Make God Your Supreme Concern

Most people talk frequently of maarifah without ever having attained it. The reason is that they want maarifah but they are not willing to pay the price for it, and in this world nothing can be achieved without paying the price. What man ought to do is that when he is not ready to pay the price for something he should not talk about it. For talking about something for which he is not willing to pay the price will mean that he is only mouthing words about maarifah without understanding its significance.

There is a saying in Arabic: “Knowledge gives you a part of it only when you give yourself to it completely.” (Al Faqih wal Mutafaqqih, Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, vol. 2, p. 204) This is true of maarifah. The price of maarifah is that a person should give his all to it, that he should make it his sole concern, that while going to bed he should think of maarifah, while getting out of bed he should think of maarifah. He should engross himself in it to the point of starting to dream of it. The price of maarifah is total surrender. One who does not totally surrender to maarifah, will find that the doors of maarifah will never be opened to him.