His words, Exalted is He:

O you who believe! Do not be forward in the presence of God and His Messenger…

He said:

Verily, God, Exalted is He, has instructed His believing servants in propriety (adab). The meaning is: ‘Do not speak before he [the Prophet] speaks’. Then when he speaks, move forward towards him, hearkening and listening to him; …and fear God, regarding the neglect of His rights, and the loss of reverence for Him. Surely God hears what you say, and knows what you do.

His words:

…and do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet…

That is, ‘Do not address him except when seeking to understand [from him].’ Then He explains the honour of the one who reveres Him, and says:

…they are the ones whose hearts God has tested for mindfulness of Him…

That is, He has made their intentions pure for Him.

His words:

…If a reprobate comes to you with some tiding…

He said:

The reprobate (fāsiq) is a liar (kadhdhāb). The inner meaning of the verse is to teach (taʾdīb) a person who has been informed of someone’s derogation of him, that he should not rush into exacting retribution on them, without having found out about [the matter] for himself.

His words:

…God had endeared faith to you and made it beautiful to your hearts…

He said:

As a kindness (ʿaṭf) from Him, He singled out your hearts for His worship and endowed them with sincerity. [This is so] because being singled out (istikhlāṣ) is from His kindness (ʿaṭf), while [your] sincerity (ikhlāṣ) is His right (ḥaqq).^{1In other words we cannot consider selection to be a right; it is only due to His kindness, while on the other hand our sincerity is a right that we owe Him.} A servant cannot fulfil His right save through His kindness in granting him assistance through the means of faith (asbāb al-īmān), which are the irrefutable proofs and wondrous signs (āyāt muʿjiza).

His words:

…He has made disbelief, mischief and disobedience hateful to you…

due to the fear of His abhorrent punishment.

His words:

[that is] a favour from God and a blessing…

He said:

God has favoured them by that which He initially granted them,^{1That is, what He ordained for them in pre-eternity.} and He has guided them to Him with various kinds of proximity (qurb) and intimacy (zulf).

His words:

If two parties of believers fall to fighting, you [believers] make peace between them…

He said:

The outward meaning of the verse is as those specialised in exegesis have explained.^{1According to the comment on this verse in Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, the verse is alluding to the fight between two clans, those of Ibn Ubayy and Ibn Rawāʿā. It is reported that the Prophet ﷺ was riding on a donkey and as it passed by Ibn Ubayy it urinated. Ibn Ubayy held his nose, whereupon Ibn Rawāʿā remarked, ‘By God, the smell of the donkey’s urine is sweeter than your musk’. Fighting then ensued between their two clans involving fists, sandals and palm branches.} However, in its inner meaning it refers to the spirit (rūḥ), intellect (ʿaql), heart (qalb), basic nature (ṭabʿ), desire (hawā) and lust (shahwa). If natural instinct, desire and lust take up arms against the heart, intellect and spirit, the servant must fight them with the swords of vigilance (murāqaba), the arrows of inspection (muṭālaʿa) and the lights of conformity (muwāfaqa), so that the spirit and the intellect gain the upper hand, and desire and lust are vanquished.

His words:

…Shun much suspicion…

He said:

That is, ‘Do not discredit anyone [by holding] a bad opinion (sūʾ al-ẓann) about them without [knowing] the truth (ḥaqīqa) [of the matter].’^{1For Tustarī’s discussion of the benefits of ḥusn al-ẓann (‘good opinion’), see above, the commentary on the poem included in his commentary on 2:260. See also IT, pp. lii–liii.} Indeed the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘The most untruthful of reports is that of opinion (ẓann).’^{2Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, ‘Kitāb al-Nikāḥ’, and ‘Kitāb al-Adab’; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, ‘Kitāb al-Adab’.}

Then Sahl said:

Bad opinion comes from ignorance and pertains to the natural self (nafs al-ṭabʿ). The most ignorant person is the one who estranges his heart [from God] without being aware of it. Indeed, God, Exalted is He, has said: And that suspicion of yours which you held about your Lord has ruined you, so you have become among the losers. [41:23] Certainly, the servant is deprived of blessed provision and prayer at night because of bad opinion.

One night a man, one of [God’s] servants, slept through [and missed] his customary rite (wird) and felt regret over it.^{3The term wird (pl. awrād) is used to denote supererogatory devotions that may be observed at certain times of the day and night. With the formation of the Sufi ‘orders’ (ṭuruq, pl. of ṭarīqa) from the sixth/twelfth century on, certain awrād or sets of formulae became associated with a particular initiatory chain (silsila), and these awrād are given to disciples by a master at the time of their initiation.} [He] was asked: ‘Do you feel regret about [missing] that which you are wont to perform?’ He replied, ‘I do not feel regret because of that, but rather because of the sin through which I became deprived of that good [deed].’

Sahl was asked, ‘What is the meaning of the Prophet’s words ﷺ: “Be on your guard with people, [by holding a] bad opinion (sūʾ al-ẓann).”’^{4Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-awsaṭ, vol. 1, p. 189.} He replied:

The meaning of this is [that protection from people] is [gained by holding a] bad opinion of yourself, not of other people. In other words, accuse your own self for not treating them fairly in your dealings with them.^{5One is then protecting oneself from wronging them, the serious implications of which are discussed by Tustarī in his commentary on 99:7. See also p. 300, n. 5.}

His words:

…and do not spy…

He said:

That is, ‘Do not search out the faults that God has covered for His servants, for you may well be afflicted by that [fault].

It was related of Jesus عليه السلام that he used to say, ‘Do not speak too much other than in remembrance of God, Mighty and Majestic is He, for your hearts will be hardened, and the heart that is hard is far from God. Do not regard the faults of people as if you were their masters, but look at your own works as if they were your slaves.^{6i.e., with the critical eye of the slavemaster. This tradition is also related in Imam Mālik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ, ‘Kitāb al-Kalām’; Ibn Abī Shayba, al-Muṣannaf, vol. 6, p. 340; and Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-īmān, vol. 4, p. 263.} Know that people are either afflicted (mubtalā) or preserved (muʿāfā), so show mercy to those who are afflicted and ask God for preservation.’

His words:

…or backbite one another…

He said:

Whoever wants to be safe from backbiting must bar the door to [ill] assumptions (ẓunūn) in himself,^{7On holding ‘false assumptions’ or a ‘bad opinion’ as opposed to having a good opinion, again see above IT, p. lii.} for whoever is safe from making ill assumptions, is safe from backbiting (ghayba), and whoever is safe from backbiting, is safe from calumny (zūr), and whoever is safe from calumny, is safe from slander (buhtān).

He said:

And Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهم said, ‘The hypocrite (munāfiq) is guilty of backbiting, but the wicked (fāsiq) are not guilty of backbiting. This is because the hypocrites keep silent about their hypocrisy, whereas the wicked openly take pride in their wickedness.’

He said:

He [Ibn ʿAbbās] intended by this the sins (maʿāṣī) that they commit openly, whereas the sins which are kept a secret are a form of backbiting (ghayba).^{8This is an example of an esoteric interpretation of a tradition or ḥadīth.}

His words:

…Say, ‘You do not have faith; rather say, “We have submitted”…’ ^{1The context which precedes and follows these words of 49:14, is that the desert Arabs claim to believe, but God tells the Prophet to tell them that they should not claim to believe or have faith, but rather they should say that they have submitted, for faith has not yet entered into your hearts.}

He said:

This means [they should admit], ‘We [only] affirmed [the faith] from fear of being taken captive or killed; for faith (īmān) is in the truthful affirmation of the tongue (iqrār al-lisān ṣidqan), and certainty within the heart as a binding pact [with God] (īqān fī’l-qalb ʿaqdan), along with the realisation (taḥqīq) of these through the bodily members with sincerity (ikhlāṣ). Faith (īmān) has nothing to do with affiliations (ansāb); rather affiliations are only a part of Islam.^{2Again, note the distinction being made both in the verse and in Tustarī’s commentary between islām and īmān. See above, the commentary on 48:26 and IT, p. lviii, n. 265.} The Muslim is beloved of people but the believer is in no need (ghanī) of people.^{3That is, he should be solely dependent on God.}

His words:

They deem it to be a favour to you that they have submitted…

Namely, that they affirmed as true that to which you were summoning them. (Say) ‘…Rather it is God who has done you a favour in that He has guided you to faith, if you are being truthful,’ that is, if you are aware that it is God who blessed you with guidance from the beginning.

Sahl said:

I practised scrupulous piety (waraʿ) for forty years and it happened that [my] attention was turned from me ⸢towards Him⸣^{1The addition has been made on the basis of all three MSS: Z515, f. 105a, F638, f. 49a and F3488, f. 283a, which all have waqaʿa minnī ilayhi iltifāt.} and He corrected me with His words: They deem it to be a favour to you that they have submitted.^{2Tustarī is here acknowledging that he had imagined it was he who was practising scrupulous piety, but then was made to realise that this was a divine favour. Compare the words of Bāyazīd (Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī): ‘At the beginning [of my wayfaring] I was mistaken in four things: I supposed that I remembered Him and knew Him and loved Him and sought Him. When I had become advanced [on the Way], I saw that His remembrance preceded my remembrance, His gnosis preceded my gnosis, His love came before my love, and that He sought me first, so that I would seek Him.’ The saying of Bāyazīd is cited in Iṣfahānī, Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ, vol. 10, p. 34.} But God Glorified and Exalted is He knows best.