conversation.' 'No,' he said, 'neither the evening nor the
conversation have been good.' 'Why so?' I remarked. 'Because,' he said,
'you sought to speak words which might please me, and I sought to answer
so as to gratify you. Both of us, pre-occupied with our talk, had
forgotten the Most High. It would be better for each of us to sit still
in his place and to lift up his heart towards God.'"

A stranger coming to Fudhayl one day was asked by the latter for what
purpose he came. "I have come," he answered, "to talk with you, and to
find in so doing calm of mind," "That is to say," broke in Fudhayl, "you
wish to mislead me with lies, and desire me to do the same to you. Be
off about your business."

[15]But with all his austerity of life, his prolonged fasts and
watchings, his ragged dress and wearisome pilgrimages, he preferred the
practice of interior virtue and purity of intention to all outward
observances, and used often to say that "he who is modest and compliant
to others and lives in meekness and patience gains a higher reward by so
doing than if he fasted all his days and watched in prayer all his
nights." At so high a price did he place obedience to a spiritual guide,
and so necessary did he deem it, that he declared, "Had I a promise of
whatever I should ask in prayer, yet would I not offer that prayer save
in union with a superior."

But his favourite virtue was the love of God in perfect conformity to
His will above all hope or fear. Thus, when his only son (whose virtues
resembled his father's) died in early age, Fudhayl was seen with a
countenance of unusual cheerfulness, and, being asked by his intimate
disciple, Abou Ali, the reason wherefore, he answered, "It was God's
good pleasure, and it is therefore my good pleasure also."

Others of his sayings are the following: "To leave aught undone for the
esteem of men is hypocrisy, and to do ought for their esteem is
idolatry." "Much is he beguiled who serves God for fear or hope, for His
true service is for mere love." "I serve God because I cannot help
serving Him for very love's sake."

[13] Koran, Sura 57, v 15.

[14] According to the Koran, Haman was the vizier of Pharaoh whom
he misled by bad advice.

[15] Vide Palgrave: "Asceticism among Mohammedan nations."

CHAPTER VI

BAYAZID BASTAMI
(D 874 AD)

Bayazid Bastami, whose grandfather was a Zoroastrian converted to Islam,
was distinguished for his piety while still a child