Faqr (Sufism)

At this station the traveller becomes a faqir, liberated from all expectations except in things related to God. In a state of detachment all external things are renounced, together with any desire for them. There is perfect renunciation of all in the heart and worldly possessions mean nothing. A spiritual state of perfect contentment – rida – materializes. No longer bound by evil there is freedom to acquire spiritual qualities. The individual will is obliterated – the faqir no longer follows a way, he is a way by which things pass. Purity of soul is the mission of poverty and this is achieved by the highest category of mendicants or dervishes, who not only possess nothing and ask for nothing (the first category), nor no longer desire worldly goods, accepting only what is given (the second category), but who are so detached they can ask for something as the need is not related to the real self which they can clearly distinguish from the unreal self. Once free of attachment to possessions their actual possession does not hinder poverty. As a guard against evil influence and a means for making the world indifferent to him, the faqir may accept blame or condemnation – the stage of malamat; by God's grace this leads to spiritual perfection and closeness to God.

The fourth stage in a systematic account of various stations of the Sufi spiritual path.