Abstinence
(zuhd)

Gibril Fouad Haddad

Al-Zuhrī (58-124/678-742), Mālik (93-179/712-795), and Ibn ʿUyayna (107-198/ca.725-ca.814) all defined zuhd as taqwā and “relinquishing what Allah Most High forbade” (al-Qurṭubī, Qamʿ al-ḥirṣ p. 158). Thus, zuhd is first and foremost abstinence from sin (as borne out by the title of Ibn Ḥazm’s work, see Section vii below) and all that Allah Most High hates, beginning with the enormities of the Age of Ignorance (see Jāhiliyya) such as polytheism (Q 3:64, 95; 4:48; 7:180), murderous feuds and clannishness (Q 3:103; 48:26), female infanticide (waʾd, Q 6:51, 137; 17:32), fornication (Q 4:22; 7:28; 17:32, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr, sub Q 6:120), usury (ribā, Q 2:278; 30:39), disloyalty to parents and relatives (Q 2:181, 215; 29:8; 31:14; 46:15…), treachery to strangers (Q 4:36), and mistreatment of slaves and the poor (Q 4:36; 30:38). Relinquishment is required to the point that one may not even let out a grumble against parents (Q 17:23), and the believers are summoned to part once and for all with even the very thought of sin: And abandon the outwardness of sin and its inwardness (ẓāhir al-ithm wa-bāṭinah, Q 6:120), where according to Sahl al-Tustarī “the outwardness of sin is its commission; the inwardness, love of it” (Abū Nuʿaym, Ḥilya 10:198).

Relinquishing Unbelief and Sin

The individual’s lifelong flight from sin is both the categorical precondition of Godwariness (taqwā) and its single most important element, both being enjoined in countless verses. 

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Relinquishing Worldly Lusts

The life of this world (al-ḥayāt al-dunyā) is mentioned no less than fifty-five times in the Qurʾān invariably with deprecation, notably in such verses as Stretch not your eyes toward what We gave certain classes of them to enjoy—the flower of the life of the world—that We may test them thereby. The provision of your Lord is better and more lasting (Q 20:131, cf. Q 15:88); And whatever you all have been given is a comfort (matāʿ) of the life of the world and an ornament thereof; and that which Allah has [in store] is better and more lasting. Have you then no sense? (Q 28:60, cf. Q 42:36, 87:17).

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Relinquishing One’s Own Rights

A further level of zuhd is abstinence from the pursuit and obtainment of personal moral and physical rights.  Revenge and self-vindication are diminished with repeated adjurations to forgive and forbear beautifully (Q 15:85 cf. 2:109; 5:13; 43:89); and the recompense of evil is evil the like of it; but whoso pardons and puts things right, his wage falls upon Allah (Q 42:40)

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Relinquishing One’s Own Life

Naturally derived from the latter two aspects is zuhd with regard to life itself in expectation of the true life in the Hereafter. This translates into a perpetual readiness for the virtual sixth pillar of Islam—jihad—not in dark nihilism, but with scrupulous observance of Divine and human rights as well as fortitude in life and gratitude to Allah.

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Relinquishing All but Allah Most High

Every Muslim is ultimately tasked with zuhd from all other than Allah, the reminder of which begins with the adhān and iqāma uttered into his or her ear at birth and ends with the talqīn on the deathbed: to remember Allah with all one’s strength, heart and soul, love Him, cherish Him and obey Him.

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Early Zuhd Literature

Among the works on zuhd that came to prominence in the first five centuries are:

  • al-Zuhd of Ibn al-Mubārak al-Marwazī (d. 181/797);
  • al-Zuhd of Asad b. Mūsā, known as Asad al-Sunna (132-212/ca.750-827), largely a book of eschatology;

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See also

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