MUSLIMS: THE COMMUNITYIf thou art truly humble, be not troubled if thou art oppressed.
And do not excuse thyself in any point, but actually take upon thee
the wrong laid to thy charge, without being anxious to persuade
people that the matter is otherwise. On the contrary pray that thou
mayest obtain forgiveness. Some have taken upon them the evil name
of fornication and others have taken upon them deeds of adultery
for which they were too pious, and the fruit of a sin which they
had not committed they made appear serious by bewailing it as if
it were their own. And they implored forgiveness for sins which
they had not committed from their oppressor with tears, while their
soul was crowned with the full purity of chastity.13sThis type of self-degrading humility was represented among Muslims
by people called ahl maiama (Ar., people of blame), who considered
disdain as honor and would not deny even the wrongful accusation
of faults or crimes. An early example of this may be found in the
practices of MUQammad ibn Sirin, Anas ibn Malik, and Hafsa at Basra.
They performed their devotions at the "distaffs of shame" in Sirin's
house where no one, not even a child, would enter^136 because of the
degradation associated with spinning as woman's work.
Christian ascetics typically mortified the flesh by wearing wool, and
nuns were instructed not to wear cotton garments,137 This practice
was adopted as an exterior mark of distinction by some early Muslim
ascetics who were therefore called $iifis (Ar., wearers of wool) but
brought with it objections to the kind of external, ostentatious humility
which could too easily become hypocritical. Al-I:Iasan al-Ba~ri, himself
an ascetic, accused the $iifis of concealing pride in their hearts, of being
~ufis only in their clothing, and of being more vain of their clothing
than the owner of an embroidered silken shawl.138 Abii l-'Aliyya (d.
708), a mawla of Persian origin at Basra, objected to the wearing of
wool as un-Islamic. It is said that when 'Abd al-Karim Abii Umayya
visited him while wearing woolen clothing, he rebuked him by saying,
"This is the clothing of monks. When Muslims visit each other they
adorn themselves. "139
13S Ibid., p. 58.
136 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VII(l), 148; Isaac of Nineveh, "Mystic Treatises," p. liv.
137 Viiiibus, School of Nisibis, p. 138; idem, Syriac and Arabic Documents, p. 101.
1J8 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VII(l), 123.
139 Ibid., VII(l), 83.