Hafiz has spoken a lot on the subject of giving the...

Hafiz has spoken a lot on the subject of giving the impression of doing things that earn for one a bad name, while being inwardly good and righteous. A few examples: If an adherent of the path of love, worry not about bad name. The Shaykh-e San'an had his robe in pawn at a gambling house. Even if I mind the reproaches of claimants,My drunken libertinism would leave me not.

The asceticism of raw libertines is like a village path,But what good would the thought of reform do to one of worldwide ill fame like me? Through love of wine I brought my self-image to naught,In order to destroy the imprint of self-devotion. How happily passes the time of a mendicant, who in his spiritual journey,Keeps reciting the Name of the Lord, while playing with the beads of his pagan rosary.

However, Hafiz, elsewhere condemns the ostentatious cultivation of ill fame just as he condemns sanctimoniousness: My heart, let me guide thee to the path of salvation: Neither boast of your profligacy, nor publicize your piety. Rumi defends the Malamatiyyah in the following verses: Behold, do not despise those of bad name,Attention must be given to their secrets. How often gold has been painted black,For the fear of being stolen and lost.

This issue is one of those over which the fuqaha' have found fault with the 'urafa'. Just as Islamic law condemns sanctimony (riya') - considering it a form of shirk - so does it condemn this seeking of reproach. It says that a believer has no right to compromise his social standing and honour. Many 'urafa' also condemn this practice. In any case, this practice, which has been common amongst some 'urafa', led them to wrap their ideas in words which conveyed the very opposite of what they meant.

Naturally this makes the understanding of their intentions a good deal harder. Abu al-Qasim Qushayri, one of the leading figures of 'irfan, declares in his Risalah that the 'urafa' intentionally speak in enigmas, for they do not want the uninitiated to become aware of their customs, states and their aims. This, he tells us, is because they are incapable of being understood by the uninitiated. 19 The technical terms of 'irfan are many.

Some of them are related to theoretical 'irfan, that is to say, to the mystic world-view and its ontology. These terms resemble the terms of philosophy and are relatively recent. The father of all or most of them was Ibn al-'Arabi. It is extremely difficult to understand them.