Abu Talib al-Makki

Abu Talib al-Makki, Muhammad ibn 'Ali (d. 996 CE) was a hadith scholar, Shafi'i jurist, and Sufi mystic.

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

 * Patience is a true means for reaching God. In patience the soul rejoices spiritual bliss and kinship with the Beloved. This is stage when the seeker of God heartily welcomes afflictions which appear on the way to Him
 * p. 86
 * Patience has three stages; first, it means that the servant ceases to complain and this is the stage of repentances; second, he becomes satisfied with what is decreed, and this is the rank of the ascetic; third, he comes to love whatever his Lord does with him and this is the stage of the true friends of God.
 * p. 86
 * Asceticism concerns the soul for the next world. True asceticism means the thrusting out from the heart of all worldly thoughts reckoning them as vanity. It leads ultimately to friendship with God.
 * p. 86
 * Pure love of God illuminates the soul of the lover and the mysteries of His divinity are revealed by God when the vision of the Beloved is contemplated.
 * p. 86
 * Love leads to knowledge of the Divine mysteries and those who love abide in God and look to Him only, and He is nearer to them than all else and to them in given a vision of Him unveiled and they see Him with the eye of certainty.
 * p. 86
 * Gnosis truly, is a light which God casts into the heart. True knowledge of God is gained when the lover comes in contact with the Beloved through secret communion with Him.
 * p. 86
 * The servant does not attain to assurance of the doctrine of the Unity except by means of gnosis.
 * p. 86
 * Gnosis means the vision of God, for when the eyes of the soul is stripped of all the veils which hindered it from seeing God, then it beholds the reality of the Divine Attributes by its own inner light, which goes for beyond the light which is given to perfect faith, for gnosis belongs to a sphere quite other then that of faith. Hence, there is no distinction between love of God and knowledge of God.
 * p. 86-87
 * O Lord! Increase light within me and give me light and illuminate me.
 * p. 87