For, if he does that’ after long years he has chosen to...

For, if he does that’ after long years he has chosen to follow the wild grazing animals and the cattle led out to pasture. (3) Then he goes on to add: Happy is the man who fulfils his duties to God and overcomes hardships like a mill grinding the grain, who allows himself no sleep at night and when it overpowers him lies down on the ground with his hand for a pillow.

He is accompanied by those who keep their eyes awake in fear of the Day of Judgment, whose bodies are ever away from their beds, whose lips constantly hum in the Lord’s remembrance, and whose sins have been erased by prolonged supplications for forgiveness. They are the party of Allah; why surely Allah’s party-they are prosperous?(4) The two passages quoted above completely illustrate the relationship between zuhd and spirituality.

To sum up, one has to choose one of the two paths; either to drink, eat, browse and hanker after sensual pleasures in utter indifference to the secrets of the spirit, to avoid the agonies of love and its tears, to speak not of enlightenment and progress, not to take a step beyond the threshold of bestiality; or to resolve on a journey into the valley of authentic humanhood, towards the effulgence and-exuberance of Divine grace which descends upon chaste hearts and enlightened souls.(5) Zuhd: Minimum of Intake for Maximum Output Some days ago I was in Isfahan on a visit for a few days.

During it, in a gathering of the learned, a discussion started about zuhd. The various aspects of it were scrutinized in the light of the multifaceted teachings of Islam. Everyone wanted to find a comprehensive and articulate definition of zuhd. Among them a learned high school teacher,(6) who (I later came to know, that he was writing a treatise on the subject, the manuscript of which he showed me later) suggested a wonderfully eloquent definition of zuhd.

He said: Islamic zuhd is minimizing the intake and maximizing the output. This definition fascinated me and I saw that it was in conformity with my own earlier understanding and the conclusions that I have drawn in the foregoing chapters. Here I, with the permission of that learned man, making a little amendment in his definition, would say: Zuhd in Islam means drawing a minimum of intake for the sake of maximizing the output.

That is, there exists a relation between drawing as little as possible of material benefits of life on the one hand and aiming at maximizing one’s output on the other.