Zuhd (زهد) — Renunciation, Detachment from the World

Zuhd (زهد) is the maqam of interior detachment from the dunya — not hatred of the world but recognition that its pleasures are veils (hujub) over al-Haqq. Hasan al-Basri, the great zahid of Basra, taught that true zuhd is not poverty of the hand but poverty of the heart: the world may pass through the hands of the zahid without staining the qalb. Rabia al-Adawiyya carried this further, insisting that even desire for paradise is a subtle attachment. In al-Qushayri's classification of the maqamat, zuhd follows tawba as the necessary emptying that makes the heart a vessel capable of receiving divine tajalliyat (self-disclosures).

Cross-Tradition Resonances