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The Way of Tawakkul The Ideal of Trust I
The Way of Tawakkul The Ideal of Trust I
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ISLAMIC CULTURE
A N ENG L I S H QUA R T E R ·L Y
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LXXIII, NO.2 }-Iyderabad I'J Deccan 1999
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LIST OF ERRATA TO
Page 28, line 14 from the bottom. For: "ultra dependence" read: "utter dependence"
Page 28, line 3 from the bottom. For: "trust," (IX:5;" read: "trust," (IX:51;"
Page 28, line 20 from the bottom. For: "faith-despair-" read: "faith-as-despair-"
Page 29, lin~s 1-3 from the top. The citation of the verse "And put your trust in the
Almighty, the All-merciful." is repeated twice and both chapter and verse
references (XXV: 58 and XXVI: 117) given for this citation are incorrect. The
correct reading is: "And put your trust in the Almighty, the All-merciful" (XXVI:
217)."
Page 31, lines 12-13 from the top. For: "their argument becomes redundant and is
left unresolved by the poet." read: "their argument is left unresolved by the poet,
for upon reaching the coincidentia oppositorum of both, tawakkul, as we will see
below, itself becomes redundant."
Page 33, lines 8-9 from the top. For: "via purgative" read.: "via purgativa".
Page 34, last 5 lines. For: "he describes tawakkul paradoxically. It is simply that God
becomes the Advocate of one's every hope and desire, states al-Kharraz, for the
divine decree precedes our tawakkul: hence, the mystic's unceasing anxiety."
read: "he describes tawakkul paradoxically as "a restless anxiety which never
abates and a peaceful repose without any anxiety." Just because one trusts in God
and abandons one's will to Him doesn't automatically imply that God becomes the
Advocate of one's every hope and desire, states Kharraz, for the divine decree ·
precedes our tawakkul: hence, the mystic's unceasing anxiety."
Page 35, line 9 from the bottom. For: "Khi<;lr wish" read: "Khi<;lr wished"
Page 37, line 16 from the bottom. For: "fana cuisine" read: "fine cuisine"
Page 37, line 9 from the bottom. For: "fana passion" read: "vain passion"
Page 45, line 10 from the bottom. For: "via purgative" read: "via purgativa"
THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL
THE IDEAL OF 'TRUST IN GOD'
IN CLASSICAL PERSIAN SUFISMl
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APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999
extol his praise" (XXV: 58); "And put your trust in the
Almighty, the All-merciful" (XXV: 58); "And put your trust in
the Almighty, the All-merciful" (XXVI:117).9
29
......
:----
- ,
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APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999
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APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999
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VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2
Apophatic Tawakkul
, ,
As can be seen fro·: m.theabove debates between al-J:1allaj .
and al-Khawwas and Siyah and Na~rabadii because of the
social, economic and hence 'worldly' connotations of
practicaUyearning one's ' living or kasb vis~a-vis idealistic
tawakkul, it was not long before many mystics began to
critique the classical concept of tawakkul as wanting in
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APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999
./
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999
42 .
- VOL.LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2
At the same time, to. have faith in Gcd is to. trust Him
utterly, and thus tawakkul carne to. be ccnsidered . akey
ccmpcnent of religicus 'faith (fman);'for "whoev"er vilifies trust
in Gcdalsb 'YilifiesfaithmGcd(al-fmqn)"(againal-1yfakk!69).
Luqrrtah, the . sage ' cf pre;;.!slamic Arabia celebrated in the
Qur'an,was ' said to. have admonished ' his :'son to consider
trust as the fundamerital pillar offa ith in God:
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APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999
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VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2
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VOL.LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2
does not even attend to its own trust, but only focuses upon
Him in Whom he trusts."94
t
"i
APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999 I.
. t
I
i.
father; ii) slave to master; iii) agent to employer; iv) corpse- 1
undertaker; and v) ineffable: "of such a high degree that it t
I
cannot be :mentioned."99 1
One wonders if perhaps the Shaikh al-Akbar's
mysterious last stage of tawakkuI was a reprise to the fourth
degree of Unity (lana' fi 'l-tauhfd) which al-Ghazali had
refused to explain?
ENDNOTES
(3) Abu I:Iiimid al-Ghazau, I~ya' 'UZam al-Dm (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr,
n.d., rprt. of Cairo 1352/1933 edition), IV, p. 223.
(4) Murata and Chittick, The Vision of Islam (New York: Paragon;
1994), p. 116.
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VOL,LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2
(9) Some of the key references are:II 256, 283; III: 75, 122, 159-61;
IV: 58,81,105; V; 12, 26, 47; VI: 89;VII: 68, 89; VIII: 2,27,49, 61;
IX: 51, 129; X: 71, 84-5; XI: 56, 70, 88, 123; XII: 11, 64, 67; XIII:
30; XIV: 11-12; XVI: 42, 99; XXIII: 8; XXV: 58; XXVI: 107, 125,
143, 162, 178, 217; XXVII: 39, 79; XXVIII: 26; XXIX: 59; XXXI;22j
XXXIII: 3, 48, 72; XXXIX: 38; XLII: 10,36; XLIV: 18; LVIlI: 10;
LX: 4;LXIV; 13; LXV: 3.
(14) Ibid.
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VOL. LXXIII THE WAY OF TAWAKKUL NO.2
(32) For another story along this line concerning Ibrahim ibn
Adham's tawakkul, see 'A~~ar, Tadhkirah, p. 122.
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(56) Ibid.
(64) This is
the interpretation given by Junaid's companion Abu
Bakr Shibui 'cited by J.Nurbakhsh, Shiblf: Mast-i-lJaqq wa
Majdhub;..i-J:Iaqfqat (London: Khanaqc1h-i Ni'mat-Alla.hi, 1376
A.Hsh./1997), p. 119.
,
I
(76) Ibid., p. 213.
i
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(79) Cf. Ibn •Arabi, al-Futu~at al-Makkiyyah, III, p. 351: 21-22, where
a mysterious "fifth tawakkul" is mentioned as pertaining to the
.
"Muhammadan. Station".
(89) Abu Na~r al-Sarraj, ' Kitab al-Luma' fi ' '/- Ta~aWwuf, ed.
R.A.Nicholson (London/Leiden: Luzac, Gibb Memorial Series,
no. 22, 1914), p. 51.
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(90) This chapter has been translated into English by Michael Sells,
Early Islamic Mysticism: SuA Qur 'an, Mi'raj, Poetic and
Theological Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1996), pp. 208-
09.
I
is the quality of prophets: Submission (tasZfm) the quahty of
Abraham, and ConSignment (tajwftf.) the quality of our
Prophet. The master in tawakkulis content with God's
promises; the possessor of Submission content with
knowledge '('ilm), and the possessor of Consignment content '
with the Diyine decree (~ukm). Trust is the primary degree,
Submission intermediary, and Consignment the final degree ."
(92) See also Louis Gardet, "L'Abandon a, Dieu (tawakkul): text d'al~
al-Ghazalf," IBLA 13 (1950), pp. 37-48, a partial translation of
al-Ghazali's Kitt~b aI-Timhfd wa '1- Tawakkul from the I~ya '.
(98) See AInu · !:lasan 'Ala' ,Sijzi, Fawa'id aI-Fu 'ad, trans.
B.B.Lawrence, Nizam ad~Dfn Awliya: Morals for the Heart (New
York: Paulist Press, 1992), p. 143.
(99) Denis Gril, "The KWib al-Inbah 'ala TarIq Allah of 'Abdallah
Badr al-J:1abashl," Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society,
XV, 1994; p. 18. See also Ibn 'Arabi's discussion in his al-
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APRIL ISLAMIC CULTURE 1999
.!
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