Many of them would not have the strength to interact with creation and, as a result, would flee so that they could be alone with their beloved; this is why many of them would spend long periods of time in seclusion. When one of them was asked, “Do you not feel the bite of loneliness?” He replied, “How can I when He has said that He is the companion of one who remembers Him?” Another said, “How can one feel the bite of loneliness when he is with Allāh?” Yet another said, “Whoever feels the bite of loneliness when alone does so because of his lack of solace with his Lord.”
Yaḥyā ibn Mu’ādh would frequently seclude and isolate himself, when his brother censured him for this by saying, “If you are a man amongst men, you need the company of men,” he replied, “If you are a man amongst men, you are in need of Allāh.” It was once asked of him, “You have migrated from the people, with whom do you live?” He replied, “With the One for whose sake I migrated.” Ghāzwan was once censured for his seclusion to which he said, “I attain relief in my heart by sitting with One who meets my needs.”
Because they are regarded to be strange, it is possible that some of them be accused of insanity just as Owais was accused. Abū Muslim al-Khawlānī would frequently perform dhikr; his tongue would always move in the remembrance of Allāh and so a man asked one of his companions, “Is your friend mad?” Abū Muslim replied, “My brother, no, rather this is the cure for madness!” al-Ḥasan said, while describing them, “When the ignoramus looks at them, he thinks them ill, yet far are they from illness! He would say they have lost their minds, indeed they have lost their minds to a great matter, far loftier than their accusations, by Allāh they are busied with it from your worldly lot!” It is in this regard that the poet said,
By love’s sanctity! I find none to replace You,
O Master! I have no objective save You.
Talking about You makes them say, ‘He has a malady!’
I say, ‘May that malady never leave me!’
Footnotes
- Source: Kashf al-Kurbah | Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī
- Transcribed from: The Legacy of the Prophet: An explanation of his advice to ibn ‘Abbās; being a translation of his Nūru’l-Iqtibās fī Mishkāt Waṣiyyah al-Nabī li’bn ‘Abbās | Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī
Tawheed First 
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