118 Gino Schallenbergh
but rather as the true believers that stand up in defence of faith in times
of corruption after the example of the Biblical prophets.^76 Ibn Qayyim
al-Jawziyya observes however that its occurrence in history is rather
few. The mystics of our times, he specifies, should not try to see an
example in their life. Contrary to the mystics’ wish for reclusion and
isolation Ibn al-Qayyim recommends all Muslims to pay their duties
to society and to become a fully responsible individual in it.^77
As for release (basṭ), the counterpart of constriction, God does
not isolate His worshippers in this station from the social world but
releases them among people in the created world and makes them act
like the common believers. Basṭ is similar to the word ghibṭa, felic-
ity or beatitude.^78 In Islam, al-Khiḍr, who is said to roam the world
and mingle with people, is a figure that epitomises basṭ. Elias on the
other hand represents qabḍ.^79 Usually the states of qabḍ and basṭ fol-
low each other up in a sequence of alternating moods in the heart of
the mystic, but as mentioned above some saints could be in one of
each for a longer stretch of time or even on a permanent basis. ʿAbd
al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī tells that he saw one of his mentors, Bahāʾ al-Dīn
al-Majdhūb always in a state of basṭ (that is mabsūṭ) because God drew
him near (jadhb) while he was in a mood of merriness.^80 Al-Ḥasan Ibn
Hūd on the contrary was called a Sufi who was in a permanent state
of qabḍ. He was in the complete inability to rejoice about anything.^81
God, al-Tilimsanī comments, disperses the servant in this abode
in the wider field (mīdān) of release (basṭ). He is free to roam in a
multitude of fields of activity; swaying to the right and to the left as
a boy who plays with a ball.^82 There are three types of release, thus
al-Tilimsānī. In al-Tilimsānī’s description of the first group something
of his alleged antinomian leanings rings through. The first group of
wayfarers in release, he says, are made to intermingle with people and
76 Ibn al-Qayyim, Madārij al-sālikīn, vol. 3, pp. 308–309.
77 Ibid, p. 311.
78 As expressed in the tradition, allāhumma ghabṭan lā habṭan, which indicates
that the believer asks God to prolong sentiments of joy and implores him to be
preserved in this joyful state, Ibn Nubāta, Jamāl al-Dīn: Sarḥ al-ʿuyūn fī Sharḥ
Risālat Ibn Zaydūn, Beirut 1986, p. 383.
79 Al-Qāshānī, Laṭāʾif al-iʿlām, vol. 1, p. 444.
80 Al-Shaʿrānī, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb: al-Ṭabaqāt al-kubrā, ed. by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān
Maḥmūd, Cairo 1993, vol. 2, p. 724.
81 ʿAbd al-Raʾūf al-Munāwī, Zayn al-Dīn: al-Kawākib al-durriyya fī tarājim
al-sāda al-ṣūfiyya, ed. by Muḥammad Adīb Jādir, Beirut 1999, vol. 3, p. 399.
82 Al-Tilimsānī, Sharḥ manāzil al-sāʾirīn, folio 111b.
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