RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESagainst the self-sufficiency of the wealthy Makkan merchants, and
there were some early Muslim ascetics who refused to work at all
because they trusted in God (Ar. mutawakkiiun). Other Muslims ob-
jected to indigence because of its Manichaean implications and rein-
terpreted tawakkui to mean earning no more than one needed each
day in order to survive and allowing God to decide how much that
was. In ~adtth they related how MUQammad had rebuked a man who
spent all his time in worship and depended on others to provide him
with food and to look after his camel by telling him to "trust in God
but tie your camel." AI-l;:Iasan al-Ba~rl was considered to be an ascetic
who rejected money, but nevertheless he is said to have purchased a
half dirham's worth of meat every day. One of al-l;:Iasan's disciples
was Malik ibn DInar (d. 748-49), a mawia of Persian origin and a
native of Basra. He was famous for his piety, self-mortification, devout
resignation, and learning, and he circulated stories about pious Isra-
elites. But he never ate anything that he had not purchased with what
he was paid in return for making copies of the Qur'an.^132
Self-mortification was not limited to denying material comforts to
the body but also meant degradation in the opinion of other people.
At one level, self-degradation involved a liberation from human opin-
ion because the opinion of God was all that mattered. But to the extent
that ascetics sought public dishonor in order to be honored by God,
self-degradation could be used to sanction antisocial behavior. Such
ideas were known to Jews and available in the Talmud where it says
that "one who degrades himself for the sake of the Law, and eats
decayed dates, and dresses in worn-out clothes, and is watching at the
door of the sages, the passersby call him an idiot, but be sure that in
the end it will be found that he is full of knowledge."133 Isaac of
Nineveh advocated not only accepting but seeking dishonor and ill
repute as a part of ascetic humility and told of ascetics who "lest they
should be praised on account of wonderful deeds performed in secret,
have assumed the habits of lunatics, though they were in the full
possession of their wits and their serenity."134 In the most complete
expression of this attitude he said:
132 Goitein,Jews and Arabs, pp. 149-50; idem, "The Rise of the Near-Eastern Bourgeoisie
in Early Islamic Times," Journal of World History 3 (1957), 589; Ibn KhaIlikan, Bi-
ographical Dictionary 11, 550; Ibn an-Nadim, Fihrist, I, 11; Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VII(1),
121; Tha'alibi, Latii'if, p. 129; von Grunebaum, Medieval Islam, pp. 127-30.
133 Rodkinson, Talmud, IX, "Aboth," 45.
134 Isaac of Nineveh, "Mystic Treatises," pp. 52, 58.