Alone, or in a Multitude

Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, the great student of Ibn Taymiyyah, gives his own explanation of the mufarridūn — the man seen extinguished in the light of the Throne. The word, he says, may mean either the muwaḥḥidūn, those engaged in tawḥīd who declare the oneness of Allah as a group, in jamāʿah, not necessarily alone; or it may mean furādā, the same declaration made by a single individual sitting in isolation. On his reading, then, the sitting of dhikr may be in a group or entirely alone, either individually or in jamāʿah. In another explanation he takes the mufarridūn to be those who tremble in reciting dhikru Allāh and remain in that state perpetually, unconcerned with what people say or do about them — for the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "recite dhikru Allāh," and told the believers, of the best of dhikr, "lā ilāha illallāh, say it as much as you wish, until people say of you, you are mad, you are foolish." Ibn al-Qayyim quotes this from Ibn Ḥibbān, from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal's Musnad and from al-Ḥākim's Mustadrak, and says: do not concern yourself with them.