114 Gino Schallenbergh
most, al-Tilimsānī explains, is that God would turn away from him.^59
Selfish fear is futile. In his elitist sense al-Niffarī composed a list of 55
elements of fear where the fear of punishment is totally absent. The
aspects he touches relate to the desire of the servant to adopt a proper
conduct towards God. Among them we find the fear for sins, hidden
unbelief, shortcoming, temporal fears, etc.^60 Contrary to those types
of fear, the fear of the common constitutes a loss of tranquillity caused
by the believer’s contemplation of the prophet’s message about reward
and punishment. Hope is not treated any differently. Al-Niffarī treats
fear as the characteristic of those believers who have knowledge of life
after death while those who live in hope are ignorant.^61 In al-Tilimsānī’s
commentary it is explained by the idea that the hopeful is overpowered
by the prospect of felicity.^62 The itinerant however, must go beyond
fear and hope develop and steer the process of his spiritual growth; or
in al-Niffarī’s words: “He is distracted whom thou addresest according
to his desire, and he is cut of whom thou addresest according to his fear;
but he is united whom thou addressest according to his achievement.”^63
Al-Tilimsānī recognises al-Niffarī’s observation as a particularly use-
ful guiding principle for the Sufi master when he addresses the novice
(murīd). It makes no sense, he argues, to support the quest for God
based on sentiments of fear (rahba) and hope (raghba). And he adds
that in his actions, the true novice will not be inspired by fear, since
there is no sweetness in servitude based on fear.^64
The prospect of eternal doom and punishment confirms for Ibn al-
Qayyim on the other hand, the abode’s capital importance. Fear forti-
fies the spiritual life of the itinerant. Ibn al-Qayyim sums up different
forms of fear and ends with a description of the type of fear that brings
the spiritual travellers on the true spiritual path.^65 It is the terror felt
by the common for impending misfortune that is instilled on them by
revelation. At the same time it is the best proof of their faith, indicating
here the literal belief in the consequences of reward and punishment.
In al-Tilimsānī’s design, hope for the privileged of the privileged is the
59 Al-Tilimsānī, Sharḥ manāzil al-sāʾirīn, folio 19a.
60 Al-Niffarī, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Jabbār: Kitāb al-Nuṭq wal-ṣamṭ. Nuṣūṣ ṣūfiyya,
ed. by Muḥammad ʿAbbās Qāsim, Amman 2001, pp. 43–44.
61 Al-Niffarī, Kitāb al-Mawāqif, p. 51.
62 Al-Tilimsānī, Sharḥ mawāqif al-Niffarī, p. 215.
63 Al-Niffarī, Kitāb al-Mawāqif, p. 73.
64 Al-Tilimsānī, Sharḥ mawāqif al-Niffarī, p. 328.
65 Ibn al-Qayyim, Madārij al-sālikīn, vol. 1, pp. 550–551.
Brought to you by | Nanyang Technological University
Authenticated