These are individuals for whom striving is difficult, who possess limited understanding, and who can only grasp instruction (taʿlīm) through subtle discourse. Their tariqa (Sufi path) consists of performing acts of worship, fulfilling religious rites, fasting frequently, performing prayers, reciting the Qur'an, undertaking the pilgrimage, engaging in jihād (struggle in the path of God), and other outward acts. This group is able to endure the hardships of worship. They do not experience any weariness toward worship; indeed, worship becomes such a habit for them that it becomes a part of their lives. They constantly seek to draw nearer to the maqām (spiritual stations) of maʿrifa (gnosis, experiential knowledge of God). The light of the Beloved (the Mahbūb) is unveiled to them, and thus they witness the wondrous states of the unseen.
Those endowed with acute intellect (dhū al-afhām al-lawdhaʾiyya), possessing seven akhlāq (moral traits), a fiery temperament, and an arrogant nafs (the lower self), are like those who cannot control themselves in moments of anger, who follow apparent causes without investigating the reality, and who are holders of rank and position. The path they must follow is one of mujāhada (spiritual struggle), riyāḍa (ascetic discipline), transformation of character (tabdīl al-akhlāq), purification of the nafs, and striving to perform deeds that cultivate the inner world. They endeavor to uproot the evil character traits entrenched in their nafs and to replace them with a pure fiṭra (innate disposition). The essence of the matter is to oppose the inclinations of the nafs and to resist its desires. This must be done in such a way that contentment and anger, ease and hardship, friendship and enmity, the lowest and highest levels of rank and gain, or the abandonment of all professions and causes, become equal in the eyes of the individual. In this way, the nafs becomes weakened and subject to the people of ināya (divine solicitude) and the special path.
The path of those endowed with a contented nafs (nafs-i rāḍiya), pure intellects (ʿuqūl-i zakiyya), and the fiṭra of ṣiddīqiyya (innate truthfulness) is the path of those who walk and fly toward Allah. This is the path of the people of maḥabba (divine love). The foundation of traversing this path is purification of the qalb (the heart), sincerity in love (ṣidq al-ḥubb), and affirming maḥabba both outwardly and inwardly (that is, with faith in the heart and with deeds in the body). To such an extent that one becomes annihilated (fanāʾ) in one's own power, intellect, intelligence, mind—in short, in everything. Even if one expends all one's strength on this path, one feels no hardship. At that moment, the rūḥ (spirit) of 'qābu 'l-ityān' is breathed into the person. Thus, the ḥaqīqa (inner reality) of the verse, 'Every thing on the earth will perish' (al-Rahman 55:26), is realized.
This path is much easier than the paths of those who seek to attain His beauty. Perhaps the sālik (spiritual traveler) may surpass those who have worn themselves out with long periods of mujāhada (spiritual struggle) and reach that path in a single breath.
Akhlāq (moral traits) are: sabr (patient endurance), riḍā (contentment with God's decree), shukr (gratitude), modesty, truthfulness, iʾthār (selflessness), character, humility, futuwwa (spiritual chivalry), and expansiveness. (Rihla, 206)