MUSLIMS: THE COMMUNITYa son this world will distract me and I would like to avoid that. "127
With regard to the second charge, he replied that he did not get his
meat from butchers ever since he saw a butcher in Basra slaughtering
sheep while he was saying "good business" instead of bismillCih (or
because all the butchers in Basra were Magians). He answered the
third charge by explaining that he attended Friday worship at the back
of the masjid and was among the first to leave, so no one saw him
there.12s A perfect example of the kind of compromise reached with
regard to asceticism is the way Ibrahim an-Nakha'i (d. 714), whose
clan had migrated from northern Yaman to Kufa at the time of the
conquest, fasted and ate on alternate days.129
Renunciation of the world was also expressed by pious indigence.
Work was rejected either because it was defiling and materialistic or
because it did not show true trust in God to provide food, shelter,
and clothing for oneself. The first reason is definitely Manichaean
because the Manichaean Elect depended on the charity of the Hearers
in order to avoid the dangers, such as greed, inherent in acquiring
material things for themselves and in being defiled by their possession.
Among Christians, extreme forms of ascetic poverty were probably
due to Manichaean influences. Ephrem Syrus describes the wild ascetics
of upper Mesopotamia who lived in mountains, deserts, and caves
clothed only in their long hair and a garment of dirt and who grazed
like animals or scavenged like birds for whatever God provided.^130
The Me~allyane came from among these ascetics, and in spite of his
opposition to their special theories of prayer, Isaac of Nineveh accepted
the concept of religious poverty as a demonstration of trust in God.
To neglect one's body by not providing clothing, food, or shelter in
order to concentrate on religious exercises was true trust in divine
providence. Privation and indigence would free a person from the
desire for material comforts.l31
This resembles the Islamic attitude of confidence (Ar. tawakkul) in
God. The Qur'an emphasizes human dependence on divine providence
127Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VII(l}, 77.- Baladhuri, Ansiib, V, 57; Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Jqd, n, 414; Ibi!. Sa'd, Tabaqiit,
VII(l}, 73-80; Tabari, Ta'rikh, I, 2924-25..
129Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VI, 192.
130 Viiiibus, Ephrem, pp. 100-101.
131 Isaac of Nineveh, "Mystic Treatises," pp. 53, 158; Smith, Early Mysticism, p. - Suppression of the body for spiritual benefit was also shared by Jewish ascetics
who said "The righteous in their death are called living." (Epstein, Talmud, I, p. 109
= B. Ber. 18a).