THIRD SECTION · SECOND CHAPTER · FIRST PART · Fourth Article
Fourth Article
This article explains how to eat little, its amount, benefits, and secrets.
O dear one! It should be known that the friends of Allah (awliyāʾ, friends of God) have said: The purpose of eating little is to weaken the animalistic nafs (the lower self) with its excessive desires, to make it submit to the intellect, and to break its pride. The aim is to purify the heart and cleanse the qalb (the heart) from bad traits and habits. For when hunger melts the fat around the heart and reduces the blood, the qalb becomes luminous, pure, and compassionate. Thus, the heart is cleansed and polished from the impurities of the animalistic nafs. With this radiance, it becomes capable of receiving the lights of dhikr (remembrance of God) and the commands of the Truth (God). Thereafter, as lights reflect from that mirror onto the nafs and it is illuminated by the light of its Lord, the darkness of the nafs is dispelled. The darkness of lust is split and separated by the pearl of love. For lust is the means of love, and it is love that distinguishes the human being. Only through love does the human become more beloved than the angels and more worthy of preference than all other beings.
For one newly entering the path of gnosis (the beginner, mubtadiʾ) and just beginning the journey (sulūk), the most fruitful way of abstinence is to avoid excess and deficiency and to take the middle path. Such a person should eat in moderation. Moderate eating is to eat between fifty dirhams and up to one hundred dirhams in a day and a night. Drinking is also included in this hundred dirhams. [209/a]
Eating little is necessary for purifying the nafs, cleansing the qalb, and for the manifestations of the ruh (the spirit). As Jesus (peace be upon him) said: "Keep your stomachs hungry, perhaps you will see your Lord with your hearts." In the hadith it is also expressed with deep meaning: "No vessel that the son of Adam fills is worse than his stomach." The body receives help from food. However, the natural forces that settle in the liver for the sake of food are the soldiers of Satan. When these forces, which are the soldiers of Satan, take great pleasure from food, the carnal desires are strengthened by it. The darkness of the nafs and nature descends upon the heart. From the moisture of foods, laziness and slackness come to the brain's vessels. As a result, the senses lose their activity, excessive sleep and harmful thoughts arise.
If the food taken is little, the senses of the nafs and the natural forces are weakened, and the heart becomes clear and pure. In this state, the purified qalb and the manifest ruh do not prevent the exalted intellect (ʿaql-i muʿallā) from ruling with what they perceive. There, the ruling belongs to the ruh, and the human finds his own station. The secret of this is as follows: The human's taking of food is his vegetative level. His lust is his animal level. His knowledge and gnosis (maʿrifa, experiential knowledge of God) are his human level. Thus, in one who turns to food solely for bodily development and is occupied with it, the dominant state is the vegetative level. In one who turns to lusts for eating, drinking, and relieving himself, and is occupied with fleeting pleasures, the dominant state is the animal level. God, exalted is He, has made His servants aware of these two levels by His grace. As stated in the Noble Qur'an: "They are like cattle; rather, they are even more astray. Those are the heedless." (al-Aʿrāf, 7/179)
The intelligent person does not remain in these low and deficient two levels, but turns to spiritual conquests with the purity of the qalb and the polish of the ruh, becomes the perfect human (insān al-kāmil), and proceeds to his origin and return. That is, the intelligent human eats only as much as will keep him alive and allow him to perform his prayers. He feeds the camel of his nafs with bran dough or unleavened barley bread. By separating from the desire to obtain foods that serve to protect the nafs and occupy the qalb, he attains the human level. Entering the assembly of nearness to the Truth (God), he attains every desire.
For among the foremost principles for rising from the vegetative and animal levels to the human level is eating little. It is one of the greatest and most necessary conditions. The hunger of the insān al-kāmil, who has found the human level and been freed from his nafs and nature, does not harm him. That is a beautiful sabr (patient endurance). Indeed, his prolonged hunger is a beautiful tranquility.
Poem
1-At every moment, that sublime revelation calls sweetly to the spirits:
Do not become dregs, do not let your place be the earth; be pure, come, resolve to ascend to the heavens.
2-Any soul that becomes lazy, when it finds the dregs of the drink, finds the lowest depth. The best of the drink is delightful, if it finds purity from turbidity.
3-If there is no bread-dust in the body, the wine of the soul becomes pure. Secrets become manifest to the heart, and all pains find their cure.
4-The soul is a flame at once; its smoke exceeds its light. The light is hidden within the smoke; the house of the heart finds no illumination.
5-If the smoke of bread is little, the heart finds its manifest light. It becomes brightly illuminated, without doubt; both this abode and that abode.
6-Observe: when the water is turbid, neither the water nor the sky is seen. Even the sun of forenoon is hidden, when the air is clouded and misty.
7-When the northern wind blows, it becomes pure, no sorrow remains. For this polish, every morning, the breeze of the dawn blows sweetly.
8-If the breath of love, even for a moment, polishes this heart, know that it is the love of the soul and the nafs; it is the animalistic nafs that is subject to fanāʾ (annihilation in God).
9-O soul, enough of the prison of the world; your place of journeying is the placeless. O Truth! What is this attachment to earth? Leave the branches, come to your root. [209/b]
In Contemporary Turkish
1-At every moment, that sublime revelation sweetly addresses the spirits: Do not become dregs, do not let your place be the earth; be pure and ascend to the heavens.
2-If a soul becomes lazy, it finds the bottom like the dregs of a drink. The best of the drink is delightful, if it is purified from turbidity.
3-If there is no bread-dust in the body, the wine of the soul becomes pure. Secrets are revealed to the heart, all pains find their cure.
4-The soul is a flame at once; its smoke exceeds its light. The light is hidden within the smoke; the house of the heart receives no illumination.
5-If the smoke of bread is little, the heart finds its manifest light. It becomes brightly illuminated, without doubt; both here and there.
6-Observe: when the water is turbid, neither the water nor the sky is seen. Even the sun of forenoon is hidden, when the air is cloudy and misty.
7-Whenever the breeze blows, it becomes pure, no sorrow remains. For this polish, every morning, the breeze of dawn blows sweetly.
8-If the breath of love, even for a moment, gives radiance to this heart, know that it is the love of the soul and the nafs; the animalistic nafs is the one subject to fanāʾ.
9-O soul, enough of the prison of the world; your place of journeying is the placeless. O Truth! What is this attachment to earth? Leave the details, come to your origin.