and when sleep overtook me I saw that poor man. They brought him on a platter and said to me: 'Eat his flesh — you backbit him.' It was unveiled to me. I said: 'I did not backbite him — I only said something to myself.' They said: 'You are not one from whom such a thing is acceptable. Go and ask his pardon.' I rose in the morning and kept searching until I found him at a place where the water rises, picking leaves of greens that had fallen from washing. I greeted him. He said: 'Abu al-Qasim — will you do it again?' I said: 'No.' He said: 'May God forgive us and you.'"

Al-Shibli said one day from the pulpit: "A word of truth." Junaid, who was present, said: "Then backbiting is forbidden."

On Contentment

Junaid was asked: "What is contentment?" He said: "That your desire not exceed what is yours in your present moment."

On Reliance on God

Junaid was asked about reliance on God. He said: "The heart's dependence on God Most High."

Junaid said: "The reality of reliance is that the one who relies becomes for God as though he never was, and God remains as He has always been."

A man asked Junaid about the meaning of the Prophet's saying — peace and blessings be upon him — "If you relied on God with true reliance, He would feed you as He feeds the birds: they go out hungry in the morning and return full in the evening." The man said: "But you see the bird flying from place to place, moving and seeking." Junaid said: "God Most High said: 'We have made what is upon the earth an adornment for it.' The bird's flight and movement from place to place is for the adornment God mentioned — God made their flight for beauty, not for seeking provision."

'Abd al-Wahhab said: "I was sitting with Junaid during the season of pilgrimage, and around him was a great company of Persians and converts. A man came with five hundred dinars, placed them before him, and said: 'Distribute these among them.' Junaid said: 'Have you anything besides this wealth?' He said: 'Yes, many dinars.' Junaid said: 'Take them back — you need them more than we do.' He did not accept them."

A group entered upon him and said: "We seek provision." He said: "If you know where it is, seek it." They said: "Then we shall ask God." He said: "If you think He forgets you, remind Him." They said: "We shall go into retreat and rely on God." He said: "Testing is doubt." They said: "What then is the stratagem?" He said: "Abandoning stratagem."

Abu Ja'far al-Haddad, the teacher of Junaid, was one of the men of reliance. He said: "I concealed reliance for twenty years without leaving the marketplace. I earned a dinar and ten dirhams every day, never keeping two daniq overnight, never resting in a single qirat even to enter the bathhouse. I gave away everything before nightfall." Junaid would not speak about reliance in Abu Ja'far's presence, saying: "I am ashamed before God to speak of his station while he is present."

Junaid said: "Reliance was once a reality; today it is knowledge."

Junaid used to say: "I prefer that the novice not occupy his heart with three things, or his state will change: earning, seeking hadith, and marriage."

Junaid said: "I knocked on the door of Abu Ya'qub al-Zayyat with a group of our companions. He said: 'Had you no business with God to keep you from coming to me?' I said: 'If our coming to you is part of our business with Him, we have not left Him.' I asked him a question about reliance. He produced a dirham he had, then answered me. He gave reliance its due, then said: 'I was ashamed before God to answer you while I possessed something.'"

Junaid was asked about earning. He said: "He draws water and gathers date-stones."

When the Sufis of Basra came to Junaid after the death of Sahl, he asked them: "How do you practice fasting?" They said: "We fast by day, and when evening comes we go to our baskets." He said: "Ah — if you fasted without baskets, it would be sounder for your state — that is, not relying on a known provision." They said: "We cannot manage that."

Junaid said: "I entered the desert under the covenant of reliance in the middle of the year. Days passed. I came to a gathering of water and greenery. I performed ablution, filled my jug, and stood praying. There appeared a youth in the garb of merchants, as if he had just left his house for his shop or was returning from his shop to his house. He greeted me. I said: 'Where are you from, young man?' He said: 'From Baghdad.' I said: 'When did you leave Baghdad?' He said: 'Yesterday.' I marveled at him — days had passed before I reached that place. He sat speaking with me, then took something from his sleeve to eat. I said: 'Give me some of what you eat.' He placed a colocynth in my hand. I ate it and found its taste like fresh dates. He left me. When I entered Mecca I began with circumambulation. Someone tugged my garment from behind. I turned and saw a youth withered like a spent water-skin, wearing a scrap of cloak with part of it on his shoulder. I said: 'Give me more in knowledge.' He said: 'I am the youth who fed you the colocynth.' I said: 'What is your condition?' He said: 'Abu al-Qasim — they gave us birth, and when they had dropped us, they said: Hold on.'"

Junaid said: "I heard Sari say: 'I know a short road, straight to paradise.' I said: 'What is it?' He said: 'Ask nothing from anyone, take nothing from anyone, and have nothing with you to give to anyone.'"

Junaid said: "Whoever thinks he will arrive by the expenditure of effort alone is a drudge. Whoever thinks he will arrive without the expenditure of effort is a dreamer."

On Gratitude

Junaid said: "I was before Sari al-Saqati, playing, and I was seven years old. Before him sat a company speaking about gratitude. He said to me: 'Boy, what is gratitude?' I said: 'That you not disobey God with His blessings.' He said: 'I fear your portion from God will be your tongue.'" Junaid said: "I have never ceased weeping over that word Sari spoke to me."

Sari said to Junaid: "Abu al-Qasim, what is gratitude?" He said: "That none of the blessings of God Most High be used in disobedience to Him." Sari said: "Where did you get this?" Junaid said: "From sitting with you."

Junaid said: "The obligation of gratitude is the acknowledgment of blessings with heart and tongue."

Junaid said: "Gratitude is not seeing yourself as worthy of the blessing."

Junaid says: "There is an affliction in gratitude, for the grateful one seeks increase for himself through it — he stands before God Most High upon his self's portion through gratitude."

Junaid said: "As long as the grateful one seeks increase from God through his gratitude, he is drowning in his self-interest. True gratitude is when the servant sees himself as unworthy of mercy — on account of witnessing the multitude of his sins."

Junaid said that he once stood by a beggar who asked from him, saying: "An act was done for me." Junaid said: "No — rather an act of God in you demands from you gratitude for what He placed in you."

Junaid repeated the saying of the others on gratitude: Sari asked one day: "What is gratitude?" — and when he wished to instruct someone, he made it a question. Junaid said: "Gratitude, in my view, is that no blessing of His be employed in disobedience." Sari approved it and said: "Repeat it for me." Then he said: "And which of us does not employ His blessings in disobedience?" He spent a long time afterward saying to Junaid: "How did you put it about gratitude?" Junaid: "This is the obligation of gratitude — that He not be disobeyed in His blessings."

When Junaid fell gravely ill, he used to say: "There is nothing except what Dhu al-Nun said: O You who are thanked for what You give — give us what we may thank You for."

Junaid said: "The reality of gratitude is the inability to give thanks."

Junaid said: "God treats His servants at the end as He treated them at the beginning: He began with them in generosity, commanded them in mercy, promised them in grace, and increases them in generosity. Whoever witnesses His ancient goodness finds it easy to fulfill His command. Whoever holds fast to His command attains His promise. And whoever wins His promise — He will surely increase him from His bounty."

On the verse "He has lavished upon you His blessings, outward and inward": Junaid said: "The outward blessings are good character. The inward blessings are the varieties of knowledge."

On Certainty

Junaid was asked about certainty. He said: "Certainty is the lifting of doubt."

Junaid said: "Certainty is the departure of uncertainty in the witnessing of the unseen."

Junaid was asked: "What is certainty?" He said: "Leaving what you see for what you do not see."

Junaid said: "Certainty is the settling of knowledge that neither turns, nor shifts, nor changes in the heart."

Junaid said: "Whoever does not join his knowledge to certainty, his certainty to fear, his fear to action, his action to sincerity, and his sincerity to striving — he is among the perishing."

Junaid said: "I heard Sari say: 'Certainty is your stillness when currents storm through your breast — because you are certain that your movement in them will not benefit you, and will not avert what has been decreed.'"

Junaid said: "Certainty means you do not worry about the provision that has been guaranteed to you, and you turn to the work you have been charged with. Certainty drives provision toward you with urgency."

Ibrahim ibn Fatik said: I heard Junaid say: "When will the One who has no likeness or equal be joined to the one who has likeness and equal? Far from it — that is a strange supposition — except through the gentleness of the Gentle One, from where there is no perception, no imagining, no encompassing — only the indication of certainty and the realization of faith."

Junaid was also asked about the meaning of the Prophet's saying — peace be upon him — "God have mercy on my brother Jesus; had he increased in certainty, he would have walked in the air." He said: "Its meaning — and God knows best — is that Jesus walked on water by his certainty, and the Prophet walked in the air on the night of the Ascension by the surplus of his certainty over that of Jesus. 'Had he increased in certainty' means: had he been given the increase I was given, he would have walked in the air."

Junaid said: "The reality of certainty is that the servant witnesses the unseen as he witnesses the visible — witnessing it with the eye of certainty — and he speaks of the unseen with truthfulness."

Junaid said: "Men have walked on water by certainty, and men more certain than they have died of thirst."

On Tribulation and Affliction

Junaid says: "Tribulation has three faces: upon the wavering, it is punishment; upon the truthful, it is the purification of sins; upon the prophets, it is the sincerity of divine choice."

The sheikh Ibn 'Ajiba said: The Sufis were denounced to the sultan, and they were brought to the sword — then God showed them gentleness.

Their story: the jurists of Baghdad said to al-Mutawakkil: "Junaid and his companions have become heretics." The caliph — who favored Junaid — said to them: "O enemies of God, you wish only to extinguish the saints of God from the earth, one after another. You killed al-Hallaj, and every day you repeat some phrase of his without taking warning. As for Junaid — you have no way to him until you defeat him by argument. Gather the jurists and hold a session. If you overcome him and the people witness it, I shall kill him. But if he overcomes you — by God, I shall march upon you with the sword until not one of you remains."

They agreed. They gathered jurists from Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and all provinces, until there was no one in any quarter who knew a point of law who had not come. When they assembled, the caliph sent for Junaid. He came with his companions to the palace gate, entered alone, paid his respects to the caliph, and sat.

One of the jurists rose to question him. Judge 'Ali ibn Abi Thawr heard this and said: "You question Junaid? Is any among you more learned in law than he?" They said: "No." He said: "How strange! He is more learned than you in your own science, and he has gained knowledge in a science you deny — you who do not know it! How can you question a man when you do not understand what he says?"

The assembly fell silent. Then they said: "What shall we do, O judge of the Muslims? Direct as you wish — your command will be obeyed."

The Judge turned to the caliph and said: "Leave Junaid. Send your sword-bearer, al-Walid ibn Rabi'a, out to his companions and let him cry among them: 'Who will come to the sword?' The first who rises — we shall question him."

The caliph said: "God have mercy on you — why? You will terrify the people when you have no proof against them. That is not lawful for us."

The Judge said: "Commander of the Faithful — the Sufis love to sacrifice themselves for one another, even their very lives. Let the cry go out. The man who springs forward to the sword is the most ignorant of people and the most truthful with God — he will rise to sacrifice himself so his companions may live after him. If a great calamity befalls and we do not know upon whom salvation will fall — if Junaid is killed, a catastrophe will strike Islam, for he is the pole of faith in our age. And if the scholars and jurists are killed, that too is a catastrophe."

The caliph said: "God grant you good — you have spoken rightly." He turned to al-Walid and said: "Do as the Judge says."

Al-Walid went out, sword girded, and stood before the disciples — two hundred and seventy men, sitting with bowed heads, remembering God. He cried: "Is there among you one who will come to the sword?"

Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri leapt to his feet. Al-Walid said: "I never saw a bird faster than him." He said: "Do you know why you stood?" Al-Nuri said: "Yes — did you not say: 'Who will come to the sword?'" Al-Walid said: "Why did you rise?" He said: "I knew that this world is the believer's prison. I wished to leave for the abode of triumph, and to give my companions the gift of life, if only for an hour. Perhaps I shall be killed and the evil will be quenched through me, and all of them will be saved."

Al-Walid marveled at his eloquence. He said: "Answer the Judge." Al-Nuri's color changed and tears streamed down his cheeks. He said: "Did the Judge summon me?" Al-Walid said: "Yes." Al-Nuri said: "Then it is my duty to answer."

They entered. The Judge asked him a subtle question: "Who are you? Why were you created? What did God intend by creating you? Where is your Lord from you?"

Al-Nuri said: "And who are you who asks me?" The Judge said: "I am the Judge of Judges." Al-Nuri said: "Then there is no Lord but you, and no god besides you. You are the Judge of Judges, and this is the Day of Separation and Judgment, and the people have been gathered at forenoon. Where then is the blast of the Trumpet of which God said: 'And the Trumpet shall be blown, and all who are in the heavens and the earth shall fall down senseless, save whom God wills'? Am I among those who fell senseless, or am I among those whom God willed, who did not witness the blast?"

The Judge was confounded, then said: "Do you make a god of me?"

Al-Nuri said: "God forbid — rather you have made yourself divine by calling yourself 'Judge of Judges.' The only Judge of Judges is the One who judges and is not judged. The names have overtaken you. Was not 'Judge of the Muslims' enough for you, or 'one of the jurists,' or 'one of the servants of God,' that you must call yourself Judge of Judges?"

He did not cease rebuking him until the Judge wept and was near death, and the caliph wept for his weeping, and Junaid wept. Junaid said to his disciple: "Relent from your reproach of the Judge — you have killed him. Let him go."

When the Judge recovered, he said: "Abu al-Husayn — answer my question. I repent before God in your presence."

Al-Nuri said: "State your question — I have forgotten it." The Judge repeated it. Al-Nuri looked to his right and said: "Shall I answer him?" Then he said: "God is sufficient for me." He did the same to his left, then looked ahead and said: "Shall I answer him?" Then he said: "Praise be to God." He raised his head to the Judge and said:

"As for your question: Who are you? — I am the servant of God, for He said: 'There is none in the heavens and the earth but comes to the All-Merciful as a servant.'

"Why were you created? — God was a treasure unknown. He created me to know Him. He said: 'I created the jinn and humankind only that they might know Me' — as Ibn 'Abbas and others have interpreted it.

"What did God intend by creating you? — He intended only my honor. He said: 'We have honored the children of Adam.'

"Where is your Lord from you? — He is with me wherever I am with Him. He said: 'He is with you wherever you are.' He is with us according to how we are with Him: if we are with Him in obedience, He is with us in aid and guidance; if in heedlessness, in decree; if in sin, in reprieve; if in repentance, in acceptance; if in abandonment, in punishment."

The Judge said: "You have spoken truly."

Then al-Nuri was asked why he had looked to the right. He said: "The question you asked — I had no answer for it, for I was never asked it before. I asked the Noble Angel who writes on the right: 'Will you answer him?' He said: 'I have no knowledge.' I said: 'God is sufficient for me,' and entrusted my affair to God. To my left, likewise. Then I asked my heart, and my heart said — from its secret, from its Lord — what I answered you. I said: 'Praise be to God' — grateful for the guidance, acknowledging my inability to reach the end."

The Judge turned to the caliph and said: "Commander of the Faithful — leave these people. If these are heretics, there is no Muslim on the face of the earth. These are the lamps of the faith and the pillars of Islam. These are the believers truly — the sincere servants of God."

The caliph turned to Junaid and said: "Abu al-Qasim — these jurists gathered this great assembly and prepared to debate you only so they might kill you if they defeated you. Now you are the victor. I swore upon myself that if you defeated them I would march the sword upon them. Either you pardon them, or they die."

Junaid said: "God forbid, my lord, that anyone should die on my account. May God forgive us and them. I do not hold against them their denial of us, for nothing drove them to it but ignorance and lack of knowledge of what they sought. May God forgive us and them."

The assembly dispersed in peace, and no one died in it. Praise be to God.

On Patience

Junaid was asked about patience. He said: "It is swallowing bitterness without wincing."

Abu 'Abdullah al-Makanisi said: "I was with Junaid when a woman came to him and said: 'Pray to God to return my son to me — my son has been lost.' He said: 'Go and be patient.' She left, then returned and said the same. Junaid said: 'Go and be patient.' She left, then returned and did the same, many times, and Junaid kept saying: 'Be patient.' She said: 'My patience is exhausted, and I have no strength left for it — pray for me.' Junaid said: 'If it is as you say, go — your son has returned.' She went and found him, then returned to thank him. They asked Junaid: 'How did you know?' He said: 'God Most High said: "Is it not He who answers the desperate when they call upon Him?"'"

Junaid said: "Everything the poor man can do — except be patient with his moment until his term expires."

Junaid was asked about patience. He said: "The believer's bearing for God Most High until the times of hardship pass."

Junaid said: "The journey from this world to the next is easy for the believer. The abandonment of creation for the sake of God is hard. The journey from the self to God is difficult and severe. And patience with God is the most severe of all."

'Abdullah ibn Khafif said: "I entered Baghdad bound for the pilgrimage, with the pride of the Sufis in my head. I had not eaten for forty days. I did not visit Junaid. I left without drinking water, keeping my ritual purity. I saw a gazelle in the desert on the rim of a well, drinking. I was thirsty. When I approached, the gazelle fled, and the water was at the bottom. I walked on and said: 'My Lord, I do not have the standing of this gazelle with You?' A voice spoke from behind me: 'We tested you and you did not endure. Go back and take the water.' I went back and the well was full. I filled my jug and drank from it and made ablution all the way to Medina, and the water did not run out. When I drew the water I heard a voice: 'The gazelle came with no jug and no rope — but you came with jug and rope.' When I returned from the pilgrimage and entered the mosque, Junaid's eyes fell upon me. He said: 'If you had been patient, the water would have sprung from beneath your feet — if only you had been patient one hour more.'"

Faris the Porter said: "Al-Nuri and Junaid both fell ill. Junaid spoke of his suffering, and al-Nuri concealed his." Al-Nuri was asked: "Why did you not speak of it as your companion did?" He said: "We would not suffer an affliction and then place upon it the name of complaint." Then he recited:

If you are worthy of sickness — you are worthy of gratitude.
Afflict — for no heart remains to say to sickness: Wait.

This was repeated to Junaid. He said: "We were not complaining. We wished to reveal the eye of divine power in us." Then he recited:

The most glorious thing that appears from You — for it reveals You.
And You, O comfort of my heart — too glorious to be revealed.
You annihilated me from my entirety — how then shall I tend the dwelling?

Junaid said: "Tribulation struck a righteous man until he was dragged by his leg to a rubbish heap. He raised his eyes to the sky and said: 'I am in Your sight, and You see. Do what You will — sufficient for me is what You will.'"

Ibn 'Ata wrote to Junaid: "States have narrowed upon me in their dwelling — and that is not understood, for I am burdened." Junaid wrote back in verse and prose, ending: "Your death is the reality of being singled out from the traces of diminishment. The Real sheltered you in hidden watchfulness as your portion — occupying you with reverence for Him above the mention of yourself in the hour of His mention. Then I remind you that He remembered you in the primordial eternity, before the time of tribulation and before the state of tribulation. He does what He wills, and He is powerful."

It is reported that once they poured the washing-water of fish over Junaid as he was going out for the Friday prayer. It drenched him from his crown to his hem. He laughed and said: "Whoever deserves the Fire and is settled with water should not be angry." He went home, borrowed his wife's garment, and prayed in it.

On Vigilance

Junaid said: "Only the one who fears missing his portion from his Lord truly realizes vigilance — none other."

Junaid said: "The servant is charged with guarding his breaths across the passage of his moments."

On Contentment with God

Junaid said: "Contentment is the second degree of knowledge. Whoever is content, his knowledge of God is sound through the persistence of his contentment with Him."

Junaid was asked about contentment. He said: "Contentment is the abandonment of choice."

Junaid was asked about contentment. He said: "You have asked about the pleasant life and the delight of the eye — one who is content with God."

Al-Shibli said in the presence of Junaid: "There is no power and no might save in God." Junaid said: "Your saying that is a straitness of breast, and straitness of breast comes from abandoning contentment with the decree." Al-Shibli fell silent.

Junaid said: "Contentment is the soundness of the knowledge that reaches the hearts. When the reality of knowledge touches the heart, it leads to contentment. Contentment and love are not like fear and hope, for these latter two are states that do not leave the servant in this world or the next — since even in paradise he cannot dispense with contentment and love."

It is said that al-Nuri at one time screamed for three days and nights, standing in one place in his house. They told Junaid. He rose and went to him and said: "Abu al-Husayn — if you know that screaming helps, tell me, and I shall scream too. But if you know it does not help, then accept surrender, so your heart may find ease." Al-Nuri ceased screaming and said: "How excellent a teacher you are for us, Abu al-Qasim."

Junaid said: "I went to Sari one day and said: 'How did you wake?' He recited:

Neither by night nor by day do I sleep — I care not whether the night is long or short.

Then he said: 'There is no night or day with your Lord' — meaning he was not attached to the times, but to the One who appoints the night and the day."

On the Acts of Worship

Prayer

It is related of Junaid that he said: "Everything has its essence, and the essence of prayer is the first takbir."

Junaid was asked: "What is the obligation of prayer?" He said: "Cutting attachments, gathering the concern, and being present before God."

Junaid said: "Let not your concern in prayer be its performance — but rather the joy and delight of connection with the One to whom there is no other means."

Junaid was in his gathering. His companions asked: "Master, when does God Most High turn His face toward His servant?" He was distracted and did not answer them. They pressed him. He turned to them and said: "How strange! He stands before his Lord without presence — and then demands by this standing that God turn toward him!"

Junaid said: "Do you know what the obligation of prayer is? Cutting attachments, gathering the concern, and being present before God Most High." He was asked: "How do you enter prayer?" He said: "By listening with the ear, witnessing with the heart, presence of mind, and gathering of concern."

Fasting

Junaid said: "Fasting is half the Way."

It is related of Junaid that he fasted continuously. When brothers came to visit, he would break his fast with them, saying: "The merit of fellowship with brothers is no less than the merit of fasting."

It is said that Junaid spent twenty years eating only once a week, and his daily devotional prayer was three hundred prostrations.

Junaid said: "If you see a poor man traveling without a water-jug, know that he has resolved to abandon prayer."

Alms

Junaid said — and this before the chapter on fasting — that it is better for the needy to receive from voluntary charity than from obligatory alms.

Junaid said to the Khorasani who brought him money and asked him to spend it on himself: "Rather, I shall distribute it among the poor." The man said: "I know the poor better than you, and I did not choose that." Junaid said: "Do I hope to live long enough to eat this?" The man said: "I did not say spend it on vinegar and condiments and greens — I mean spend it on good things and varieties of sweetness. The faster it is gone, the dearer to me." Junaid said: "A man like you should not be refused." He accepted it. The man said: "No one in Baghdad has done me a greater favor than you." Junaid said: "And no one should accept from anyone except one who is like you."

It is related of Junaid that he said: "No one is truly fit to receive until giving out is dearer to him than receiving."

Junaid said: "I brought dirhams to Husayn ibn al-Misri. His wife had given birth, and they were in the open country with no neighbor. He refused to accept them. I took the dirhams and threw them into the room where the woman was, and said: 'Woman, these are yours.' He had no recourse against what I had done."

One of our brothers told us of his teacher, who said: "I saw Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri stretching out his hand, begging from people in some places." He said: "I was shocked and found it repugnant. I went to Junaid and told him." Junaid said: "Do not let this trouble you. Al-Nuri did not beg for himself — he begged for them, to earn them heavenly reward. He asked on their behalf so they might be rewarded from a direction that caused him no harm."

Then Junaid said: "Bring the scale." He weighed a hundred dirhams, then seized a handful and threw it on top of the hundred. He said: "Take them to him."

The sheikh said: "I thought to myself: a thing is weighed to know its measure, but he has mixed in something extra, making it unknown — and he is a wise man." He was too shy to ask. He took the purse to al-Nuri. Al-Nuri said: "Bring the scale." He weighed a hundred dirhams and said: "Return these to him, and tell him: I do not accept anything from you." He took what exceeded the hundred.

The sheikh said: "This is stranger still." He asked why. Al-Nuri said: "Junaid is a wise man. He wants to hold the rope by both ends. He weighed the hundred for himself — for the reward of the afterlife — and threw on a handful without weighing, for God. I took what was for God and returned what he made for himself."

The sheikh returned them to Junaid. He wept and said: "He took what was his and returned to us what was ours."

Pilgrimage

Junaid and a company of the great masters — God have mercy on them — made the pilgrimage, and none of them made it more than once: the pilgrimage of Islam. Their argument was that the Prophet — peace be upon him — made the pilgrimage only once.

Junaid said: "I made the pilgrimage alone, and stayed in Mecca as a neighbor of the Sanctuary. When night fell I entered the circumambulation. There was a girl circumambulating, saying:

Love refused to be hidden — how much I concealed it! — and it came and pitched its tent beside me.
When my longing grows fierce, my heart roams in his remembrance — and if I seek nearness to the Beloved, I draw near.
He appears, and I am annihilated — then He gives me life again for Him — and He makes me happy until I taste delight.

I said: 'Girl — do you not fear God, to speak such words in such a place?' She turned to me and said:

Were it not for piety, you would not see me forsaking sweet sleep.
Piety has exiled me — as you see — from my homeland.
I flee from my passion for Him — yet His love has bewildered me.

Then she said: 'Junaid — do you circumambulate the House, or the Lord of the House?' I said: 'The House.' She raised her eyes to the sky and said: 'Glory be to You! How vast is Your decree in Your creation — You created them like stones, and they circumambulate stones.' Then she recited:

They circumambulate the stones seeking nearness to You — and they are harder of heart than rock.
They wandered, not knowing through bewilderment who they are — yet they have alighted in the station of nearness, in the depths of thought.
If they were sincere in love, their attributes would vanish — and the attributes of love would stand for the Real in remembrance."

Abu 'Amr al-Zajjaji said: "I entered upon Junaid wanting to make the pilgrimage. He gave me a sound dirham. I tied it in my waist-wrapper. I did not enter a stopping-place without finding companions, and I never needed the dirham. When I had completed the pilgrimage and returned to Baghdad, I entered upon Junaid. He extended his hand and said: 'Give it.' I handed him the dirham. He said: 'How was it?' I said: 'The decree was in force.'"

A man came to Junaid and said he had been on pilgrimage. Junaid said: "From where did you come?" The man said: "I was on the pilgrimage." Junaid said: "Did you truly make the pilgrimage?" The man said: "Yes." Junaid said:

"When you first left your house and departed from your homeland — did you depart from all sins?" The man said: "No." Junaid said: "Then you did not depart."

"When you traveled and stopped each night at a station — did you traverse, in that journey, a station of the stations on the path of Truth?" "No." "Then you did not travel."

"When you entered the state of consecration at the appointed place — did you strip away the attributes of your humanity as you stripped away your clothes?" "No." "Then you did not enter consecration."

"When you stood at Arafat — did the moment dawn upon you in the unveiling of witnessing?" "No." "Then you did not stand at Arafat."

"When you went to Muzdalifa and your desire was fulfilled — did you abandon all the desires of the self?" "No." "Then you did not go to Muzdalifa."

"When you performed the circuit — did you circumambulate?" "No." "Then you did not circumambulate."

"When you hastened between Safa and Marwa — did you attain the station of purity and the rank of virtue?" "No." "Then you have not yet hastened."

"When you came to Mina — did your wishes fall away?" "No." "Then you have not yet gone to Mina."

"When you sacrificed at the place of sacrifice — did you sacrifice the desires of your self?" "No." "Then you have not sacrificed."

"When you threw the pebbles — did you cast away everything you carried of self-regarding meanings?" "No." "Then you have not yet thrown the pebbles, and you have not made the pilgrimage. Go back and make the pilgrimage in this manner, until you reach the Station of Abraham."

Al-Juriri said: "I returned from the pilgrimage and went first to Junaid, greeting him, so he would not have to trouble himself to come to me. Then I went to my lodging. When I prayed the dawn prayer I turned and there was Junaid behind me. I said: 'Master, I went first to greet you so you would not trouble yourself to come here.' He said: 'Abu Muhammad — that was your right. And this is a grace beyond it.'"

On Servitude

Junaid says: "Servitude is the abandonment of occupation, and the engagement with the occupation that is the root of all freedom."

Junaid said: "I fell ill and asked God to heal me. He said to me in my secret: 'Do not come between Me and yourself.'"

A man from Khurasan entered upon Junaid while a company was with him, and said: "When does praise and blame become equal to the servant?" One of the sheikhs said: "When he enters the madhouse and is chained with two chains." Junaid said: "That is not your concern." Then he turned to the man and said: "When he realizes that he is created." The man gasped and died.

Junaid used to enter his shop every day, lower the curtain, pray four hundred prostrations, and return home.

He said: "You will not be God's servant entirely until nothing of anything other than God remains in you."

Junaid said: "Do not be God's servant truly while anything besides Him holds you captive."

Junaid says: "You will never be His servant in reality while anything less than Him enslaves you. And you will never reach pure freedom while any remnant of His servitude remains upon you. When you are His servant alone, you are free from everything else."

Junaid said: "I spent a night at Sari's. In the middle of the night he said to me: 'Junaid — are you asleep?' I said: 'No.' He said: 'Just now God — mighty and glorious — stood me before Him and said to me:

O Sari — I created all creation, and they all claimed to love Me. I created the world, and from every ten thousand, nine thousand turned from Me to the world. A thousand remained. I created paradise, and from the thousand, nine hundred turned to paradise. A hundred remained. I sent upon them something of tribulation, and from the hundred, ninety were distracted from Me by the tribulation. Ten remained.

I said to them: You did not want the world. You did not desire the afterlife. You did not flee from tribulation. What do you want?

They said: You know what we want.

I said: I shall send upon you tribulation that you cannot bear — that the firmly-rooted mountains cannot bear. Will you endure?

They said: Are You not the One doing this to us? We are content. In You we shall bear, and for You we shall bear, and to You we shall bear what the mountains cannot bear.

I said to them: You are My servants truly.'"

He was asked: "What is the sign of the servant?" He said: "That he complains of no one, harms no one until they complain of him, abandons falling short in service, and abandons planning in the face of the decree."

Junaid said: "God revealed to His servants their faults by mentioning clay, and made them know their measure by mentioning the drop of sperm, and showed them their helplessness in their turning — that they might know their need of Him in every state."

Junaid said: "The servant may be transferred from one state to a higher one while there remains upon him a remnant of the one he left behind. He looks back upon it from the second state and completes it."

Junaid said: "God has servants upon the saddles of His steeds — they ride, and with speed and haste toward Him they race."

Junaid was asked: "When the name of the servant vanishes and the decree of God Most High is established — what then?" He said: "Know — may God have mercy on you — that when knowledge of God grows immense, the traces of the servant are effaced and his marks are erased. At that point the knowledge of the Real appears, and the name of God's decree is established."

Junaid was asked: "When does praise and blame become equal to the servant?" He said: "When he knows that he is created — and is there."

Junaid was asked: "When does the servant deserve to be called intelligent?" He said: "I heard Sari say: 'When nothing appears in his limbs that his Master has condemned.'"

Junaid said: "I have known seventy knowers, all of whom worshipped God upon supposition and conjecture — even my brother Abu Yazid. Had he met a boy from among our boys, he would have submitted at his hands."

Junaid said: "It is not the same — one who seeks God by the expenditure of effort, and one who seeks Him by way of generosity."

Junaid said: "If God held us to the reality of what Abu Sa'id was upon, we would perish." Ibrahim ibn Shayban was asked: "What was his state?" He said: "He spent years without God slipping from between his prayer-beads."

Junaid said: "God singled you out by His choosing and gathered you by His encompassing, and distinguished you with the knowledge of the people of understanding, and showed you from knowledge what is most worthy, and completed for you what He wills from you for Him. Then He emptied you of yourself for Him — and from Him, for Him, by Him — that He might single you out in your turning in what He shows you, from where no witness of witnesses reaches you to draw you out. That is the first of the First, by which He erased the traces of what accumulated from what He hid from you — by the loftiness of what He reserved from Him for Him. Then He singled you out from yourself by yourself, in the first singling-out of stripping, and the reality of the advent of singling-out."

Junaid said: "He honored you by His obedience, distinguished you by His friendship, covered you with His veil, granted you success in the way of His Prophet — peace and blessings be upon him — and showed you the understanding of His Book, and gave you speech with wisdom, and comforted you with nearness, and distinguished you with gifts, and granted you increase, and kept you at His gate, and charged you with His service — until you become one who accords with Him, and one who tastes the cup of His love. And so life is joined to life, and living to living, and spirit to spirit, and the blessing is complete, and you are safe from reproach, and well-being is sound, and peace is whole."

Junaid said of Abu Yazid: "My God — if in Your prior knowledge You will punish any of Your creation with the Fire, then make my body so vast in it that no one besides me can fit. If You said: Give everything from yourself to us — You would not refuse what I said. If a tenth of me were placed upon hellfire, it would cry out from the immensity to the face of its keeper. Your love is an obligation — how shall I fulfill it? I am not one who, while I live, would abandon an obligation."

Junaid said: "Whoever is unable in seven things, servitude will not be sound for him. First: knowledge of God. Second: knowledge of the self. Third: knowledge of the enemy, Satan. Fourth: knowledge of creation. Fifth: knowledge of this world. Sixth: knowledge of the afterlife. Seventh: knowledge of the moment — and by it knowledge is complete. For whoever does not know his moment, his moment passes him by. And looking back at what has passed is distraction from what is to come."

Need Before God

On the verse "Keep me and my sons from worshipping idols": Junaid said: "That is: keep me and my sons from seeing any means to You other than need."

On Will and the Seeker

Junaid used to say: "I prefer that the beginning seeker not occupy his heart with three things, or his state will change: earning, seeking hadith, and marriage."

Junaid said: "I prefer the Sufi not to read or write, for that is more gathering for his concern."

Junaid was asked about the difference between the seeker and the sought. He said: "The seeker is governed by the discipline of knowledge. The sought is governed by the care of God. For the seeker walks, and the sought flies. When will the walker catch the flyer?"

Junaid said: "The sincere seeker is independent of the knowledge of scholars. When God wills good for a seeker, He places him among the Sufis and prevents him from the company of the reciters."

Junaid said: "If the seeker is sincere, God enriches him beyond memorized texts, with a light He places in his heart by which he distinguishes truth from falsehood."

On Uprightness

Junaid said of uprightness: "Only the champions among men can bear it, for it is the departure from all that is familiar and the abandonment of conventions and habits."

Junaid said: "Uprightness with fear and hope is the state of the worshippers. Uprightness with awe and hope is the state of those brought near. Uprightness with the absence of seeing one's own uprightness is the state of the knowers. 'Do not transgress' — do not depart from what the sacred law has set for you, for departure from it is heresy. 'Do not incline' — do not lean even the slightest toward the darkened selves that incline toward evil in the root of their creation."

On Sincerity

Junaid was asked about sincerity. He said: "Removing creation from your dealing with God Most High — and the self is the first of creation."

Junaid was asked about sincerity. He said: "The vanishing of your seeing, and your annihilation from the act."

Junaid said: "Sincerity is whatever is intended for God, from whatever work it may be."

Junaid said: "Sincerity is a secret between the servant and his Lord. No angel knows it to record it. No devil knows it to corrupt it. No desire knows it to destroy it."

Junaid said: "God has servants who understood. When they understood, they acted. When they acted, they were sincere. And sincerity drew them to the gates of all goodness."

Abu Bakr, the son-in-law of Junaid, said: Junaid recited to me:

People we trusted — and they spread our secret.
When we concealed the secret from them, they slandered us.
They did not keep the love that was between us,
nor, when they resolved upon severance, were they gracious.

Junaid says: "God sends to hearts from His goodness according as hearts send to Him from His remembrance. So look at what has mixed with your heart."

Ja'far al-Khuldi asked Junaid: "Is there a difference between sincerity and truthfulness?" He said: "Yes. Truthfulness is the root and comes first. Sincerity is the branch and follows."

Junaid said: "Sincerity is the purification of action from impurities."

He said: "The first thing seen of sincerity in the states of the saints is the purity of their secrets, their aspirations, and their wills — then the purity of their actions. Whoever does not purify his secret will not achieve purity in his action."

Al-Khuldi said: "I heard Junaid say: 'Turn your concern toward God. And beware of looking with the eye by which you witness God at anything other than God — lest you fall from God's eye.'"

Junaid was asked about sincerity. He said: "An obligation within an obligation, and a voluntary act within a voluntary act." He was asked: "What does that mean?" He said: "Sincerity in obligatory works is obligatory. Voluntary works are not obligatory — but once the servant enters upon them, sincerity in them becomes obligatory. Otherwise he has associated partners." And he recited:

The man who does not purify his heart for God
is in desolation from every watching eye.
The man who does not travel with wares to his eternal home
is no merchant.
The man who trades his religion for this world
will return from it with a losing bargain.

He was asked: "When does action become pure for God?" He said: "When no impurities mix with it, and no watching of people accompanies it."

On Truthfulness

Junaid said: "The reality of truthfulness is that you are truthful in a situation from which nothing will save you except a lie."

Junaid was asked about the verse "That He may ask the truthful about their truthfulness". He said: "He asks those who are truthful in their own eyes about their truthfulness before their Lord — and this is a matter upon a knife's edge."

Junaid said: "If you are truthful with God, be truthful in your secret — for God has given Satan a path to everything except the truthfulness of secrets."

Junaid said: "The sincere seeker is independent of the knowledge of scholars. He works upon clarity — seeing the face of truth in the faces of truth, and guarding against the faces of evil from the faces of evil."

Junaid said: "Whoever seeks honor through falsehood — God bequeaths him disgrace through truth."

Junaid said: "No one seeks anything with truthfulness and earnestness without attaining it. If not all, then part." And they recited in this meaning:

When matters give birth to one another, truthfulness is the noblest offspring.
Truthfulness binds a crown above the head of its companion.
Truthfulness strikes its flint in every quarter as a lamp.

Junaid said: "The reality of truthfulness runs in accordance with God Most High in every state."

Junaid said: "I saw in a dream two angels descending from the sky. One said to me: 'What is truthfulness?' I said: 'Fulfilling the covenant.' The other said: 'He speaks truth.' Then they ascended."

Junaid said: "The truthful one is he who has given away both worlds in seeking his Lord."

The verse "Why do you say what you do not do?" was recited before Junaid. He said: "O God — if we speak, we speak by You; and if we act, we act by Your enabling. Where then is the speaking, and where the acting?"

He said: "If He knew your realization to be true, He would widen the way for you. If you had pointed to Him at the first stroke of calamity, He would have shown you the subtleties of wonders."

Junaid said: "Whoever's outward signs contradict his inner practice is a lying claimant."

Junaid said: "All expression is claim."

Junaid said: "The most harmful thing for people of religion is claims."

Junaid said: "The truthful one changes forty times a day. The hypocrite remains in one state for forty years."

Junaid said: "If a truthful one turned toward God for a million years, then turned away for an instant, what he lost would be greater than what he gained."

On Modesty

Junaid said: "Modesty before God removed from the hearts of His saints the joy of grace."

Junaid was asked about modesty. He said: "Seeing the blessings and graces, and seeing one's own falling short — and from between these two is born a state that is called modesty."

Junaid says: "I met Iblis walking naked in the marketplace, a crust of bread in his hand, eating. I said: 'Are you not ashamed before the people?' He said: 'Abu al-Qasim — is there anyone left on the face of the earth to be ashamed before? Those I was ashamed before are under the earth. The dust has eaten them.'"

On Freedom

Junaid said: "You cannot reach pure freedom while any remnant of His servitude remains upon you."

Junaid said: "The last station of the knower is freedom."

On Remembrance and the Devotional Practice

Junaid said: "Among works there is that which the recording angels do not know — the remembrance of God in the heart, and what the inner depths conceal of awe, reverence for God, the commitment to fear, and the honoring of His commands and prohibitions."

When they said to Junaid at the moment of death: "Say — there is no god but God," he said: "I have not forgotten Him, that I should remember Him." And he recited:

Present in the heart, building it —
I do not forget Him that I should remember Him.
He is my lord and my trust,
and my portion from Him is the fullest.

And they recited for Junaid:

I remembered You — not that I forgot You for an instant.
The least of what is in remembrance is my tongue.

It is said that a youth who kept Junaid's company used to cry out whenever he heard something of remembrance. Junaid said to him one day: "If you do that again, you will no longer keep my company." After that, the youth restrained himself until sweat poured from every hair of his body, and he did not cry out. Abu 'Amr al-Zajjaji related that one day the youth choked from the force of his restraint, gasped once, and his heart split and he died.

Ja'far al-Khuldi asked Junaid: "What do you say — God honor you — about the hidden remembrance that the recording angels do not know? And from where does the hidden act exceed the open by seventy degrees?"

Junaid answered: "May God grant us and you the most guided of affairs and the nearest to Him, and employ us and you in the most pleasing and beloved of affairs to Him, and seal our end and yours with good. As for the remembrance whose knowledge God reserves for Himself apart from all others — it is what hearts hold and inner depths conceal, which neither tongues nor limbs set in motion. It is like awe before God, reverence for God, the commitment to fear God. All of this is between the servant and his Lord — no one knows it save the One who knows the unseen. The proof is His word: 'He knows what their breasts conceal and what they reveal.'

"As for what the recording angels know — it is what they have been assigned to: 'He utters not a word but there is a watcher by him, ready.' And: 'Noble scribes — they know what you do.' What the tongue utters and the limbs perform — that is assigned to the guardian angels. But what hearts conceal of what has not appeared upon the limbs — that God alone knows.

"As for the report that the hidden act exceeds the open by seventy degrees — that is, God knows best, because one who does a work for God and conceals it has loved that God alone should know of that work. He has become sufficient with God's knowledge of his work, apart from the knowledge of all others. When the heart is sufficient with God's knowledge, it purifies the work, paying no regard to anyone below Him. When God knows the truthfulness of the servant's aim toward Him alone — having dropped all thought of anyone below Him — God records that work among the works of the sincere and righteous, and rewards him for his truthfulness seventy times over what is given to one who does not occupy his station."

Junaid said: "The purity of hearts follows the purity and sincerity of remembrance."

Junaid said: "The reality of remembrance is annihilation in the One Remembered, from the act of remembering."

When Junaid grew old, he did not abandon any devotional practice from his youth. They said: "You have grown weak, sheikh — relent from some of the voluntary prayers." He said: "These are things by which I attained what I attained in the beginning. It is impossible that I should abandon them at the end, after the decree of God."

Ibn 'Ata entered upon Junaid in his death-illness, breathing his last. He greeted him, and Junaid did not return the greeting. Then after an hour he returned it and said: "Forgive me — I was in my devotional portion." Then he turned his face to the qibla, said the takbir, and died.

A prayer-bead was seen in Junaid's hand. He was asked: "You, with your rank — you hold a prayer-bead?" He said: "A road by which I reached my Lord — I will never leave it."

The chain of the prayer-bead was traced — from Junaid to al-Muhasibi, from al-Muhasibi to Bishr ibn al-Harith, from Bishr to 'Amir ibn Shu'ayb, from 'Amir to al-Hasan al-Basri. Al-Hasan said: "My son, this is something we used in the beginnings — we would not leave it in the endings. I love to remember God with my heart, my hand, and my tongue."

On the verse "You come together in your gatherings for what is reprehensible": Junaid was asked about it. He said: "Everything people gather for, other than remembrance, is reprehensible."

Junaid said to the whole community: "Upon you is the prayer upon the Prophet — peace and blessings be upon him — at these two times, for they are hours of divine contentment. The Companions were heard humming after the sunset prayer and after the dawn prayer — on account of what they saw of the blessing of praying upon him."

On Spiritual Chivalry

Junaid was asked about spiritual chivalry. He said: "Not to oppose a poor man, and not to contest a rich man."

Junaid said: "Chivalry is the restraint of harm, the offering of generosity, and the restraint of complaint."

When Abu Hafs al-Naysaburi came to the Shuniziyya mosque, the masters gathered around him. He spoke to them in eloquent Arabic, so that they all marveled at his eloquence. They asked him: "What is chivalry?" He said: "Let one of you begin." Junaid said: "Chivalry, in my view, is the abandonment of self-regard and the dropping of self-attribution."

Abu Hafs said: "How beautiful is what the sheikh said. But chivalry, in my view, is the rendering of justice and the abandonment of demanding justice for oneself."

Junaid said: "Rise, companions — Abu Hafs has surpassed Adam and his descendants in chivalry."

Junaid said: "Chivalry is in Syria. Eloquence is in Iraq. Truthfulness is in Khurasan."

On Spiritual Insight

Junaid was asked about spiritual insight. He said: "It is the chance of being right." He was asked: "Is it for the one who possesses it only at the moment of occurrence, or at all times?" He said: "At all times — for it is a gift, and so it abides with him always." He declared that gifts are permanent.

Junaid was asked about spiritual insight. He said: "Divine signs that appear in the secrets of the knowers — their tongues speak of them and strike upon the truth."

Junaid's single hadith from the Prophet — peace be upon him: "Beware the insight of the believer, for he sees by the light of God." Then Junaid recited the verse: "In that are signs for those who read the signs" — and said: "For those with spiritual insight."

Junaid was sitting for the people in the mosque. Word spread that Junaid was speaking. A Christian youth came in disguise, stood before him, and said: "Sheikh — what is the meaning of the Prophet's saying: 'Beware the insight of the believer, for he sees by the light of God'?" Junaid bowed his head, then raised it and said: "Submit to Islam — for the time of your Islam has come." The youth submitted.

On Character

On the verse "You are indeed upon a great character": Junaid said: "His character — peace and blessings be upon him — was great because he had no concern other than God Most High."

Junaid was asked about great character. He said: "Four things were gathered in him: generosity, affection, good counsel, and compassion."

Junaid said: "I heard al-Harith al-Muhasibi say: 'We have lost three things — a beautiful face with dignity, a beautiful word with trustworthiness, and a beautiful friendship with faithfulness.'"

Junaid said: "I would rather be accompanied by a sinful man of good character than by a reciter of bad character."

On Generosity

It was also said: "The gate of every precious and exalted thing is the expenditure of effort. But one who serves God by expenditure of effort is not like one who seeks Him by way of generosity."

Junaid said: "If an eye of generosity opened, it would join the sinners to the righteous, and the works of the workers would remain as a surplus for them."

Junaid was asked: "Who is the generous one?" He said: "The generous one is the one who does not make you need an intermediary."

Junaid said: "I had four dirhams. I entered upon Sari and said: 'I have four dirhams — I have made them yours.' He said: 'Rejoice, boy — you will prosper. I was in need of four dirhams, and I said: O God, send them by the hand of one who will prosper in Your sight.'"

On Spiritual Jealousy

Junaid says: "If God said to me: 'Look at Me,' I would say: 'No' — for the eye in love is other and foreign, and the jealousy of otherness prevents me from seeing. I used to see Him in this world without the intermediary of the eye — why should I take an intermediary in the next?"

On Sainthood and the Saints

Junaid said: "Faith in our way and confirmation of it — that is sainthood."

Junaid said: "The quality of the saint is that he has no fear — for fear is the anticipation of a harm that will befall in the future, or the expectation of a beloved thing that will be missed in time to come — and the saint is a child of his moment, having no future to fear. Likewise, he has no hope — for hope is the awaiting of a beloved thing to come, or a hardship to be lifted — and that belongs to the moment after this one. Likewise, he does not grieve — for grief comes from the roughness of the moment — and whoever dwells in the light of contentment and the garden of accord, where shall grief find him? As God Most High said: 'Surely the friends of God — no fear shall be upon them, nor shall they grieve.'"

Junaid says: "Whoever looks at a saint of God and honors him — God will honor him before the witnesses."

Junaid said: "Whoever tends his guardianship well, his sainthood endures."

Junaid said: "I used to see people — a single glance from them was my provision from one Friday to the next."

Junaid said: "They are a people who caught the scent of what He called them to, and sent themselves to cut away every distracting attachment. They threw themselves into the embrace of striving, swallowed the bitterness of struggle, were truthful with God in their dealings, and practiced good courtesy in what they turned toward. Calamities became light to them in all that they met for His sake. They knew the worth of what they sought, and so they imprisoned their selves and their aspirations from glancing at any remembered thing other than their Patron — and they lived the life of eternity through the Living One who has always been and shall always be."

Junaid said: "God has servants who accompanied this world with their bodies and parted from it by the bonds of their faith. The knowledge of certainty revealed to them what they are heading toward, and what they shall dwell in, and what they shall return to. They fled from the demands of their commanding selves — which call to destruction, aid the enemies, follow desire, and are plunged in affliction — and they fled to the acceptance of the clear revelation that admits no interpretation, when they heard Him say: 'O you who believe — answer God and the Messenger when He calls you to what gives you life.' The sweetness of the calling struck the ears of their understanding. They caught the breath of what the purified minds bore them from the impurities of the hidden love of remaining in the abode of delusion. They hastened to cut away the distracting attachments, threw themselves into the embrace of works, swallowed the bitterness of struggle, were truthful with God in their dealings, practiced good courtesy in what they turned toward, and calamities became light to them. They knew the worth of what they sought, and they seized the safety of their moments and the soundness of their limbs. They killed the appetites of the selves and imprisoned their concerns from glancing at any remembered thing other than their Patron. They guarded their hearts from gazing upward into the heights of heedlessness, and they set over their hearts a watcher from the knowledge of the One from whom not an atom's weight is hidden in land or sea — the One who encompasses all things in knowledge and encompasses it in awareness. Then those selves, after their stubbornness, were tamed. They raced in rivalry with their kind — selves tended by their Guardian, preserved by their Maker, watched over by the One who suffices them.

"Imagine, O my brother — if you are a person of insight — what descends upon them at the hour of their intimate prayer, and what they encounter of the rains of their needs. You see spirits circling in bodies withered by awe, humbled by service, clothed in modesty, gathered by nearness, stilled by dignity, given speech by vigilance. Their companion is solitude. Their conversation is thought. Their emblem is remembrance. Their occupation with God is unbroken, and from all else, severed. They do not receive a guest, and they do not see off a traveler. Their sustenance is hunger and thirst. Their rest is reliance. Their treasure is trust in God. Their support is dependence. Their remedy is patience. Their companion is contentment. Selves brought forward for the fulfillment of duties, elevated to the precious hidden knowledge, and spared the weight of trials. 'The Great Terror shall not grieve them, and the angels shall receive them: This is your Day, which you were promised.' 'We are your allies in the life of this world and in the hereafter. And you shall have therein whatever your souls desire, and you shall have therein whatever you claim — a provision from One Forgiving, Merciful.'"

Junaid said: "Whoever tends his guardianship well, his sainthood endures."

The scribes used to attend Junaid's gathering for his expression. The jurists for his argumentation. The philosophers for the subtlety of his meanings. The theologians for his verification. And the Sufis for his indications and realities.

Junaid was asked: "Who is the Pole?" He said: "He has not appeared."

On Poverty

Junaid said: "Poverty is the emptiness of the heart from forms."

It is related of Junaid that he said: "The sign of the sincere poor man is that he asks no one, does not resist — and if resisted, falls silent."

Junaid says: "O company of the poor — you are known by God and honored for God's sake. See how you are with God when you are alone with Him."

Junaid was asked about the noblest of people. He said: "The poor man who is content."

Junaid was asked about the sincere poor man. He said: "He is the one who is not made rich by anything — but by whom all things are made rich."

Junaid said: "If you meet the poor man, meet him with gentleness, not with knowledge — for gentleness soothes him, and knowledge makes him desolate." Al-Murta'ish said: "Abu al-Qasim — can a poor man be made desolate by knowledge?" He said: "Yes. If the poor man is sincere in his poverty and you cast your knowledge upon him, he melts — as lead melts upon fire."

Junaid was asked about the sincere poor man — when does he deserve to enter paradise five hundred years before the rich? He said: "When the poor man deals with God with his heart, and accords with God in what He has withheld, and counts poverty from God as a blessing upon him — fearing its departure as he would fear the departure of wealth — and he is patient, reckoning his reward, glad of God's choosing poverty for him, preserving his religion, concealing his poverty, displaying independence from people, relying on his Lord in his poverty. As God said: 'For the poor who are confined in the way of God.' When the poor man has this quality, he enters paradise before the rich by five hundred years, and is spared on the Day of Resurrection the burden of standing and reckoning — God willing."

Junaid was asked about a grateful rich man and a patient poor man — which is better? He said: "The rich man is not praised for possessing, nor the poor man for lacking. The praise in both is their fulfillment of the conditions upon them. The condition of the rich man is that he accompanies what is required of him amid things that please and indulge his nature. The condition of the poor man is that he accompanies what is required of him amid things that grieve and distress his nature. When both stand before God fulfilling their conditions, the one whose nature was afflicted and distressed is in a more complete state than the one whose nature was indulged and comforted."

Ja'far al-Khuldi said: "A man entered upon Junaid wishing to give away all his possessions and sit with them in poverty. I heard Junaid say to him: 'Do not give away everything you have. Keep enough for yourself. Strive for what is lawful. Do not give away everything — I am not safe for you that your self might demand it back. The Prophet — peace and blessings be upon him — when he wished to do a work, made it firm first.'"

There arose one day between Junaid and Ibn 'Ata a discussion on this question — the comparison of the rich and the poor. Ibn 'Ata argued that the rich are more excellent, because they will be held to account on the Day of Resurrection, and the hearing of the account is God's speech without intermediary, in the station of reproach — and reproach is from the beloved to the beloved. Junaid said: "If they are called to account, then they will make excuses to the poor — and the excuse is more excellent than the reproach of the account."

Colophon

Translated from the Classical Arabic compilation by Sheikh Ahmad Farid al-Mazidi, drawing on the major hadith, tabaqat, and Sufi literature of the tradition. The biographical material and sayings of Junaid al-Baghdadi (d. 297 AH / 910 CE) draw on the major classical collections: al-Qushayri's Risala, Abu Nu'aym's Hilya al-Awliya', al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's Tarikh Baghdad, al-Sulami's Tabaqat al-Sufiyya, al-Suhrawardi's 'Awarif al-Ma'arif, al-Tusi's al-Luma', and others as cited in the source footnotes. The compiler's modern Arabic introduction has not been translated. All translation independently from the Classical Arabic. Chapters on the Moment through Knowledge translated by a first hand; chapters on Repentance through Grief and Weeping by a second; chapters on Hunger through Poverty by a third. Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

🌲

Source Text

ترجمة سيد الطائفتين

هو سيد الطائفتين ومفتي الفريقين وإمامهم وتاجهم وطاووس العباد وقطب العلم والعلماء: أبو القاسم الجنيد بن محمد ابن الجنيد الخراز القواريري قدس اللّه روحه ونوّر ضريحه.

وفاته وحاله عند انتقاله

وقيل له حال نزعه قل: لا إله إلا اللّه، فقال: ما نسيته فأذكره.

قال جعفر الخلدي: رأيت الجنيد في المنام بعد موته، فقلت له: ما فعل اللّه بك؟ فقال: طاحت تلك الإشارات، وغابت تلك العبارات، وفنيت تلك العلوم، ونفدت تلك الرسوم، وما نفعنا إلا ركيعات كنا نركعها في الأسحار.

باب الوقت

قال الجنيد: الوقت عزيز، إذا فات لا يدرك.

باب الإشارة

دخل رجل على الجنيد فسأله عن مسألة، فأشار الجنيد بعينه إلى السماء، فقال له الرجل: يا أبا القاسم، لا تشر إليه؛ فإنه أقرب إليك من ذلك. فقال الجنيد: صدقت. وضحك.

باب الحق

قيل للجنيد: أبو يزيد البسطامي يقول: (سبحاني أنا ربي الأعلى). فقال: الرجل استهلك، فنطق ما هلك به؛ لذهوله في الحق عن رؤيته إيّاه، فلم يشهد في الحق إلا الحق.

باب العقل

قال جعفر الخلدي: سألت الجنيد عن مسألة في العقل؟ فقال: يا أبا محمد، من لم يحترز بعقله من عقله لعقله هلك بعقله.

باب الحيرة

قال الجنيد: عقول العقلاء إذا تناهت تناهت إلى حيرة.

وسئل عن قوله تعالى: ولقد آتينا إبراهيم رشده من قبل — متى آتاه ذلك؟ فقال: حين لا متى.

باب الحكمة

سئل الجنيد عمّا تنهى الحكمة؟ فقال: الحكمة تنهى عن كل ما يحتاج أن يعتذر منه، وعن كل ما إذا غاب علمه عن غيرك أحشمك ذكره في نفسك.

باب العلم

قال الجنيد: متى أردت أن تشرف بالعلم وتنسب إليه وتكون من أهله قبل أن تعطي العلم ما له عليك احتجب عنك نوره، وبقي عليك وسمه وظهوره، ذلك العلم عليك لا لك.

وسئل الجنيد عمّن أخذت هذا العلم؟ فقال: أمّا في أول أمري فعن خالي سريّ السقطيّ، ثم عن أدبي مع اللّه سبحانه وتعالى ثلاثين سنة تحت هذه الدرجة.

باب التوبة

وسئل الجنيد عن التوبة ؟ فقال : هو أن تنسى ذنبك.

التوبة النصوح هو أن ينسى الذنب ، فلا يذكره أبدا ؛ لأن من صحت توبته صار محبّا للّه ، ومن أحبّ اللّه نسي ما دون اللّه.

قال الجنيد : إذا كنت معك في حال الجفاء ونقلتني من حال الجفاء إلى حال الصفاء فذكري للجفاء في حال الصفاء غفلة.

يقول الجنيد : التوبة على ثلاث معان : أولها الندم ، والثاني العزم على ترك المعاودة إلى ما نهى اللّه عنه ، والثالث السعي في أداء المظالم.

قالوا : غدا العيد ماذا أنت لابسه * فقلت خلعة ساق عبده جرعا
فقر وصبر هما ثوباي تحتهما * قلب يرى ربّه الأعياد والجمعا

يقول الجنيد : الغفلة عن اللّه أشدّ من دخول النار.

باب المحاسبة

فقال أبو يزيد : إن اللّه تعالى يحاسب عباده على مثقال ذرة ، ثم قال : ألا ترين إلى قوله تعالى : فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْراً يَرَهُ وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ.

باب الخلوة والعزلة

قال الجنيد : مكابدة العزلة أيسر من مداراة الخلطة.

قيل له متى تطيب الخلوة ؟ قال : إذا كان لك جليس ، وكان الجليس في الجلوس أنيسا.

باب التقوى

قال الجنيد : ما نجا من نجا إلا بصدق اللجاء والالتجاء.

سمعت معروفا الكرخي يقول : غضّوا أبصاركم ولو عن شاة أنثى.

باب الورع

قال الجنيد : الورع في الكلام أشدّ منه في الاكتساب.

قد طوي بساط الورع من سنين عديدة ، وإنما يتكلم الناس الآن في بعض حواشيه ورسومه.

بصفاء المطعم والملبس والمسكن يصلح الأمر كله.

باب الزهد وقصر الأمل في الدنيا

سئل عن الزهد ؟ فقال : الزهد خلوّ القلب عمّا خلت منه اليد ، واستصغار الدنيا ، ومحو آثارها من القلب.

سئل الجنيد عن الدنيا ما هي ؟ قال : ما دنا من القلب ، وشغل عن اللّه.

نجاح قضاء كل حاجة من الدنيا تركها.

قال الجنيد : احفظوا ساعاتكم ؛ فإنها زائلة غير راجعة.

باب الصمت

باب الإذن بالكلام

قال الجنيد : الصواب كلّ نطق عن إذن.

باب الكلام

قال الجنيد : كلام الأنبياء نبأ عن حضور ، وكلام الصديقين إشارات عن مشاهدات.

أنا أكلم اللّه منذ ثلاثين سنة ، والناس يظنون أني أكلمهم.

باب الخوف والرجاء

يقول الجنيد : الخوف من اللّه يقبضني ، والرجاء منه يبسطني ، والحقيقة تجمعني ، والحق يفرقني ، إذا قبضني بالخوف أفناني عني ، وإذا بسطني بالرجاء ردّني ، وإذ جمعني بالحقيقة أحضرني ، وإذا فرقني بالحق أشهدني غيري فغطاني عنه ، فهو تعالى في ذلك كله محركي غير مسكني ، وموحشي غير مؤنسي ، فأنا بحضوري أذوق طعم وجودي ، فليته أفناني عنّي فمتّعني ، أو غيّبني عنّي فروّحني.

نقش خاتم الجنيد : إن كنت تأمله فلا تأمنه.

باب الحزن والبكاء

سئل الجنيد من أي شيء يكون بكاء المحب إذا لقي المحبوب ؟ فقال : إنما يكون ذلك سرورا به ، ووجدا من شدة الشوق إليه.

إنّ اللّه يحبّ كلّ قلب حزين.

باب الجوع وترك الشهوة

يروى عن الجنيد أنه قال : مرّ بي يوما الحارث المحاسبي ، فرأيت فيه أثر الجوع ، فقلت : يا عم ، تدخل الدار وتتناول شيئا ؟ فقال : نعم ... فأخذ لقمة ، وأدارها في فمه مرات ، ثم إنه قام ، وألقاها في الدهليز ... فقال : إني كنت جائعا وأردت أن أسرّك بأكلي ... ولكن بيني وبين اللّه سبحانه علامة ألا يسوغني طعاما فيه شبهة ، فلم يمكني ابتلاعه .

عن الجنيد : من النذالة أن يأكل الرجل بدينه .

باب الخشوع

سئل الجنيد عن الخشوع ؟ فقال : تذلل القلوب لعلام الغيوب .

باب التواضع

سئل الجنيد عن التواضع ؟ فقال : خفض الجناح للخلق ، ولين الجانب لهم .

لا يبلغ أحد درجة المتواضعين من أكابر العارفين حتى يرى أن نفسه ليست بأهل أن تنالها رحمة اللّه ، وإنما رحمة اللّه له محض امتنان .

الرياضة والمجاهدة

قال الجنيد : هتف في قلبي : أما تستحي شهوة تركتها من أجلي ثم تعود إليها .

قال الجنيد : سمعت السريّ السقطيّ يقول : إن نفسي تطالبني منذ ثلاثين سنة أو أربعين سنة أن أغمس جزرة في دبس فما أطعتها .

الظالم لنفسه ... الذي حرمها حظّها من الشهوات والإرادات ... بل طلب ربه على غير حظّ النفس فيه ، فهذا الظالم على هذا المعنى مقدم على المقتصد والسابق .

ما طلب أحد شيئا بجدّ وصدق إلا ناله ، فإن لم ينله كله نال بعضه .

النفس ومخالفتها

النفس الأمارة بالسوء هي الداعية إلى المهالك ، المعينة للأعداء ، المتبعة للهوى .

متى يصير داء النفس دواءها ؟ فقلت : إذا خالفت النفس هواها صار داؤها دواءها .

أساس الكفر قيامك على مراد نفسك .

لا تسكن إلى نفسك ، وإن دامت طاعتها لك في طاعة ربّك .

باب التوكل

سئل الجنيد عن التوكّل ؟ فقال : اعتماد القلب على اللّه تعالى .

حقيقة التوكل أن يكون المتوكل للّه تعالى كما لم يكن ، فيكون اللّه كما لم يزل .

قال الجنيد : كان التوكل حقيقة واليوم هو علم .

قالوا : فما الحيلة ؟ قال : ترك الحيلة .

باب الشكر

قلت : ألا تعصي اللّه بنعمه ... أخشى أن يكون حظك من اللّه لسانك ... فلا أزال أبكي على هذه الكلمة .

حقيقة الشكر العجز عن الشكر .

باب اليقين

اليقين ارتفاع الريب في مشهد الغيب .

اليقين هو استقرار العلم الذي لا ينقلب ولا يحول ولا يتغير في القلب .

قد مشى رجال باليقين على الماء ، ومات بالعطش أفضل منهم يقينا .

باب في البلاء والمحنة

البلاء على ثلاثة أوجه : على المخلطين عقوبات ، وعلى الصادقين تمحيص جنايات ، وعلى الأنبياء من صدق الاختصارات .

فقام إليه رجل يقال له أبو الحسن النوري ... فقال : علمت أن الدنيا سجن المؤمن ، فأحببت أن أخرج إلى دار الفوز .

أنا عبد اللّه ... وما خلقت الجنّ والإنس إلا ليعبدون ... ولقد كرمنا بني آدم ... وهو معكم أين ما كنتم .

باب الصبر

الصبر هو تجرع المرارة من غير تعبيس .

السير من الدنيا إلى الآخرة سهل هين على المؤمن ... والسير من النفس إلى اللّه تعالى صعب شديد ، والصبر مع اللّه أشدّ .

لو صبرت لنبع الماء من تحت قدميك ، لو صبرت صبر ساعة .

باب المراقبة

إنما يتحقق بالمراقبة من يخاف على فوت حظه من ربّه عز وجلّ لا غير .

باب الرضا

الرضا ترك الاختيار .

قولك ذا ضيق صدر ، وضيق الصدر لترك الرضا بالقضاء .

باب في العبادات — الصلاة

لكل شيء صفوة ، وصفوة الصلاة التكبيرة الأولى .

ما فريضة الصلاة ؟ قال : قطع العلائق ، وجمع الهم ، والحضور بين يدي اللّه .

الصوم

الصوم نصف الطريقة .

ليس فضل المساعدة مع الإخوان بأقلّ من فضل الصوم للصائم .

الحج

أتطوفون بالبيت أم بربّ البيت ؟ ... يطوفون بالأحجار يبغون قربة إليك وهم أقسى قلوبا من الصخر .

ارجع فحج على هذا النحو ؛ حتى تصل إلى مقام إبراهيم .

باب العبودية

العبودية ترك الاشتغال ، والاشتغال بالشغل الذي هو أصل الفراغة .

مرضت مرضة فسألت اللّه أن يعافيني ، فقال لي في سرّي : لا تدخل بيني وبين نفسك .

لا تكن عبد اللّه حقّا ، وأنت لشيء سواه مسترقا .

خلقت الخلق كلهم فادّعوا محبتي ... أنتم لا الدنيا أردتم ، ولا في الآخرة رغبتم ، ولا من البلاء هربتم ، فماذا تريدون ؟ قالوا : إنك لتعلم ما نريد ... قالوا : أليس أنت الفاعل بنا ... أنتم عبيدي حقّا .

من عجز عن سبعة أشياء لم تصف له العبودية : معرفة اللّه ، معرفة نفسه ، معرفة عدوه الشيطان ، معرفة الخلق ، معرفة دنياه ، معرفة آخرته ، معرفة الوقت .

باب الإخلاص

الإخلاص سرّ بين العبد وربّه ، لا يعلمه ملك فيكتبه ، ولا شيطان فيفسده ، ولا هوى فيهلكه .

الإخلاص تصفية العمل من الكدورات .

باب الصدق

حقيقة الصدق أن تصدق في موطن لا ينجيك منه إلا الكذب .

الصادق يتقلب في اليوم أربعين مرة ، والمرائي على حالة واحدة أربعين سنة .

باب الحياء

لقيت إبليس يمشي في السوق عريانا ... أما تستحي من الناس ؟ فقال : وهل بقي على وجه الأرض أحد يستحى منه .

باب الحرية

آخر مقام العارف الحرية .

باب الذكر والورد

حاضر في القلب يعمره / لست أنساه فأذكره .

حقيقة الذكر الفناء بالمذكور عن الذكر .

هذه أشياء أدركت بها في البداية ما أدركته ، فمحال أن أكفّ عنها في النهاية .

اعذرني ؛ فإني كنت في وردي ، ثم حوّل وجهه إلى القبلة وكبّر ومات .

باب الفتوة

الفتوة عندي ترك الرؤية وإسقاط النسبة ... الفتوة عندي أداء الإنصاف وترك مطالبة الانتصاف ... قوموا يا أصحابنا فقد زاد أبو حفص على آدم وذريته في الفتوة .

باب الفراسة

اتّقوا فراسة المؤمن ؛ فإنّه ينظر بنور اللّه ... أسلم ، فقد حان وقت إسلامك .

باب الفقر

الفقر خلوّ القلب عن الأشكال .

يا معشر الفقراء ، إنكم تعرفون باللّه ، وتكرمون للّه ، فانظروا كيف تكونون مع اللّه إذا خلوتم به .

إذا لقيت الفقير فالقه بالرفق ، ولا تلقه بالعلم ؛ فإن الرفق يؤنسه ، والعلم يوحشه .

Source Colophon

Source: Classical Arabic compilation by Sheikh Ahmad Farid al-Mazidi, drawing on the major tabaqat and Sufi literature of the tradition. Sayings of Junaid al-Baghdadi (d. 297 AH / 910 CE) as transmitted through al-Qushayri, Abu Nu'aym, al-Sulami, al-Tusi, al-Suhrawardi, al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, and other classical sources.

🌲