your world: women and perfume; and the delight of my eyes has been placed in prayer.’ Thus this was attributed to him after it had left him and passed away from him, confirming what I indicated and explained earlier. Allah Most High said: ‘I am with those whose hearts are broken for My sake.’”

He continued his discourse, which also includes: “My servant continues to draw near to Me through voluntary acts of worship”—and the remainder of the hadith.

I say: This station is the ultimate one to which Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir—may Allah be pleased with him—points. Its reality is that a person does not desire anything to come about unless he is commanded to desire it. His statement, “The sign that your will has been effaced through Allah’s action is that you no longer desire anything at all,” means that you do not desire anything you have not been commanded to desire. As for what Allah and His Messenger command you to desire, desiring it is either obligatory or recommended, while abandoning that desire is either disobedience or a deficiency.

This point confuses many spiritual wayfarers. They suppose that the perfect path requires the servant to have no will whatsoever, and that Abū Yazīd’s statement, “I desire not to desire”—when asked, “What do you desire?”—is deficient and self-contradictory, since he has indeed expressed a desire. They interpret the words of shaykhs who are praised for relinquishing their will as meaning that all will should be relinquished without exception. In this, they misunderstand the upright shaykhs. If, however, any shaykh does command the abandonment of all will without exception, then whoever says this is mistaken, for that is neither possible nor commanded.