Warāʿ as the Essence of Religion
One of the most fundamental dynamics of Sufi (taṣawwuf) training is the maqām (spiritual station) of "warāʿ" (scrupulous abstinence), which is not limited to avoiding only the unlawful (ḥarām), but also entails strictly refraining from doubtful matters whose lawfulness or unlawfulness is not definitively known. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (may Allah sanctify his secret) emphasizes the vital importance of this ethic in spiritual protection by saying, "The essence of religion is warāʿ; what destroys it is greed." When a person, following his nafs (the lower self), rushes after worldly things and, going beyond the mubāḥ (permissible things), plunges into doubtful matters, he unknowingly approaches the boundaries of the unlawful. Indeed, among the Companions (ṣaḥāba) of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him), Abū Bakr and ʿUmar lived at the pinnacle of warāʿ, saying, "We would abandon seventy types of permissible things out of fear of falling into sin," or "Out of fear of falling into the unlawful, we would abandon nine-tenths of what is lawful."
The Danger of Circling Around the Permissible
It is a great danger for a person to linger with desire around the boundaries that the sharia (the sacred law) has definitively forbidden. If someone wishes to enter the king’s fortress, he must pass through the first, second, and third gates to reach the innermost chamber. If he loiters outside the gate or swims in doubtful waters, he may encounter the wrath of the guards (the angels and the divine boundaries). A believer who possesses warāʿ, even when worldly provisions (nasīb) come before him, does not immediately seize them; he clings firmly to the principle of "not engaging in any matter until its permissibility becomes clear." In his inner world, he weighs whether that action is purely for the sake of Allah or whether it is a desire of his nafs or of Satan.
Taking the Path of Azīma and Salvation
Being content with dispensations (rukhsas) and giving the nafs every permissible thing it desires eventually makes a person lazy and dulls his spiritual vigilance. The true path of reality and salvation is in "azīma" (choosing the stricter, more virtuous course); that is, living the rulings of the religion at the highest level, without any compromise and with utmost meticulousness. Whoever chooses azīma disciplines his nafs, protects himself from the whisperings of Satan, and opens his qalb (the heart) to divine lights. When death comes, such a person attains a great reward because he has lived a life of worship and obedience. The perfect believer (kāmil muʾmin) who does not let a single doubtful morsel enter his stomach, who does not take a single step into a doubtful action, attains directly to the pleasure (riḍā) of the Real (al-Ḥaqq) in his spiritual journey, without stumbling.