Sufism · 10th century
An-Niffari
Early Sufism · the line of Junayd and Hallaj · The Book of Standings · Mawaqif
The voice of sacred bewilderment: the more you claim to know God, the thicker the veil between you and Him.
The essence of the teaching: True knowledge of God lies in admitting your own inability to know Him. Leave your qualities and the very "reality" of yourself, so as to stand in the qualities of God alone, in pure bewilderment.
Transmission
An-Niffari wrote down the words that God spoke to his heart in the hours of standing. The chief of them: to know Me is to know that you cannot know Me. By drawing near to Me through your reality, you veil yourself from Me. Sincerity itself – a human virtue – does not know God; only God knows God. When the mind releases all its notions, only pure presence remains, and a holy bewilderment in which the Divine speaks and acts through the silent vessel of the human heart. Cease your claiming – and the veil falls of itself.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
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