(ādāb-i sulūk; sulūk-i faqīr al-sūfī; ṣūrat-i sulūk; sulūk ilāllāh)
Hunger is the adornment of the people of God (ahl Allāh). By this, I mean the habitual practice of hunger. This is called mevt-i ebyaz (the white death).
The people of God have established four deaths as the foundation of their spiritual journey (sulūk). In addition to the aforementioned hunger, the first of these is mevt-i ahdar (the green death); this means that the sulūk is not ostentatious, but wears patched garments. The robe worn by ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb had thirteen patches, one of which was made of leather, even though he was the leader of the believers (amīr al-muʾminīn). Mevt-i esved (the black death) is to endure hardships.
Mevt-i ahmar (the red death) is to oppose the desires of the nafs (the lower self) in what it craves. This is a particular characteristic of the people of malāmatiyya (those who conceal their spiritual states).
The hunger deemed appropriate for the righteous (ṣāliḥīn) on the Sufi path is to reduce the excesses of one's (personal) nature and to choose to desire the world without needing to act for it. If the aspiration rises, it seeks the attribute of Samadiyya (Divine Self-Sufficiency). Its limit, according to us, is a single day's fast. If sleeplessness is added to this, it becomes a legitimate and voluntary hunger. This is, for us, a path that can only be considered legitimate. If Allah had restricted this necessity for the common people (halk), their state would not approach this level.
A person cannot know the benefits that come to the servant from increased hunger better than his Lord. To think otherwise is the utmost degree of bad etiquette. If, during the night (in worship) or in his annihilation (fanāʾ), he finds himself fed and given drink by another state, and if he finds its effect in his strength, the soundness of his intellect, and the preservation of his temperament, he attains what he desires. He is not fit for hunger.
Even though our discourse on hunger concerns the One who leads to the state of absorption (istighrāq), sometimes, as with Abū Uqqāl, a powerful influx (wārid) may intervene between him and hunger. If he derives benefit from this, this is what is intended and sought by the Sufis. If no benefit is obtained, it is an illness, and this state should be referred to a physician. This is not a state sought by the Sufis. The hunger of the great ones is involuntary (iḍṭirārī) hunger. That which leads to hunger in them becomes a malaka (firm disposition) that does not disappear with either hunger or satiety. He is content with little. However, they abstain from the lawful either for vigor in acts of obedience or to lighten the reckoning. (Futūḥāt, II, 184)
According to the Sufis, the ṣūrat-i sulūk (form of sulūk) is the novice (mubtadiʾ) Sufi after the stage of ascetic discipline (riyāḍa). This person, due to his attachment to his own nafs, is one to whom divine attraction (ʿināya) and grace have not yet been opened. The effusion of Divine Mercy (fayḍ-i Raḥmānī) descends from the Divine Essence (Dhāt) to the intellect, the nafs, the worlds, the first hayūlā (prime matter), the elements, the composites (things composed of elements), and to man. Then, by way of composition, it returns in a manifest way to what is necessary from the chain of descent (the aforementioned chain of causes) and ascends. That which is ascended to is the Real (al-Ḥaqq). He sees the Real as a specific, imagined rank, without any increase. He understands that the descent to the furthest degree of sensation is the manifestation of the Absolute (mutlaq) of the Divine Essence and His particular theophany, and that the return of the inner realities and their being characterized by particular absolute absence is so. (Rawḍa, 610)
Sulūk ilāllāh (spiritual journey to Allah) consists in the removal of all determinations (taʿayyunāt) pertaining to the qalb (heart), nafs, ruh (spirit), sirr (innermost secret), and the Real (al-Ḥaqq). It is also to move in joy. The removal of these determinations is not possible for existent being, but only in relation to the wayfarer (sālik). For the fixed entities (aʿyān-i thābita) cannot be removed, for they are eternal and pre-existent.
Therefore, not knowing the Real is muḥāl (impossible). However, the manifestation of their rulings in the existence (wujūd) of the Real can be removed. This is possible only in relation to their consciousness, not to the Real. The removal of their ruling does not necessitate their removal. For the fixed entity is something whose ruling has been removed. The reason for its manifestation is its ruling as consciousness. This ruling is removed by reaching the rank of the Real. For the one who arrives is annihilated (fanāʾ); he has no consciousness. (Asfār, 262)
Know that the ādāb-i sulūk (etiquette of sulūk) are the etiquettes to be observed by the one who seeks to attain the station of unveiling (kashf) and witnessing (mushāhada). (For these etiquettes to be fulfilled, the servant) must purify his love for Allah from love for all else (mā siwā Allāh). He should direct his aim in his pleasures not to unveiling or karāma (saintly wonders), but solely to Allah. He should worship not for reward or salvation, but purely for Allah. All his actions should conform to the laws of the sharia (sacred law) and the measure of the sunnah; he should free his heart from the delusions of sciences (incorrect and unnecessary knowledge), from the distractions of passing thoughts; purify his nafs from delusions, vain desires, and material impurities; free his spirit from the captivity of bodily constraints and animal obstacles, loosening the bonds of certain material powers and senses in the spirit; cleanse his character from all kinds of vices and evils; keep his mind away from bodily attachments and habitual customs; constantly orient himself towards spiritual realms by freeing himself from material constraints; strive to distance himself from human qualities and approach angelic qualities; abandon the world and its people, look upon creation as non-existent and perishing, sever his attachment to them, turn away from all worldly pleasures and false beauties, avoid everything that would prevent him from obeying Allah, fulfill all forms of dhikr (remembrance of God) and other acts of worship related to His oneness (tawḥid), strive to avoid all forms of formalism, and seek not the reward of the Hereafter from Allah for his deeds, but His riḍā (contentment).
He should obey Allah by fulfilling the obligatory (farḍ), necessary (wājib), and sunnah acts. After fulfilling these, he should not occupy himself with things unrelated to tawḥid, tajrīd (abstraction), and tafrīd (making unique). For without these three, union with Him is not possible. He should also avoid acting on dispensations (rukhṣa), innovations (bidʿa), laziness, shahwa (carnal desire), anger, and enmity; adhere firmly to chastity, knowledge, and ihsan (spiritual excellence); force himself to ascetic discipline (riyāḍa) and spiritual struggle (mujāhada), contemplate abstract realities, and orient himself toward spirituality. He should eat little, drink little, sleep little, always prefer poverty in all states, and never part from asceticism (zuhd), scrupulousness (warāʿ), and taqwa (God-consciousness). He should keep his mind pure...