40 AN INTRODUCTION TO SUFI DOCTRINE

particular Sufi the affirmation of his person is in reality
only a submission to the impersonal truth he incarnates ;
his humility lies in his extinction in an aspect of glory
which is not his own.

If Sufi virtue coincides in its form with religious
virtue, it none the less differs from it in its contemplative
essence. For instance, the virtue of grattitude is, for the
mass of believers, founded on memory of the benefits
received from God; it implies a feeling that these bene-
fits are more real than the sufferings undergone. In the
case of the contemplative this feeling gives place to
certainty : for him the plenitude of Being present in every
fragment of existence is infinitely more real than the
limits of things, and some Sufis have gone so far as to
feel joy in what would be for others only a painful
negation of themselves.

~__~ The spiritual virtues are, as it were, supports in man

for the Divine Truth (al-Hagiqah) ; they are also reflec-
tions of that Truth. Now any reflection implies a
certain inversion in relation to its source: spiritual
poverty (al-fagr) is, for example, the inverse reflection
of the Plenitude of the Spirit. Sincerity (al-ikhlas) and
veracity (as-Sidg) are expressions of the independence of
the spirit from psychic tendencies while nobility (al-
karam) is a human reflection of the Divine Grandeur.!
In these ““ positive ” virtues the inversion lies in the mode
and not in the content, which means that they are, as
it were, saturated with humility while their prototypes
are made of majesty and glory.

1. One of the most profound works written on the subject of spiritual
virtues is the Malasin al-Majalis of Ibn al-‘Arif,