He said: “The people of obedience find, in the stillness of their nights, a pleasure sweeter than the merriment that revelers taste in their diversions. More than once joy has overtaken me in the depth of night, and at times I have felt the heart itself laughing aloud. (1)
Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari related: “I heard Abu Sulayman say: ‘While I was in prostration, sleep overcame me (2), and suddenly she was there—the houri—who tapped me with her foot and said: “My beloved, do your eyes sleep while the King remains awake, watching those who rise in the night to pray? How wretched is an eye that chooses the sweetness of a nap over the sweetness of intimate discourse with the Almighty! Rise, for the time is nearly spent and the lovers have met one another—what, then, is this slumber? My beloved, delight of my eye, do your eyes sleep while I have been raised for you in the secluded chambers all these years?” So I sprang up in alarm, perspiring out of shame at her rebuke, while the sweetness of her speech lingered in my ears and in my heart. (3)
Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari also said: “I once entered upon Abu Sulayman and found him weeping. I asked, ‘What ails you?’ He replied, ‘I was reproved in my dream last night.’ I asked, ‘What happened to you (4)?’ He answered: ‘I had nodded off in my prayer-niche when I found myself standing before a maiden whose beauty surpassed the whole world. In her hand was a parchment, and she said, “Do you sleep, O shaykh?” I replied, “Anyone overpowered by drowsiness must sleep.” She said, “No—one who seeks Paradise does not sleep.” Then she said, “Will you read?” I took the scroll from her hand, and there I saw written (5):
A passing pleasure has lured you away
from the goodly life in the lofty rooms of Paradise.
There you would live forever, never tasting death,
rejoicing in the gardens amid fair maidens.
Awake from your slumber—for better than sleep
is rising at night to recite the Qur’an.
Abu Sulayman said: “Is a man not ashamed to wear a coarse cloak that costs three dirhams while harboring in his heart a desire worth five dirhams? (6)
He also said: “No one may display asceticism before people while worldly cravings still dwell in his heart. Once nothing of this world’s desires remains within, he may show his renunciation by wearing the woolen cloak (7), for it is a badge of the ascetics; yet if he donned two plain white garments instead, to divert people’s eyes from him, that would guard his asceticism all the more. (8)