Renunciation (zuhd)

الزهد

Zuhd of a thing means turning away from it out of contempt for it and rising above it; in Ibn Rajab's commentary on 'renounce the world and God will love you', renouncing the world is neither forbidding the lawful nor wasting wealth — as halted at Abu Muslim al-Khawlani in Ahmad's Kitab al-Zuhd, the reading he prefers — but being more confident in what is in God's hand than in what is in your own, and, when calamity strikes, more hopeful of its reward and store than of its survival; al-Zuhri defined the renunciant as one whom the unlawful does not overcome in patience nor the lawful distract from gratitude; Sufyan ibn Uyayna as one who gives thanks when blessed and is patient when tried; Sufyan al-Thawri and the Imam Ahmad as 'renouncing the world is shortening hopes, not eating coarse food nor wearing a rough cloak' — Ahmad once adding 'and despairing of what is in people's hands'; Ibrahim ibn Adham made it three kinds: obligatory, renunciation of the unlawful; meritorious, of the lawful; and safekeeping, of the doubtful — people disputing whether renouncing the unlawful alone earns the name, and Abu Sulayman al-Darani gathering all its meanings as 'renouncing whatever occupies you away from God', a saying Ibn Rajab calls comprehensive of all its senses, divisions and kinds; and its fullness includes that a believer who intends by lawful pleasures strength for obedience finds them counted worship, as Mu'adh said 'I reckon my sleep as I reckon my night vigil' (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 643–655).