His words, Exalted is He:

Leave them to eat and enjoy [themselves]. Let them be diverted by [false] hope; for they will come to know.

He [Sahl] said:

If four [traits] come together in a servant, it will be said to him, ‘Truly, you will not attain anything in this affair’:^{1i.e. in the spiritual path.} if he likes to eat tasty food, dress in fine clothes, see his command executed and his possessions increase. Of such a one it will be said, ‘Alas, this is the one who was cut off from God, Exalted is He, by the creation.’ It has been related that God revealed to David عليه السلام the following: ‘Caution and warn your companions about the gratification [lit. consuming, akl] of one’s carnal desires (shahawāt), for verily if hearts are attached to the desires of this world, their intellects (ʿuqūl) will be veiled from Me.’^{2This saying appears in Iṣfahānī, Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ, vol. 5, p. 382.}

Sahl [then] said:

Hope (amal) is the soil of every transgression (maʿṣiya); cupidity (ḥirṣ) is the seed of every transgression, and procrastination (taswīf) is the water of every transgression. Strength (qudra) is the soil of every act of obedience (ṭāʿa), certainty (yaqīn) is the seed of every act of obedience and action (ʿamal) is the water of every act of obedience.

He [probably Abū Bakr al-Sijzī] said:

Sahl used to intensify his ecstasy (wajd) for seventy days, during which he would not eat anything, while he would order his companions to eat meat once a week so that they would not become too weak for worship. However for him, when he ate he would become weak, and when he became hungry he would gain in strength. He would sweat during the severe cold of winter while wearing only one shirt. If they asked him a question on knowledge he would say, ‘Don’t ask me questions, for you cannot benefit from my speech at this time.’ ʿAbbās b. ʿIṣām came one day while Sahl was saying, ‘For thirty years I have been speaking to God while people imagine that I’m speaking to them.’^{3In his Mathnavī-yi maʿnavī, Rūmī attributes a similar saying to the third/ninth-century mystic Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī (commonly referred to in the Persian form of his name as Bāyazīd Basṭāmī): ‘During all these years, I have never spoken to any creature or heard any creature speak to me; but people fancy (pindārand) that I am speaking to them, because they do not see the Great Speaker, of whom they in relation to me are only the echo.’ See Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Mathnavī-yi maʿnavī, Bk. 5, title preceding line 1683, trans. Reynold A. Nicholson. The saying appears in a different form attributed to Bāyazīd in Maybudī’s Kashf al-asrār, vol. 8, p. 520: ‘Bāyazīd said, “For forty years I have not spoken to people; whatever I said was to God, and whatever I heard was from God.”’}

His words, Exalted is He:

[All] except those servants of Yours who are sincerely devoted to You. He [Sahl] said:

All people are dead, except the learned (ʿulamāʾ) among them; all the learned are asleep, except those among them who act; all those who act are deluded, except the sincere (mukhliṣūn) among them, and the sincere are in great danger.^{1Maybudī provides some sort of explanation for this saying: al-mukhliṣūna ʿalā khaṭarin ʿaẓīmin, in a passage in which he contrasts those who are mukhliṣ (the active participle), i.e. purifying themselves, and those who are mukhlaṣ (the passive participle), i.e. those who are liberated [from themselves by God], and he compares the situation of the former to the one who is in sulūk (making his way) and the latter to the one who is in jadhb (or jadhba) drawn by a rapture from God. As long as a person is making their own way, and not freed from themselves, they are in great danger. See Maybudī, Kashf al-asrār, vol. 6, p. 62, and for an explanation of this doctrine, Keeler, Sufi Hermeneutics, pp. 219–23.}

His words, Exalted is He:

…In their drunkenness they were bewildered.

That is, in their ignorance (jahl) and error (ḍalāla) they disobey. Know that all acts of disobedience may be attributed to ignorance, and [all] ignorance may be attributed to intoxication [with the world]. It is said that it [the world] is just like [an] intoxicating drink (muskir).

His words, Exalted is He:

Indeed, in that there are signs for those who take note (mutawassimīn).

He [Sahl] said:

That is, those of spiritual perception (mutafarrisīn). Indeed, it was related from Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī رضي الله عنه that the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Beware of the spiritual perception (firāsa) of the believer, for verily he sees with the light of God.’ Then he recited, ‘Indeed in that there are signs for those who take note.’^{1Tirmidhī, Nawādir al-uṣūl, vol. 3, p. 86; Tirmidhī, Sunan, ‘Kitāb Tafsīr al-Qurʾān’; Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-awsaṭ, vol. 3, p. 312 and vol. 8, p. 23. Firāsa often manifests itself as a form of ‘physiognomy’, the ability to understand a person’s feelings or disposition from their outward appearance — the Sufi shaykh’s being a ‘spy of hearts’. But it may also have the meaning of being able to perceive things over long distances, as will be seen in the example Tustarī cites below. On firāsa, see also Tustarī’s commentary on 7:46 and p. 73, n. 12.} His meaning was those who can see into (mutafarrisūn) the secrets (sarāʾir), and an example of this is when ʿUmar رضي الله عنه said to Sāriya: ‘The mountain, the mountain!’^{2According to tradition, ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb was delivering the sermon at Friday prayer, and was able to perceive great danger facing the commander Sāriya, who was leading the Muslim army thousands of miles away in Persia: the enemy were about to assault them from behind the mountain, so he cried out, ‘O Sāriya, the mountain, the mountain!’}

His words, Exalted is He:

…So be forgiving with gracious forgiveness.

He [Abū Bakr al-Sijzī] said, ‘Muḥammad b. Ḥanafiyya related from ʿAlī رضي الله عنه that regarding His words, So be forgiving with gracious forgiveness, he said: “It is contentment (riḍā) without reproval (ʿitāb).”’ And Sahl said:

[One should be] without resentment (ḥiqd) or censure (tawbīkh) after forgiving someone; this is to overlook [someone’s misdeeds] graciously (iʿrāḍ jamīl).

His words, Exalted is He:

Those who have reduced the Recitation (Qurʾān) to parts.

He [Sahl] said:

The outward meaning of the verse is as the commentators have explained.^{1The word qurʾān here is understood by commentators to refer to the revelations of the Christians and Jews, which were recited out loud as was the Qurʾān. According to traditions cited in the commentary on 15:91 in Ṭabarī’s Jāmiʿ al-bayān, they (specified either as People of the Book, or as Christians and Jews) divided the scripture in parts, believing in some and disbelieving in others.} However, its inner meaning concerns the rules (aḥkām) that God, Exalted is He, sent down regarding our hearing, sight and heart[s] (fuʾād), [referred to] in His words, Exalted is He: Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart, each of these it will be asked [17:36]. Thus, they turned away from acting by it, inclining towards the demands of their natural self (nafs al-ṭabʿ).^{2Thus they selected from the scripture what they wanted, and followed only that which suited their lower desires. We have already seen mention of the natural self (as nafs al-ṭabʿ, nafs ṭabīʿiyya or nafs al-jibilla) in Tustarī’s commentary on 2.30, 4:36, 4:47, 7:187, 11:75, 12:24 and 15:91; and of the spiritual self (nafs al-rūḥ) in his commentary on 9:29. He discusses the respective roles of these two aspects of the self later in the Tafsīr.}

His words, Exalted is He:

By your Lord, We will question them all,

He said:

In this verse there is specificity (khuṣūṣ) [within the all]. For indeed there are among this nation (umma) those who are gathered up from their graves [and taken] directly to Paradise, who do not attend the reckoning (ḥisāb), or experience any of the horrors [of the day]. They are those of whom God, Exalted is He, says, they will be kept away from it [21:101].^{1The whole of this verse reads: Indeed those to whom [the promise of] the best reward went beforehand from Us, they will be kept away from it.} And indeed the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Verily, the friends of God (awliyāʾ Allāh) leave their graves for Paradise and they do not stop for the reckoning, nor do they fear the length of that day. They are the first to reach Paradise. God is well-pleased with them and they are well-pleased with Him. That is the great triumph [5:119].’

His words, Exalted is He:

So, proclaim what you have been commanded…

That is, ‘Recite the Qurʾān openly in the prayer, as We have revealed it to you.’

He was asked: ‘What is revelation (waḥy)?’ He said:

It is clandestine [speech] (mastūr).^{1i.e. concealed from all save those who are designated to receive it.} God has said, Exalted is He: They suggest alluring words to each other [6:112], that is, they confide in one another. It can also carry the meaning of inspiration (ilhām), just as when God, Exalted is He, says: And your Lord revealed to the bee [16:68], meaning: He gave it inspiration.^{2On waḥy, see A. J. Wensinck. ‘Waḥy,’ EI2, vol. xi, p. 53; and on ilhām, see D. B. Macdonald, ‘Ilhām’, EI2, vol. iii, p. 1119.}

His words:

And verily We know that your heart is [at times] oppressed by what they say, But celebrate the glory of your Lord…

That is, ‘Pray to God, Exalted is He, and remember Him’, for it is as if God, Exalted is He, had said to him: ‘If your heart is weighed down because of your proximity to the disbelievers and the calumny of that which they are ascribing to Us in the way of adversaries, rivals and partners through their ignorance and envy, then return to the state of witnessing Us (mushāhada) and proximity to Us (qurb) through remembering Us, truly it is with Us that you have proximity, and it is in remembering and witnessing Us that your happiness [lies]. Furthermore, have forbearance with this [suffering], for in it [that forbearance] is My good pleasure (riḍā).^{1That is, translating riḍāʾī fīhi according to all three MSS: Z515, f. 64b, F638, f. 30a and F3488, f. 236b, instead of riḍāʾī fīka in the published edition.}

It was related that Moses عليه السلام said: ‘O my Lord! Guide me to an action by which I will gain Your good pleasure.’

He continued:

Then God sent the revelation to him: ‘O son of ʿImrān, truly My good pleasure is in [subjecting you to] what you detest, [but] you will not be able to bear that.’

He then said:

Then Moses عليه السلام fell down in prostration, weeping and said: ‘O Lord! You privileged me with [hearing] Your speech, for You did not speak to any human being before me, yet You have not guided me to an action by which I can gain Your good pleasure.’ Then God, Exalted is He, revealed to him saying: ‘Verily My good pleasure is in your contentment with My decree (riḍāʾī fī riḍāka bi-qaḍāʾī).’