الفنون النثرى, الوصایا والنصائح من الأدب الصوفی

Abstract

Bequest and Exhortation (Advice), owing to its tremendous legacy, is the most important genre, among the paradigms of Sufi Literature. The goal of Exhortation is the betterment of man in this world and hereafter. Prudence and unyielding ideology are outshining traits of the people who give advices or exhorts. Bequest is one of the oldest forms of Arabic literary arts, which flourished rapidly in Arabic language that contains the Kings and Caliphates’ advices, and of fathers to sons. Bequest was limited to proverbs and axioms in dark ages (pre-Islamic era), but Islam expanded its scope by including many other genres and different subjects in it. Now we recognize the genre of Bequest or Wills as being filled with the essence of Islam. Islam has lent vast variety of subjects to this genre of Sufism, such as; purification of self, parting oneself from worldly pleasures, insistence upon noble deeds which are source of salvation on the dooms day and increase the blessings, God’s clemency and the possibility of His acceptance for us, so that weould enter the paradise, etc. Therefore, when a Sufi exhorts, his aim is to prepare the human beings for judgment’s day, and to inculcate the spirit of piousness and goodness of conduct which is mandatory for the final salvation.