2.9.15 - M

He used to make his living by making caps. One day he was sitting down to use his tools, his earnings being all spent, when he heard the door open and then close again. On going out to investigate he found no one but discovered that someone had left six dinars for him, which he took. Then he took his shears and threw them down a well, saying, Both God and I are in charge of my livelihood, so why should I worry about what it will bring me? Your provision henceforth will seek for you and not you for it.

I have already mentioned the way in which he used to apportion his day and night, but here are more details.

After he had prayed the morning prayer he would sit in Invocation until the sun had risen, when he would pray two portions of the canonical prayer. Then he would fetch his books and go out to the students who studied under him and stay with them until later in the morning, when he would return to his house to eat a little food if he wasn’t fasting. Then he would pray the forenoon prayer and sleep a little. On rising from sleep he would perform the ritual ablution and then perform any task he had to do, otherwise he would sit in Invocation. When noon came he would open the mosque and call the people to prayer. After this, he would return to his house, perform the supererogatory prayers and invoke the Name of God until the time of the noon prayer, when he would go to the mosque and perform the prayer, omitting the supererogatory prayers. While performing the prayer he would sway dizzily because of the ecstasy he experienced in uttering the Word of God. When he had ended the prayer with the ritual greeting of Peace he would leave the mosque and complete the assigned supererogatory prayers for noon. Then he would take the Quran upon his knees and, following the letters with his fingers and his eyes, he would intone it carefully and with feeling until he had completed the five parts. When the time came for the late-afternoon prayer he would call to prayer, return to his house for the supererogatory prayers until the congregation had assembled, and then go and perform the prayer with them. He would then return to his house and sit in Invocation until the time of the sunset prayer, at which time he would call to the prayer and then perform it.

After that he would again return to his house. Sometime between the two night-prayers, as darkness began to fall, he would light the mosque lamps and call to prayer, after which he returned to his house to say the supererogatory prayers. When the congregation had assembled he went and performed the prayer with them. after the prayer he would close the mosque. On returning to his house he would take a look at his record for the day, examining all his words and actions and all that he knew the Angel had recorded against him, so that he might act accordingly. He would then retire to bed and sleep. When a portion of the night had passed he would rise, perform the major ablution if he had lain with his wife,! and retire to his place of prayer, where he would recite the Quran, deriving great joy from it, whether on the transcendental plane, the plane of Paradise, the rational or the legal plane, according as the verses themselves indicated. In this way he would continue till morning.

He received many spiritual sciences from God during these readings of the Quran which were not previously known to him. God Himself caused him to learn them from the Quran; for God has said, Fear God, for God it is Who teaches you.

When dawn broke he would go out to open the mosque, call to prayer, and light the lamps in the mosque. On returning to his house, he would pray the dawn prayer and sit in Invocation. When the light grew stronger he would go out again to pray with the people. This was the way in which our Shaykh spent his days and nights. He would only use salt on his food twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. Both his spiritual state and station were high and his gnosis considerable. It is only seldom one meets such a man. I introduced to him my companion Abdullah Badr al-Habashi, and he prayed behind him.

Then in al-Durrah al-Fakhirah, he says: I kept company with him for nearly seventeen years. When he prayed the midday prayer he would take the Quran and, placing it between his knees, would follow the letters with his finger and read it to himself until the time for the late-afternoon prayer. Thus he would continue the reading of the previous night. I asked him about it and he replied that he did this so that each of his members might acquire from his reading what was appropriate to it.