Abu Nasr as-Sarraj

Abū Naṣr ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī al-Sarrāj (d. 988) was a Sunni sheikh and ascetic. He traveled widely in the Islamic world, having lived in cities as diverse as Cairo, Tabriz, Ramla, Baghdad, Damascus, Basra, and Nishapur. He is best known for his seminal Kitāb al-luma (Book of Light), which is considered an encyclopedia of the history of early Sufism.

The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004)

 * God reveals the truth behind the languages of the Quran to those whom He loves and who are true Sufis.
 * p. 82
 * Renunciation (Zuhd) is a noble station and it is the basis of all spiritual progress. It is the first step on the way to God. Without renunciation one cannot hope to make progress in this respect.
 * p. 82
 * Gnosis (Marifat) is fire and faith light, gnosis is ecstasy and faith a gift. He differentiates between the believer and gnostic saying that the believer sees by the light of God and the gnostic sees by means of God Himself, and the believer has a heart, but the gnostic has no heart.
 * p. 82
 * Gnosis (Marifat) is of three kinds: The gnosis of acceptance, the gnosis of reality and the gnosis of contemplation. And in the gnosis of contemplation, understanding and learning and explanation and disputation fade away.
 * p. 82
 * The Sufis are content with little in the way of worldly goods and are satisfied with the minimum of food to keep them alive; they limit themselves to the least that is necessary by way of clothing and bedding. They choose poverty rather than riches, embrace want and avoid plenty, prefer hunger to satisfaction and little to much. They renounce dignity and honour and rank, show compassion upon mankind and humility towards small and great.
 * p. 82-83
 * Lovers do not reach the height of true love until one says to the other, "O Thou who art I."
 * p. 83
 * Trust in God is the last station on the Divine Path for nothing remains to be attained through mystical efforts after having experienced spiritual satisfaction.
 * p. 83
 * Before the time of prayer comes, the servant must be in a state of preparation and his attitude must be that which is essential for prayer, namely a state of reflection and recollection, free from wandering thoughts and consideration or remembrance of anything save God alone. Those who enter in this way upon prayer with heart intent only upon God, will proceed from prayer to prayer in that same state of recollection and will remain in that state after they have ceased to pray.
 * p. 83
 * Humanity is not destroyed from men any more than blackness is destroyed from that which is black or whiteness from that which is white but that inborn qualities of humanity are converted and transformed by the all-powerful Light that is shed upon them from the Divine Realities. Those who inculcate the doctrine of Fana' mean the obliteration of one's own deeds and works of devotion through the continuance of regarding God as the doer of those deeds on behalf of His devotee.
 * p. 83