To Wear Wool

Traditionally, iḥsān went under the category of what is called in the West Sufism, or in the Muslim world taṣawwuf. The Arabic term literally means to wear wool. The idea was that some of the early peoples wore wool as a type of declaration of their position in the world. Wool is not a very comfortable garment; it is kind of rough. And so the idea is that there was a kind of: the world will be dealt with, in a sense, by really giving it up. There is an idea of zuhd, of doing without, of giving up. But the fundamental aspect of taṣawwuf is arguably related to this idea of iḥsān.

Now in the hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) is asked by Jibrīl: tell me about iḥsān. And he says: iḥsān is to worship God as if you see God; and if you do not see God, you know God sees you. This is seen within the Islamic framework as the highest level of human possibility. One is now an individual who is in the divine presence. Because of that, one's actions are no longer checked by outward social mechanisms. There is an internal mechanism that is working within the human psyche that is going to prevent one from doing that which will take one to one's destruction.

Looked at in materialistic terms, it is always really interesting. There was a man in New Mexico who was driving with everybody else at about eighty miles per hour. They saw one of the New Mexican police, and everybody slowed down except this man. He just kept zooming along at eighty miles per hour. The policeman turns on his light and pulls him over. He said: why did you not slow down like everybody else? He said: I did not want to be a hypocrite. The idea is: why is it that in the presence of authority, suddenly our actions are checked? Why is that? What is going on in the human psyche? Well, punishment. Nobody wants a $300 speeding ticket. There is one motivation. Reminder: oh God — speeding; and there is the authority, and he reminds one. That is probably a smaller percentage of individuals, but there are certainly some people for whom — wow, really going fast — the sight of the police officer reminds them of their actions. So there are many things going on.