How strange that in the popular imagination the path I follow is associated with criminality, terrorism, arrogance and oppression. How strange that so often it is thought of as a rebel religion, or the way of the haughty, building great towers of steel and glass in the desert.
Strange because in my mind’s eye, it is the path of those deemed worthless by society at large. It is the way of the dishevelled man covered with dust, unnoticed by the masses. It is the way of those deemed to be weak by others, of the anonymous, ignored. It is the way of those that walk humbly on earth. The way of those who do no harm.
“If you can afford to be unknown, then be so. What harm shall ever come to you from being unknown? Why should you care if you are not praised? And why should you care if you are criticised by people while being praised by God, the exalted?”
Al-Fudayl
As far as I know, this is the path of those who neither seek to exult themselves nor cause corruption on the earth. The path of those unimpressed by glitter and pomp and the adornments of life. The path of those that seek the pleasure of the One alone, deemed losers and fools by everyone around them. The way of the reject, the poor, the oppressed. The path of the forgotten.
That is the path as I understand it. Better to be lost, unknown. In that is true liberation.
Last modified: 22 April 2022
