Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Manipulation of Sufi Terms 109
far as to regard khawf as a deficient abode, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
praises khawf as one of the most essential qualities of worship and
rejects Ibn al-Arīf’s indifference to the term. To Ibn al-Qayyim, fear is
one of the pillars on which the stations of the itinerants on the path to
God are founded. The more a worshipper grows in piety, he sermons,
the more his fear will increase, as well as his hope and love for God.
Fear becomes in his reading of the Manāzil al-sāʾirīn one of the most
exalted stations of the path. In his opinion the fear of the so-called
privileged should even be more intense, contrary to what Ibn al-ʿArīf
and monist interpreters have said, because, thus Ibn al-Qayyim, the
elites are in greater need of fear. After all fear and hope are sensations
that come forth from the worshipper’s firm knowledge of God’s ret-
ribution in reward and punishment. It is an element which helps the
pious servant to maintain a pious and God-fearing life. In addition, he
should fear that his return in repentance (tawba) would not be accept-
ed. Fear stands in the triangle of fear-hope-love. Fear and hope are in
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s view connected to the works of the believ-
ers, while love is connected to the essence and the attributes of God.
That is why fear and hope will cease to exist in the hereafter while
love continues.^42 On the other hand also traditional Sufi authors have
emitted positive remarks on fear. Al-Suhrawardī promotes fear as a sta-
tion of quality as established by the vast number of Koran quotations
and traditions on fear.^43 Fear, al-Qushayrī had said, preserves moral-
ity and good conduct. To al-Qāṣānī it entails the purification of the
heart to enable its receptiveness towards a moment of contemplation.
Al-Qushayrī admits that some mystics prefer hope (rajāʾ) to fear, while
others believe that by time fear and hope are lifted in temporary states
of contemplation.^44 It is again Ibn al-ʿArīf who believes that in mystic
contemplation fear is necessarily absent because it obstructs a full con-
templative union with God. He tells how a pious man who was flogged
a hundred lashes while he was in full contemplation of God showed
no sign of fear. The awareness that God was beholding him made him
oblivious of the ordeal and he stood the test fearlessly, but when he
perceived separation from his Divine vision, he screamed when he
was lashed only once.^45 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya is outraged by this
42 Ibn al-Qayyim, Ṭarīq al-hijratayn, pp. 297–302.
43 Al-Suhrawardī, Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar: ʿAwārif al-maʿārif, Cairo n. d., vol. 2, pp. 289–
290.
44 Al-Qushayrī, Risāla fī ʿIlm al-taṣawwuf, pp. 200–201.
45 Ibn al-ʿArīf, Maḥāsin al-majālis, p. 41.
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