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    A Nasafi's notion of evil

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    A Sufi Perspective of Evil

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    Wahid Azal
    A Nasafi's notion of evil

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    A SUFI PERSPECTIVE OF EVIL. By Lloyd Ridgeon Unies of Clsgone INTRODUCTION ‘One of the major problems that confronts the great religious traditions is a logical and watertight explanation for the existence of evil. In the Islamic ‘world, theologians, philosophers and Sufis grappled with the question of why a good God created or per- mitted the existence of evil and suffering." The ethical voluntarism of the theologians considered exil as a reality defined entirely with reference to the shan‘a and not human reason. God's ereation of evil was designed to guide mankind towards Him: just as things are known by their opposites, evil leads man to consider the nature of good and God, and in addi- tion, suffering is a warning of the conditions of Hell, ‘encouraging man to choose the path based upon the shari'a2 The philosophers understood evil in. a Neo- Platonic light the universe emanated from God and therefore this contingent existence was less perfect than Necessary Existence, and successive emanations became increasingly imperfect, culminating in the appearance of “evil” in this world.* These arguments, ‘ofthe theologians and philosophers were included in the Sufi discussions of evil, but the Islamic mystics also offered their own unique contribution to this theolog- ical problem. This paper presents the explanations for the existence of evil as recorded in the works of ‘“Aviz. Nasafi, a thirteenth-century mystic who lived and wrote his Persian theosophy in the cities of Central Asia and Iran.! Although Nasafi did not com- pose a book or even a single chapter on evil, by sifting through his treatises i is possible to piece together his perspective on this subject. Nota great deal is known about Nasaft's life, for his didactic treatises largely describe the world views of the followers of the shan‘a (the “uland?), the philoso- phers (ahti hikmat), and the various Sufi schools. He rarely divulged his own personal beliefs in an explicit ‘manner, although there is no doubt that his sympa- thies lay with a group of mystics called the People of Unity (ahté walda). Several modern scholars regard Nasafi as one of the first commentators of the theoso- phy expounded by Ibn ‘Arabi (1165-1240) which came to be known as the unity of existence (wahdat al- unyjud), yet a recent article suggests that Nasafi should be considered as a “free-thinker” rather than merel tocing the line of Ibn “Arabi’s school of thought? Whatever the truth, there is a consensus that Nasali was certainly one of the most influential mystics of the thirteenth century and after. Numerous manuscripts of his works (extant in India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, China and Egypt) testify to the populari- ty of his message, as do the Arabic, Turkish and Chinese translations of some of his treatises.® 1. EVIL AND CREATION Nasafi’s Sufi vision is centred upon the concept that existence is one, which is the existence of God, This being the case, itis impossible for any kind of existence to be bad or evil, whether it is Necessary Existence (that is God, the source of all existence) or contingent existence (such as man who exists through God). This best of all possible existences” is discussed by NasafT in many of his works, and the fok lowing isa typical example: the sign ofthe person who is aware of this existence is that he has renounced his Freewill (Lark ithiya) and his ‘own existence, and has severed his grasping hand and cut off his criticising tongue. He has understood that no one knows this existence except for God Most High. It is God that always was ane always will be. Whoever has more gnosis increases his renunciation, There are many signs for this st tion, but the special signs are renouncing free-will, being satsied and surrendering. The eyes that see God are ‘opened and man looks and knows for sure that everything ‘hati, must exist the way that itis Belief in the perfection of all existence, including, contingent existence, provoked major theological dis- cussions prior to Nasaff’s era. Itwas argued by Ghazali that God had to create the best of all possible worlds because refraining from doing so would be dication of miserliness, an attribute which stands in contrast to His generosity and justice. However, this argument implies the impossibility of God creating an even better world, a severe restriction on His power, ‘These two positions reflect the conflict between the rational theologians who emphasised reason and God's justice (the Mu‘tazilites) and the “orthodox” theologians who stressed the primacy of God’s power, and the see-saw of justice and power rises and falls in ‘many theological play-grounds (as we shall see in our discussion below). Nasaff, however, was neither a Mu‘tazilite nor an “orthodox theologian’: some of his theological explanations (such as pre-determination) us. 4 indicate a preference for the attribute of power while ‘others (the best of all possible existence) favour jus- In Nasafi’s system where the world is the best pos- sible, all existents have a purpose which is to reach. their ultimate perfection. It is impossible for any- thing to be “evil” so long as it performs its function, and if anything is omitted from existence in the “chain of being*, then the unity of existence and its perfection will cease. This the concept of the plen- itude in which existence appears in all its glory, from. the lowest of the low to the highest of the high.” Even acts of creation which some humans consider “natural disasters” have a purpose, contributing to the full manifestation of existence, but in most cases, man cannot fathom the wisdom behind them. In suich situations, Nasaff offers the same advice found. in Qut algulab, composed by Abi Talib al-Makki (4. 966)!” that Sufis should adopt the character traits of remaining silent (Ahamish), being satisfied (visi dadan) in God and surrendering (‘aslim) to Him, Man can only gaze (nizara kardan) at the manifesta- tion of such divine attributes which appear incon- gruous to him." Nasaff discusses the plenitude as ifeach individual component is alive with a desire to attain its perfection and thus reveal the beauty of the whole. According to Nasafi, each unit is motivated by love © dear friend! The seeds of all plants and animals are full of love. Indeed, all the different parts of all existent things are drunk with love. Iflove did not exist, the spheres would not turn, the plants would not grow and animals ‘would not be born. All things love and scek themselves, that is, they desire to sce themselves in the way that they are and disclose the beloved before the lover.!2 The perfect lover of all existent things is man because he is able to witness God through all existent things in the world. Thus the aim of creation is reached through man, and the love and servitude of all things to man (such as the use of animals in farm ing and hunting, utilising wood and stone for build- ing) is dramatically represented in an analogy of man as the Ka‘ba and the existent things revolving around and bowing to him: © dervisht All existents are parts of man, All the parts of the world are working and are busy with progress and ascent ‘until man is created at the end ...So man is the Kaba of the existents because they all turn to face him. The prostre tion of the angels was because they were all his workers “And He has subjected t0 you what the heavens and earth © dervish! Prostration is not placing one’s forehead. to the ground. Rather, it is performing something for someone, All the existents prostrate to man and they do this because the Perfect Man exists among the human beings JOURNAL OF PERSIAN STUDIES. the Perfect Man is the select and quintessence of exis tents. and the cherubs, spiritual beings, the Throne, the Footstool, the heavens and the planets are his servants, and they continually rotate around him, assisting in his take!” Although man is the telos of the existing things, he is dependent upon those things that are “lower” the him in the hierarchy that God has created: If man could exist without the spheres, stars, elements, natures, plants and animals, then he would live without them, But he cannot exist or ive without them, The aim of all existent things is man and their existence is for man's sake alone. Nasafi explains the order and hierarchy of existent things in terms of an ascent ( mi‘rdj) which, as we shall see, is a theme that he returns to frequently in pre- senting his theosophy: Know that all existens, including intelligences (*ugi), souls (mufis), natures ({abd??), heavenly spheres (ajldk), stars (anjun), elements (‘ands and the three kingdoms [mineral plant and animal] are voyaging and journeying ‘until they reach their summit (nihaya) and ultimate limit Each one has a summit and ultimate limit. The summit of ceach thing is when whatever is existent in polenta becomes existent in actuality. In other words, the grain, seed and tembryo are existent in polotia and then become existent i actuality, But the ulimate limit of each thing is when it reaches man, When they reach man, the ascent (mira) of allexistent things is completed, So the ascent isin this man nerand the Messenger was correct when he said, “Last night ascended and reached the Throne and saw God.""” The unity and multiplicity in the plenitude is por- trayed by Nasafi through another analogy which high- lights the order and servitude of the existent things in their relationship with man. He describes existents as a single tree, for the sphere of spheres (otherwise known as the Throne) is the ground of the tee, the second sphere (or the Footstool) is the root, and the seven heavens are the teerunk. The fourfold ele- ‘ments and natures are the branches of the tree, while the minerals, plants and animals are the leaves, flow- ers and fruit of the tree, and man is the fruit of the tree. The celebrated Persian poet Jalal alDin Rami (1207-73) employs the same analogy of the tree: (briliant man! Be the reality [fthebadith quasi]: “The last are the foremost,"* "The best rut appears aston the tee ‘es although dhe it comes into exence atthe nd Tes the foremost since itis the goal!” 2. EVIL AND MAN Although existence is one, a distinetion is made between Necessary Existence, or God's essence (which is beyond all description and attribution) and, contingent existence. The latter is differentiated by its A SUFI PERSPECTIVE OF EVIL attributes, such as kindness, or anger, yet from the perspective of the unity of existence, it logically fol- ows that not one of these is considered bad. Nevertheless, the Sufis do speak of “good” and “bad” attributes as the following quotation reveals: Know that the People of Unveiling confirm with theit tongue and testify with their hearts the existence and unity (of God and this confirmation and testimony is by way of unveiling and contemplation. O dervish! These are groups that se and know everything as God since they have passed all the veilsand have come close to God's face and have seen and known the knowledge of certainty (‘lm alyagin) and the eye of certainty (‘an alyagin) and they have understood. that existence is for God alone, and for this reason they are called the People of Unity, for they do not see or under- stand anything other than God. ‘Know that at this level, nothing is predominant for the Unitarian, neither effort nor endeavour, neither satisfac- tion nor submission, because the Unitarian say that every: thing in the beginning is good, and everything that exists must be as iis, and if it were not so then it would not be itself: But everything must exist in such away that itis, in the right place and in the right amount, since everything is called “bad” which is not in the right place, oF else is i its right place but not in the right amount. So effort and. endeavour, satisfaction and submission, and the words of the doctors are good in the right place and in the right amount. Everything which exists is good in the right place andin the rightamount2” ‘There is not one bad attribute, but one group of people :manifest those attributes in an inappropriate place and sy, “that atribute is bad.” There is nothing bad in this world, rather, all things are good in their proper place. If some [atrbutes} are notin their right place, then they ae called “bad”. God Most High did not create anything bad, He created everything well? In other words, the problem of good and evil is fact one of understanding the reality of existence, attributes and perfection. Nasafi compares the person who does not realise that the world is perfect to a blind man who enters a house and complains that everything is in his way. Not realising the order and perfection that already exists, he rearranges the far- niture of the whole house, causing himself untold bother and vexation in his effort. The person who realises the perfection of the world, however, is like a traveller who arrives at a caravanserai after suffering the heat of the sun or the chill of the wind, Such traveller does not think that the caravanserai is locat- ed in the wrong place or that the walls are too high, rather, he considers that everything is perfect.22 ‘The human eyes that see the perfection of exis. tence can witness itn two ways. The first method is for man to look into himself, for he is a mirror which reflects the reality of perfection (or God). This belief is ‘contained in the famous hadith which states that "God ‘created Adam upon His own form." The aim of ere- ation is the full manifestation of existence, soit is nec 115 essary for man to reach his perfection by searching into his self and actualisng his potential qualities. The second method by which man is able to witness the perfection of existence is by looking at the world, for this is also a mirror that reflects God's existence. The world is called the big man (insani kab) and the rmacrocosm (‘alan kabir) while man is called the small man ({nsani saghir) and the microcosm (lami saghi) According to Nasafi, the idea of these two mirrors reflecting the existence of God is contained in the Quranic verse ‘We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in themselves,”® the horizons being the macrocosm and the selves being the microcosm. If the macrocosm and the microcosm are manifes tations of God, how is it possible for anything, morally ‘or naturally bad or evil to exis? In Nasaft’s system, evil isthe privation of knowledge or perfection. Man exists in time and develops through stages until he reaches his perfection, but this does not mean that he is im- perfect when he is a child, for the level of childhood has its own perfection, as does that of a fully matured individual. However, it is clear that the individual has not reached the summit of knowledge until he attains his physical and spiritual perfection. Before arriving at this summit, the individual may not possess the ade ‘quate knowledge to manifest the appropriate atribute ‘orcharactertraitat the correct moment. From this per- spective, as Nasafi states, some attributes are termed “bad”. But the significant point is that human perfec tion is possible; the First wenty years of one’s life are the period for perfecting the body and the, subsequent twenty years are for perfecting the spirit2” ‘Thus man ‘may become perfect when he is forty years old, the age at which, according to Islamic tradition, Mulammad received revelation from God." The lack of knowledge or perfection in the individual explains the existence of evil in any given individual, but this answer would hardly stislythe victims of evil, such as those who were massacred during the Mongol invasions of Nasafi's ‘wn time. How does one understand the mass suffer- ing and killing caused by one’s fellow human beings? “The fall manifestation of existence is the aim of creation, and as already mentioned above, this is wit- nessed through the macrocosm and the microcosm. Such a full manifestation of existence means that all, of the Divine Attributes must be displayed, not only love and kindness, but also wrath and anger. Nasaft describes existence as light which shines through the niches of the genera and species of the world. Sometimes there are many niches and at other times, there are few niches. When there is one niche for a particular attribute, the light shining from it ‘becomes very strong, as opposed to when the light is, diffused among many niches and becomes weak. So when there is only one niche for an attribute, this, niche isa leader or chief. 116 He may be a leader in kindness or in anger and. ‘mass killing! thus individuals as different as Jesus and Chingiz Khan are instruments by which God man- ifests Himself A similar idea to Nasafi’s was discussed by Ibn. ‘Arabi, who explained the slaughter of young boys in Egypt when Moses and the Jews were prevented from leaving Egypt.” As a result of this killing, the strength (or light) of each child killed reverted to Moses, bestowing him with more strength! Thus Moses became the Perfect Man to manifest the Divine attrib- utes. The suffering and evil inflicted upon the boys was for the eventual benefit of the world as.a whole, and in this way God’s wrath and anger may also be seen in terms of His love and kindness. Man’s ignorance of this situation is expressed several times by Nasaf ‘There sa ime when something happens for one person and he is pleased because oft, et there shat for him in that thing, There isalso a time when something happens for someone and that person isnot pleased because of, et his bene lies in dat thing ‘This reflects the wiselom in the Qur’anic verse “Yet it may happen that you will hate a thing which is bet ter for you; and it may happen that you will love a thing which is worse for you; God knows and you know not." Nasafi addresses all individuals because of the difficulty of recognising good and evil, and their imtertwined nature. Existence is one with its elab- orate bouquet of attributes, and all people, from the king to the servant, share in the bestowal of the thorns and flowers of existence. Any attribute is inextricably linked with its opposite; thus the flower is intertwined ‘with the thorn, and as the flower grows strong so (0 does the thorn, In other words, if one person enjoys much peace of mind in some aspect of his life, he will also have to endure many troubles in another part of his life. Likewise, if this person has only a very limited amount of peace of mind, then he will also have a pro- portionate degree of trouble.*! From this perspective, “evil” cannot be avoided completely, but the best pol icy for man is to renounce his desires and aims as far as possible because they are the cause of all suffering, Each person has desires and aims, but even though fone desire might be fulfilled, his ten other desires lie unfulfilled, and the wise man cannot endure this. The Perfect Man puts aside his desires to the extent that is possible and he sees “evil” for what it really is—one of the manifestations of God's attributes, 3. EVIL, IBLIS, INTELLIGENCE AND INTENTION, In the previous section, evil was discussed in terms of the privation of knowledge. Evil can be overcome through intelligence which is the distinguishing feature of mankind (since it is lacking in all other JOURNAL OF PERSIAN STUDIES creatures including angels who merely obey all of God's commands.) According to Nasafi, inteli- gence is able to distinguish beween good and evil, land to show the legitimacy of this belief, he cites a hadith which states that “Intelligence is a light in the heart distinguishing between truth and falsity.” Moral evil or goodness emerge as a result of the co! flict between man’s intelligence and his other bodily faculties. If man's intelligence is sound, then it will show him the path to perfection. However, he may deviate from this path if, for example, his appetites or carnal desires overpower his intelligence. Therefore it is necessary for man to engage in religious effort and asceticism to contro! his lower faculties and permit his intelligence to dominate them. This image of a battle between intelligence and the other human faculties is another way of expressing how man chooses between the various options for performing any action, the reality of free-wil, The importance of intelligence is revealed in the Quranic story when God told the angels that He would create a deputy for the earth, They were sur- prised and said, “What, wilt Thou set therein one who will do corruption there, and shed blood, while we proclaim Thy praise and call Thee Holy?” God knew that Adam and his descendants would do these things, but He also knew that only man, through his inteligence, would be able to recognise God as He truly is and reflect His divine attributes. Therefore God replied to the angels, “know something that you do not. Moreover, God taught Adam the names of all the things, and Adam in turn taught these names to the angels who were instructed to prostrate them- selves before him? The angels bowed down before Adam, but Iblis, the Devil, refused to do so since ‘Adam was made of clay, whereas Iblis was composed of fire, a superior element in his opinion." (Later Islamic thinkers explained that Iblis had failed to notice that Adam was in fact made of clay and God's spirit.) "" Iblis was cursed because of his refusal to obey God's command to bow to Adam; however, he was reprieved until Judgement Day and he promised to beguile man uniil then. Despite the Qur°an’s negative portrayal of Iblis, some Sufis such as Halla (4. 922) and ‘Ayn al Qudat (d. 1132) presented him with some positive qualities. He was regarded by these mystics as a loyal monotheist because he would only prostrate himself to God. Nasafi, t00, rehabilitates Iblis somewhat in his description of Adam's fall, which is portrayed in a hierarchy of nine “falls. In fact, these nine “falls” correspond to the nine stages of divine creation, commencing from the first level of God's timeless knowledge of man, through the creation of the ele- ments, the kingdoms of mineral, plant and animal, and then to man, who ascends towards his perfection A SUFI PERSPECTIVE OF EVIL by means of his intelligence and then in able to reach God through divine grace. In this hierarchy, Iblis appears in the third level where intelligence is manifested. Thus he is a necessary player in man's attempt to reach perfection since without him, there is nothing for intelligence to master, so preventing the full manifestation of existence. Presented below is a summary of the nine “falls” that Adam must experience to reach his summit. Nasli’s portrayal of these nine “falls” is somewhat confusing! so I have attempted to reconstruct a logical framework for the nine “alls”. In each heaven there is a wee and in the First Heaven itis called the Tree of Possbility (diakhts imkin). nthe First Heaven, there is complete unity and Adam and Eve are not opposed by Iblis. However, when they approach the Tree of Possibility, they are compelled t9 leave that heaven because of the divine command “Be!™! The reality of this First Heaven is that itis the knowledge that God possesses of Adam and Eve (in other words, al existent things which exist ‘only within God's mind). When He commands these things to "Bet" they appear in the external world. The Second Heaven isthe heaven of individual things, that is, the heaven of the four elements and natures (earth, water, air and fire). They ae the building blocks ofall ‘existents, and are actual things rather than potential things, The tree in the Second Heaven is the Tree of Mixture (dirakhti mizd)), and after being ordered out of this Heaven Adam, Eve and Satan (who tempted them to approach the tree) reach the Third Heaven ‘where the elements and natures are mixed together to form compounds. Here the three kingdoms of miner- al, plant and animal appear, and man is the most sub- lime kind of animal, However, at this level man is immature, for thisis the stage ofthe ignorant and chil- dren where compulsion or restraint do not exist, noris, there anything lawful or unlawful. According to Islamic law, children are not responsible for their actions—they are not yet mukallaf—unable to disin- gush between right and wrong in an adequate man ner since their intelligence does not mature until they attain their adulthood, In the Third Heaven, there isa Tree of Intelligence (dirakhti ‘ag and when Adam came near the tree, God commanded that Adam, Eve, Satan, Tbs, the peacock and the snake should leave this heaven and lve in the Fourth Heaven." Itis here at the Tree of Intelligence that God addresses Adam, and tells him not to remain stationary in the path or become distracted by pleasant or unpleasant things but to start walking or to ascend towards the pinnacle of the hierarchy. Afterall, God told the angels that He knew something about man that they did not, that is, that man could pass all the heavens and reach the ult ‘mate heaven. From this point in the Fourth Heaven, Adam possesses intelligence, the distinguishing char- 7 acteristic of mankind, therefore his aim isto become a perfect man. In the Fourth Heaven there is the Tree of Mankind (dirakhti khalg) and it is through free-vill and the experiences associated with choice that man. acquires knowledge and enters the Fifth Heaven Which has a tree named the Tree of Knowledge (dirakie:i“im). The Fifth Heaven is as far as Adam can {journey on his own for this is the limit of intelligence. Asceticism and laborious religious effort pay no divi- dend and any further progress in the hierarchy is a result of God bestowing His mercy or His light (nr alla) upon man. At this stage, we enter the realm of _mysticism proper, for itis station where God is expe- rienced directly without the restrictions and defini- tions that intelligence stamps upon things. The tree of the Sixth Heaven is called the tree of God's light, and. the wayfarer may be bestowed with this light in order for him to journey into the Seventh Heaven which has tree named the Tree of Encounter with God (dirakhei liga”). Finally, in the Eighth Heaven is the Tree of Power (dirakhti qudrai) which leads to the Ninth Heaven. The distinguishing feature of this level is that, ‘man has the ability to create or to utilise “charismatic powers” such as walking on water or flying through the air. At this level, the distinction between God's creative power and that of his servant becomes somewhat blurred. Is God creating the “charismatic power” through man, or is that creative power of man a result of his own free-ill? In fact man reaches a stage where he does not speak of his own free-will, and his desire is, the same as God's and any charismatic power that he manifests reflects the desire of both man and God. (The ascent from the First Heaven to the Ninth Heaven is shown in Table 1.) ‘The absence of evil in these nine “falls is conspicue fous. Nasafi turns the whole idea of Adam's fall on its head, for he sees each fall as an ascent (miraj) to a higher level. This return to God reflects the Isiamic belief in the ascent (also known as the night journey) of Muhammad, who was taken by night from his bed in Arabia to Jerusalem,"* and from there he passed through the heavens ‘and reached God's Throne where he spoke to and listened to God without an intermediary. Nasafi’s nine levels correspond with the Islamic cosmological views of the seven heavens men- tioned in the Qur°an'” with the additional two levels that form the summit of the hierarchy, that is, God's Footstool and God's Throne. The first three “falls” or “ascents” have nothing to do with Adam as man, since he is not involved in the bestowal of existence ‘upon the possible things or the advance from simple elements to compounds. It is only with intelligence (which necessitates the existence of free-will) that ‘Adam can propel himself forward as far as the Sixth Heaven, where he ultimately has to rely on God ifany further progress isto take place. 118 JOURNAL OF PERSIAN STUDIES Table 1 Heaven Reality of the Heaven Tree in Heaven First Heaven, God’s knowledge. Tree of Possibility, leads to the Second Heaven, Second Heaven Creation of the elements and natures (earth, water, air, and fire) Tree of Mixture, leads to the Third Heaven, ‘Third Heaven Creation of the three kingdoms (mineral, plant and animal) Tree of Intelligence, leads to the Fourth Heaven, Fourth Heaven Creation of humans. Tree of Mankind, leads to the Fifth Heaven, Fifth Heaven, Humans reach the level of intelligence where they have the ability to confirm the prophets. Tree of Knowledge, leads to the Sixth Heaven, Sixth Heaven Man now has the ability to commence his spiritual journey towards God. Tree of God's Light, leads to the Seventh Heaven. Seventh Heaven Human intelligence can only go so far, from where God may bestow His light ‘upon the individual in which case the ‘Tree of Encounter with God, leads to the Eighth Heaven, journey continues. Eighth Heaven Man reaches God and witnesses Him. Tree of Power, leads to the Ninth Heaven. Ninth Heaven Man is able to perform charismatic powers, such as walking on water, or flying, etc The idea of evil emerging as a result of free-will (that is, the wrong choice that man makes) is appar- ent in Nasafi’s discussion of Adam and Iblis as they exist within the microcosm. The microcosm is the summary of the macrocosm; thus it contains within it everything that exists in the macrocosm (including Adam and Iblis). Adam is represented in the micro- cos as man's intelligence, so if man does not act on. the basis of his intelligence, then he becomes Iblis like, since Iblis is proud and disobeys God’s com- mand. If man acts on the basis of intelligence, then he becomes angelic, since angels obey God's commands and thus man is able to receive knowledge from the invisible world (‘alam ghayd).*® Nasafi discusses how God's deputy, that is intelligence (represented in this case by Solomon and Jesus), must control the faculties in his body and not fall into temptation: © dervish! An angel and Tbfisare one faculty (quaruad. It is called Iblis as it x not obedient to Solomon, and [in this situation] he must put it in chains, When this faculty becomes obedient to Solomon, itis called an angel, and he putsit to work. Some build, some dive. So Solomon’s task 's to change attributes, not make them nonexistent since this is imposible, He makes the disobedient obedient, the discourteous courteous, and he makes the blind see, the deaf hear and dead living. So intelligence, which is God's deputy is Adam, and itis also Solomon and Jesus. If this were not so, then Solomon would be subservient and called to account by them, and he would be a captive to dogs and pigs and he would bea slave to demons and satans."* ‘One of the problems facing man in his battle with evil is, how does his intelligence choose correctly among the various character traits at any given time? Such a question is posed in the Kashf abhaga?ig and the answer is given in terms of a negative and positive definition of good conduct. Taking the negative first, good conduct means neither doing anything evil nor wishing any misfortune upon anyone. The positive definition is doing good with everyone and wishing for their good-fortune. Although these definitions do not tell us what good and evil are, Nasafi states that ‘one can recognise good and evil by their effects upon. A SUFI PERSPECTIVE OF EVIL ‘one’s own soul. This is because the inner state of the person who wishes evil upon another person does not prosper but deteriorates, and the fire and torment in his own heart increase in proportion to the success and improvements of his rival's condition. In the same way, the inner state of the person who wishes well improves as the condition of his colleague prospers. Wishing evil or success upon someone is closely related to the concept of intention (nya) since both are mental attitudes, not necessarily related to islam (submission) whieh is the external manifestation of Islamic worship. Intention is different from an act because one person may perform an act which appears evil or contrary 10 God's laws, however that person's intention may be good and in the spirit of God’ laws. Nasafi highlights the problematic nature ‘of determining the evil or goodness in intentions: The Unitarian says that recognising good and evil, and. ‘obedience (ta/at) and disobedience (masta) (10 God isa

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