Human Development

Wara

Description:
The traveller may refrain not only from what is forbidden but from what is questionable in the law or shari'a; he may use his own moral discrimination to determine from what he should abstain; he may refrain from anything which separates him from God. Ultimately the state is of one who looks for detachment from everything except God.
Context:
The second stage in a systematic account of various stations of the Sufi spiritual path. According to Shaykh Abu Sa'id ibn Abi'l-Khayr, this is the 16th of 40 stations or maqamat the Sufi must possess for his journey on the path of Sufism to be acceptable.<