3.2.7 - Unveiling and the Science of Narration

On the subject of the difference between the science of taste - also known as the science of unveiling or the science of disclosure - and the science of narration or transformation, also known as the science of tradition, the Greatest Shaykh quotes Abu Yazid al-Bustami, may Allah be pleased with him, who said while addressing the scientists of formalities, who rely on the science of the narrations: “You took your knowledge (from people who are now) dead (and who also took it) after (people who are) dead, while we took our knowledge from the Real Who never dies; Those of us say: ’My heart is relating after my Lord’, while you say you: ’I have been told by so and so, who told after so and so’, and then if you are asked: ’where is he?’ You say: ’dead’, and ’where is the other one?’ you say: ’dead’!”

In this regard also, Shaykh Muhyiddin says that when Shaykh Abu Madyan, may Allah have mercy on him, hears someone saying to him: “So and so told me after so and so”, he then says: “We don’t want tainted meat, give us fresh meat”. So he is asking them to relate to God, and leave those who are dead, because they themselves had eaten the meat fresh, and the Giver is still alive, and He is closer to you than your veins. The divine effusion and visions had not been blocked, because they are parts of the prophecy [Kanz: 41399-41402], and the road to that is clear, and the door is open, and work is legitimate, and God is running to receive those who came to seek Him, and ((There is in no conversation between three but that He is the fourth of them, nor are there five but that He is the sixth of them - and no less than that and no more except that He is with them wherever they are.)) [Quran: 58.7]. Therefore, Who is described with relation to you by this state of proximity, and yet you claim that you know that and believe in it, why then you do not take from and talk directly with Him, and yet you leave Him to take from others, why you do not take from Him so you will fresh with your Lord? [Futuhat: I.280, see also: II.5050].