Malik ibn Dinar, may God be pleased with him, said:
I set out as a pilgrim to the holy House of God, when I saw a young man walking on the road without food, water, or a mount. I greeted him, and my greeting was returned. "Young man, where are you from?" I asked him. He said, "From Him."
"And where are you going?" I said. "To Him," he said. "And where are your provisions?" He said, "They're up to Him."
"But you can't travel this road without carrying water," I told him. "Do you really have nothing on you?" "That's right," he said. "except five letters I brought with me when I set out." I asked him what these letters were, and he said, "God's word:"
"And what does it mean?" I asked.
"Kāf is for the All-Sufficing (al-Kāfī)," he said, "and hā is for the Guide (al-Hādī). Yā is for the Refuge (al-Ma’wā), and ‘ayn is for the All-Knowing (al-‘Ālim). And ṣād is for the Keeper of Promises (al-Ṣādiq). Whoever keeps company with the All-Sufficient Guide, the Refuge, and the All-Knowing Keeper of Promises is not ruined, has nothing to fear, and has no need to carry food and water."
Malik said: When I heard the young man's words, I stripped off my overshirt to dress him, which he declined. "Old man," he said, "it is better to go naked than wear the shirt of this world, whose lawful deeds are numbered, and whose unlawful ones will be punished. When the naked man is covered by the night, he can raise his face to heaven and say, 'O You, Who are gladdened by our obedient actions and unharmed by our disobedient ones, grant that I may always gladden You, and forgive my actions that do You no harm.'"
When [we arrived at Mecca, and] the people readied themselves for purification and shouted Labbayka! I asked the young man, "Why do you not perform the ritual greeting?" He said, "I fear that if I say Labbayka, He will say, 'There is no labbayka, and no sa‘dayka, and I do not hear your words or look upon you.'" And with that, he departed. I did not see him again, except at Mina, where he was saying (meter: basīṭ):
My friends are pleased for my blood to be spilt.
For them it's licit, in sacred months as in profane.
Just who is my spirit attached to? If she knew, by God
she would stand on her head, and not her feet.
I say to my faultfinder: Leave my love for Him out.
If you saw what I see in Him, you would not find fault.
There are some who circumambulate the House without moving a muscle,
and they need no sacred precinct to do it in, by God.
When others celebrate Eid al-Adha, sacrificing things
like sheep and goats, [God's true] lover sacrifices the lower self.
People have one pilgrimage, and I've got another, toward stillness.
I lead forth my blood, my vital being, when sacrificial animals are led.
From The Garden of Aromatic Herbs of ‘Afif al-Din al-Yafi‘i.
(The poem is elsewhere ascribed to al-Hallaj)
