It is the continual maintenance of only as much as is necessary (it is good to always have at hand only as much provision as one will be content with). (Qushayrī, 134)
Poverty (faqr) has both a ḥaqīqa (inner reality) and a form. Its form is compulsory bankruptcy, while its reality is voluntary (by choice) prosperity. One who sees only the form relies on the name; if he does not attain his desire, he becomes distant from the reality. One who attains the reality turns away from created beings and strives for total fanāʾ (annihilation in God) in order to witness total baqāʾ (subsistence in God): One who knows nothing but the form perceives nothing but the name. (Hujwīrī, 26)
Ghinā (wealth) is a name befitting Allah alone. This name does not belong to created beings. Faqr (poverty) is a name befitting created beings, and is not permissible for Allah. Metaphorically, someone called wealthy among people cannot be like the truly wealthy. The clearest proof is this: Our wealth is due to the existence of causes. If the causes allow, we acquire wealth. Allah, Exalted is He, is the Cause of Causes. His wealth has no cause. In this ḥāl (spiritual state), it is impossible for anyone to share this attribute with Him.
The ghinā of insān (human being's wealth) is either attaining a livelihood, the presence of joy, deliverance from a calamity, or attaining comfort through witnessing. All these are contingent and changeable things. The root of desire and longing is a place of incapacity and humiliation. (Hujwīrī, 28)
Yaḥyā Muʿādh al-Rāzī says: The sign of faqr is to fear the loss of faqr. (Hujwīrī, 32)
Hilʿa (robe) is a sign of nearness. The lover abandons the hilʿa, for in the robe (and thus in nearness) there is a sign of separation (for one only approaches that from which one is separate). Remaining in nonexistence (ʿadam) is because he awaits existence (wujūd). When he finds it, it becomes something else and he cannot find comfort in it, so he is told to leave it. This is the meaning of the saying of the shaykh of shaykhs, Abū’l-Qāsim Junayd Muḥammad: "Faqr is to empty the heart of forms." While the form exists, what remedy is there but to cast it away, when one strives to save the heart from being preoccupied with forms? (Hujwīrī, 35)
According to one group, faqr is more perfect than ṣafwa (purity). According to another group, ṣafwa is more perfect than faqr. Those who say faqr is superior to ṣafwa say: Faqr is total fanāʾ and the interruption of asrār (spiritual mysteries). Ṣafwa is a maqām (spiritual station). (But) when fanāʾ occurs, all stations disappear.
Those who say ṣafwa is superior to faqr say: Faqr is something that accepts a name and exists. Ṣafwa is purity from all existents (being purified from all that exists). Purity and fanāʾ are the same thing. Faqr is identical to ghinā. Faqr is among the names of stations, while ṣafwa is among the names of kamāl (perfection). (Hujwīrī, 72)
Abū’l-Ḥasan Shamʿūn, while in a state of unveiling concerning baqāʾ, used to prefer faqr over ṣafwa. Similarly, while in a state of unveiling concerning fanāʾ, he preferred ṣafwa over faqr. When the people of meaning asked him why he said so, he replied: Nature has a complete disposition towards both fanāʾ and transformation, as well as towards baqāʾ and loftiness. I prefer ṣafwa over faqr when in a state of fanāʾ, and faqr over ṣafwa when in a state of baqāʾ, so that my nature may transcend both fanāʾ and baqāʾ. (For faqr is the name of fanāʾ, and ṣafwa is the name of baqāʾ.)
This is a beautiful statement in terms of expression. However, fanāʾ is for the sake of fanāʾ, not for baqāʾ. Every subsisting one who loses himself is annihilated, and every annihilated one who is in himself is subsisting. Fanāʾ is a name that never exaggerates itself, so that one may say even fanāʾ itself is annihilated. Exaggeration means to negate even the trace of the existence of this meaning. Exaggeration can occur in fanāʾ, and often its trace remains. After this, there is no more fanāʾ. When fanāʾ occurs, the fanāʾ of fanāʾ is nothing but a grammatical construction without meaning. (Hujwīrī, 72-73)
Allah, Exalted is He, has said: "O mankind, you are those in need of Allah!" (al-Fāṭir 35:15). Faqr is the name given to purification from seeing ownership.
It has three degrees. The first degree is the faqr of the ascetics: to renounce the dunyā (world) willingly or unwillingly, to refrain from speaking for or against the world, and to attain safety from it whether by seeking or abandoning it. This is the faqr whose nobility is discussed.
The second degree of faqr is to turn towards (divine) gifts by desiring more. This saves a person from seeing his own deeds, ends the observation of spiritual states, and purifies from the taint of reflecting on stations attained or to be attained.
The third degree is the faqr that occurs in a person whose need is sound and who remains in the desert of isolation on the path of tawḥīd (the oneness of God). This is the faqr of the Sufis. (Manāzil, 26)
Allah, Exalted is He, has said: "Did He not find you poor and make [you] self-sufficient?" (al-Ḍuḥā 93:8). Ghinā is the name given to complete ownership.
This too has three degrees. The first degree is the ghinā of the qalb (heart): the heart being free from causes and from questioning ḥikma (wisdoms), and being safe from enmity. The second degree is the ghinā of the nafs (lower self): the nafs finding direction towards what is sought for itself, being safe from what is angered at, and being free from all ostentation. The third degree is ghinā with Allah. This too has three levels: first, to witness only His dhikr (remembrance); second, to contemplate only His majesty; third, to be enabled to witness only His dhikr (to find Him). (Manāzil, 27)
Faqr is simply to be deprived of what is needed. To be deprived of what is not needed is not called faqr. If one has a need and also the imkān (possibility) of being sāḥib (possessor) of it, he is not considered a needy poor. When you understand this, you will not doubt that everything other than Allah is poor, for it needs something else for its continued existence. Its continued existence depends on Allah's ihsān (beneficence). If something in the world of existence does not depend on another for its existence, it is mutlaq (absolute) rich. Only One can be conceived as existing in this way. In the world of existence, there is only one truly rich being. Everything else needs Him for its continued existence. (Iḥyāʾ, IV, 235)
The reality of faqr is not to be in need of anyone like yourself (created beings).
(The reality of ghinā is to be free from need of anyone like yourself, i.e., to be freed from needing created beings. Sufism (taṣawwuf) is not gossip, but learning hunger and abstaining from things one likes and loves. The beginning of faqr is with knowledge, then gentleness follows. Knowledge brings him to estrangement, gentleness brings him to intimacy.) (Futūḥ, 158-159)
Faqr is distinct from Sufism (taṣawwuf). Rather, the end of faqr is the beginning of Sufism. Zuhd (asceticism) is also distinct from faqr. According to them, faqr is not poverty and nonexistence. Rather, the praised faqr is to trust in Allah and be content with His apportionment. (Ādāb, 7)
It is agreed that faqr, when accompanied by riḍā (contentment with God's decree), is superior to ghinā. For this reason, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) preferred faqr, and Jibrīl (Gabriel) also indicated this to him. (Ādāb, 11)
Faqr is not possessing property and erasing from the heart the love of things not in one's possession... (Ādāb, 20)
When Shiblī was asked about the reality of faqr, he replied: It is not to be content with anything other than Allah.
Faqr is the foundation of Sufism. Not in the sense that Sufism cannot exist without faqr, but in the sense that the path to Sufi ranks is through faqr; thus, Sufism is based on faqr.
When a Sufi was asked what faqr is, he replied: To be aware of the heart's need when in need, and to erase from the heart everything except the Lord. (ʿAwārif, 97)
Ibn Jallā said: Faqr is not having, and even when you have, it is still not yours until you prefer another over yourself.
Yaḥyā Muʿādh (al-Rāzī) also said: The reality of faqr is to need only Allah. Its form is the disappearance of all causes.
Ghinā (which in language means wealth) is contentment, being satisfied with what exists. There is no ghinā except the ghinā of the nafs, and no possessor of ghinā except one to whom Allah has given ghinā of the nafs. Ghinā is not, as you suppose, the abundance of wealth gained by asking more from your Lord. This ghinā is dominated by faqr. Man is, in essence, poor, for he is a contingent being. Man is only accidentally rich, for he is outwardly rich. Even if this is Allah's will, it is an accidental state in relation to Him. (Futūḥāt, IV, 309)
Ghinā is complete and perfect ownership. The absolutely rich is Allah, for the essence of everything belongs to Him. Those among the servants who possess ghinā (ghinā min al-ʿibād) are independent of everything other than Him by means of Allah. For when one attains His wujūd (existence), one attains everything. In fact, he sees nothing else as existent or effective. He attains what is sought and is gladdened by seeing the beloved. (Kāshānī, 167; Jāmiʿ, 91)
Ghinā is complete and perfect ownership. Its first subtlety is that a person is free from causes, submitting to the decree and being freed from dominion. Its second subtlety is that a person attains ghinā by correcting his orientation towards what is desired and freeing himself from pleasures. Its third subtlety is to possess ghinā with Allah. (Rawḍa, 486)
In sharia (the sacred law), faqr means to need property. It also means the need of the created for the Creator. (Furqān, 43)
Faqr is purification from seeing ownership. It has stages. First, to shake off the world first from the hand, then from the tongue. Second, to return to one's pre-creation state. This saves from seeing one's deeds, from observing one's spiritual states (ḥāl) in Sufism, and from reflecting on one's attained maqām (spiritual station) in Sufism. Third, the strengthening of need, the development of the power of inner restraint, and being imprisoned at the limit of isolation (the final point of faqr is the internalization of deprivation and servitude). (Rawḍa, 486)
Faqr is, both in this world and the hereafter, to see no one with Allah except Him. (Jāmiʿ, 54)
Faqr is divided into three: The first is the faqr of the common people; when what exists is lost...