Chapter 28
We know give extracts from the study by Abdul-Ḥādi entitled alMalāmiyah to which René Guénon returns in note 2 on page 143.
On this subject, here is an extract from the Treatise on the Categories of Initiation by Muhyi 'd-Dīn ibn al-'Arabī:
'The fifth degree is occupied by "those who bow", those who humble themselves before the Lordly Grandeur, who take on themselves the priestliness of worship, who are exempt from every claim to any recompense in this world or in the other. These are the Malāmiyah. They are the "trusted men of God" and they constitute the highest group. Their number is not limited but they are placed under the direction of the Quṭb or "spiritual Apogee". [2] Their rule obliges them not to display their merits or to hide their defects.... They say that Sufism is humility, poverty, the 'Great Peace', and contrition. They say that "the face of the Sufi is downcast [literally 'black'] in this world and in the other," thus indicating that ostentation falls with pretension and that sincerity of adoration is manifested by contrition, for it is said, "I am near those whose hearts are broken because of Me." What they possess by grace comes from the very source of divine favors. Thus they no longer have either name or personal traits, but they are effaced in the true prostration.'
Abdul-Ḥādi next cites fragments of the treatise entitled Principles of the Malamatiyah by the learned Imam, the wise Initiate, Sayed Abu Abdur-Rahman (grandson of Ismail ibn Najib):
As they have realized (the 'Divine Truth') in the higher degrees (of the Microcosm), as they have been affirmed among 'the men of concentration', [3] of the Al-Qurbah, the Al-Uns, and the AlWasl, [4] God is (so to speak) too jealous of them to let them reveal themselves to the world as they really are. So he gives them an appearance that corresponds to the state of 'separation from Heaven', [5] an appearance made of ordinary knowledge, of Shariite preoccupations-ritual or priestly-as well as the obligation to work, to follow a profession, and to act among men. Nevertheless, their interiors remain in continual connection with the 'True-Divine', as much in concentration (al-jarq) as in dispersion (al jam'), that is to say in all the states of existence. This mentality is one of the highest man can attain even though nothing of it appears on the outside. It resembles the state of the Prophetmay Allah pray for him and proclaim him!-who was raised to the highest degrees of the 'Divine Proximity' indicated by the Koranic formula, 'And he was distant by two lengths of a bow or even closer. [6] When they turn toward creatures they speak with them only of outward things. Of their intimate conversation with God, nothing appears on their person. This state is higher than that of Moses, whose face no one could look upon after he had spoken with God. . . . The Shaykh of the group of Abu-Hafs enNisabūrī said: 'The Malamite disciples progress by exerting themselves. They care not for themselves. The world has no hold on them and cannot reach them, for their outer life is all uncovered while the subtleties of their inner life are rigorously hidden. . . .' Abu-Hafs was one day asked 'why the name Malamatiyah?' He
responded: "The Malamatiyah are continually with God by the fact that they always dominate themselves and never cease to be conscious of their lordly secret. They blame themselves for all that they cannot prevent from showing with regard to their "Divine Proximity", in the office of prayer or otherwise. They conceal their merits and expose what is blameworthy in themselves. People then make their outward appearance a point of accusation; they blame themselves inwardly for they understand human nature. But God favors them by uncovering the mysteries, by the contemplation of the hypersensible world, by the art of knowing the intimate reality of things from outward signs (al-ferāsah), as well as by miracles. The world finally leaves them in peace with God, removed from them by their display of what is blamable or contrary to respectability. Such is the discipline of the tarīqah of the people of blame. [7]