The most beautiful life is kanāʿa (contentment) and knowledge. (This is:) khashyatullāh (awe of Allah). This means preferring the Hereafter to the dunyā (world) and knowing the path that leads to Allah. (Adāb, 147)
Among the various adāb (etiquettes) and different ḥāl (spiritual states) of the Sufis... is to renounce most of the blessings of the dunyā, to be content with little, to suffice with only the most necessary provisions, and to be satisfied with only what is needed in matters such as clothing, rest, and food, preferring poverty to wealth, drawing near to little and distancing oneself from much, preferring hunger to satiety, and preferring little to much... (Lumaʿ, 29)
Kanāʿa is that everything
indeed, everything disappears from your sight
When excess dazzles your eyes
Of the ḥaqīqa (inner reality) secrets that come from Him
When the signs of the state of wajd (ecstasy) appear
Why should one incline to greed?
(Abū Sulaymān Dārānī said:) Just as warāʿ (scrupulousness) is to zuhd (asceticism), so is kanāʿa to riḍā (contentment with God's decree). Warāʿ is the first stage of zuhd, and kanāʿa is the first stage of riḍā. It is said that kanāʿa is to be at peace when what is familiar and accustomed is absent.
Abū Bakr Marāghī said: An intelligent person manages his worldly affairs with kanāʿa and postponement, his affairs of the Hereafter with eagerness and haste, and his religious affairs with knowledge and ittiḥād (union).
Abū ʿAbdullāh Ḥafīf also said: Kanāʿa is not desiring what is not possessed, nor feeling need for what is possessed. It is said that the meaning of the verse, "Allah will provide them with a good provision" (al-Hajj 22:50), refers to kanāʿa.
Muḥammad ʿAlī Tirmidhī said: Kanāʿa is to be content with the provision allotted to a person. It is said that kanāʿa is to be satisfied with what exists and for greed for what is not present to disappear.
Wahb said: Wealth and honor set out to find a companion, and eventually encountered kanāʿa and stayed with it.
It has been said: Whoever's kanāʿa is well-nourished, every kind of soup will please him. To the one who turns to Allah in every state, Allah grants kanāʿa as provision. (Qushayrī, 81)
Kanāʿa means to earn one's livelihood honestly, without resorting to fraud. (Mīzān, 76)
According to us, kanāʿa is to be satisfied with what one has without desiring more. (Futūḥāt, II, 194)
Patience... when it concerns simple pleasures, this is called kanāʿa. (Qudāma, 286)
Kanāʿa is richness of the qalb (the heart). Its fruit is to be pleased with (Allah), who knows the unseen in depth. (Jāmiʿ, 54)
Kanāʿa is divided into three: The first is the kanāʿa of the common people, which is related to sustenance. The second is the kanāʿa of the khawāṣṣ (the elect), which is through dhikr (remembrance of God). The third is the kanāʿa of the khawāṣṣ al-khawāṣṣ (the elect of the elect), which is through seeing Allah. (Jāmiʿ, 61)
Kanāʿa, in its lexical meaning, is to be content with one's allotted share. According to the people of truth, it is to be at peace when what is familiar and accustomed is absent. It is also said to be being satisfied with little. It is also said to be not needing what exists and not seeking what does not exist. (Jāmiʿ, 217)
For kanāʿa, Bishr al-Ḥāfī said: Kanāʿa is a possession that settles only in the qalb of a muʾmin (believer).
Abū Bakr Marāghī also said: An intelligent person manages his worldly life with kanāʿa and postponement.
When Abū Yazīd was asked, "How did you reach this station?" he replied: I gathered all the causes of the world, tied them with the rope of kanāʿa, placed them in the catapult of ṣidq (truthfulness), and cast them into the sea of despair, and finally found comfort.
ʿAbdullāh Ḥafīf said: Kanāʿa is to stop waiting for what does not exist and not to feel need for what exists.
It has been said: Except for the poor whom Allah revives with the honor of kanāʿa, all other poor are dead. It is also said: Allah has placed five things in five places: honor in taqwā (God-consciousness), humiliation in sin, hayba (awe) in night worship, ḥikma (wisdom) in an empty stomach, and wealth in kanāʿa. Dhū al-Nūn said: Whoever settles in kanāʿa finds comfort among the people of his time and surpasses his peers. (Nabhānī, Jāmiʿ, II, 41)
karār 1) Karār (firmness) is the removal of doubt regarding the reality of a ḥāl (spiritual state). (Hujwīrī, 467)