The Etiquette of Seclusion
Volume 2: Customs
In Islamic intellectual history, especially from the Tābiʿūn period onward, a deep dispute arose over whether seclusion (uzlat) or mixing with people (ihtilāt) is superior. While detailing the evidence and weaknesses of both views, the source text concludes that the matter varies according to persons, times, and states. Seclusion offers great benefits such as finding time for worship, avoiding sins, and protection from trials (fitna); yet it also carries risks such as drifting from knowledge, falling into arrogance, and neglecting social responsibilities. The ultimate aim is to strengthen the heart's bond with God and to purify it from the soul's vices.
Summary
In Islamic intellectual history, especially from the Tābiʿūn period onward, a deep dispute arose over whether seclusion (uzlat) or mixing with people (ihtilāt) is superior.
Sections
The Six Fundamental Benefits of Seclusion
According to the source text, the religious and worldly benefits of seclusion may be gathered under the following headings:
1. Finding Time for Worship and Contemplation: Those immersed among people find it difficult to have mental and physical free time. Seclusion provides the silence needed to attain God's maʿrifa and to discover the secrets of earth and heaven. 2. Escaping Sins: Being among people brings four great dangers: backbiting (ghība), tale-bearing (namīma), ostentation (riyā), and abandoning enjoining good. Solitude is a natural shield against these social sins. 3. Protection from Trials and Hostilities: Staying away from social turmoil, fanaticism, and enmities preserves the safety of religion and the soul. 4. Remaining Safe from People's Harm: It enables one to escape people's backbiting, bad opinion, and expectations that cannot be fulfilled. 5. Cutting Mutual Expectations: When people's expectations of the person and the person's expectations of people are severed, the heart is freed. Looking at the lives of the rich stirs greed, while seclusion increases contentment. 6. Distancing Oneself from Fools and the Troublesome: Being with uncomprehending people is described as a "fever of the soul"; staying away from them eases the heart.
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The Vices of Seclusion and the Benefits of Mixing with People
Withdrawal into seclusion has seven main vices that ihtilāt (socializing) causes one to miss:
- Learning and Teaching: Knowledge is acquired while in contact with people. Withdrawing into seclusion without learning obligatory knowledge is ignorance.
- Benefiting and Benefiting Others: Earning a livelihood (working) and serving Muslims with one's wealth or body are possible only through ihtilāt.
- Training the Soul (Becoming Refined): The soul matures by enduring people's hardships. One who remains alone may think the arrogance or anger within him has vanished, yet these feelings can be tested only through interaction.
- Finding Companionship: For the heart not to grow weary of worship, it sometimes needs to rest by spending time with friends.
- Earning Reward: Being deprived of communal acts of worship such as funeral prayers, visiting the sick, and the Friday prayer is a loss.
- Becoming Humble: Some who practice seclusion may secretly serve arrogance by saying, "I do not enter among people; they do not know me." Mixing with people breaks arrogance.
- Gaining Experience: Social contact is necessary to become a judge of human character and to understand life's interests.
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The Etiquette of Seclusion (Rules of Practice)
To obtain the benefit expected from seclusion, the following rules must be observed:
- Intention: One should aim not merely at "escaping people's harm" but at "not harming people" and "turning fully to God."
- Knowledge as Foundation: One should not enter retreat without knowing the form of worship, the vices of the heart, and the essentials of faith.
- Cutting Off from Worldly News: Asking what is happening in the land plants seeds of whisperings in the heart. Ties to the outer world should be kept to a minimum.
- Contentment and Patience: Being satisfied with little provision and enduring the constriction solitude brings are essential.
- Remembering Death: In moments when the heart grows heedless, one should reflect on the solitude of the grave and realize that one's present state is a preparation for it.
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Key concepts
- The science of *muʿāmala*
- Knowledge that must be put into practice
Study questions
What is ʿUmar's counsel regarding seclusion?
He said: "Take your share of seclusion!"
According to Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, what should be done before withdrawing into seclusion?
One should first learn fiqh (acquire knowledge), then withdraw into seclusion.
What does "the fever of the soul" mean?
According to the Greek physician Galen (Calinus), looking at and spending time with troublesome, foolish people is the fever of the soul.
How is the "refinement" that is among the benefits of *ihtilāt* acquired?
It is acquired by training the soul through enduring people's hardships and breaking arrogance by serving others.
What is the relationship between seclusion and *fitna*?
In times of social turmoil and diminishing trust, taking refuge on a mountaintop or in the depths of one's home to protect one's religion is regarded as a path of salvation.
What is the scholars' final measure in answering "Is seclusion superior, or *ihtilāt*?"
This varies according to the person, the person's state, the quality of his companion, and the time. Giving an absolute ruling is wrong; benefits and harms must be compared.