Khalwa and Ṣuḥba

Khalwa (in the Awārif al-Maʿārif, khilvat) is retirement: withdrawal from other people for devotion. Its counterpart, ṣuḥba (suhbat), is companionship, the society of fellow seekers. The classical sources agree that both have their uses and disagree, sometimes sharply, about which comes first.

Two schools, one disagreement

Al-Hujwīrī, in his chapter on the doctrines of the Sufi schools, sets the two teachings side by side. On Bāyazīd:

As regards ethics, the doctrine of Báyazíd consists in shunning companionship and choosing retirement from the world, and he enjoined all his disciples to do the same. This is a praiseworthy and laudable Path.

— Kashf al-Maḥjūb, Chapter XIV

On Nūrī, who agrees with Junayd in conduct and stresses companionship:

He also holds that companionship is obligatory on dervishes, and that retirement (`uzlat) is not praiseworthy, and that everyone is bound to prefer his companion to himself. It is related that he said: “Beware of retirement! for it is in connexion with Satan; and cleave to companionship, for therein is the satisfaction of the Merciful God.”

— Kashf al-Maḥjūb, Chapter XIV

Al-Hujwīrī says he will treat the matter fully in his chapter on companionship and retirement. The two doctrines mirror the broader split described in Sukr and Ṣaḥw: Bāyazīd’s school and Junayd’s differ in temperament as well as in theory.

The Awārif: an innovation, and a sunna

Suhrawardī is more pointed than any other author here. In his chapter on audition, the patched frock and retreat, he writes:

Keeping khilvat (retirement) in the way of the softs is an innovation. In Muhammad's time, the sunnat was naught save suhbat (society) ; and its excellence excelleth other excellences.

— Awārif al-Maʿārif, Chapter V

(The text reads “softs” where “Sufis” is meant.) Yet in the same chapter he acknowledges that the Prophet kept khilvat before his mission: “through exceeding love for God, and sincerity of desire,” he “used to go to the caves of Hara; and there used to pass nights in zikr and in devotion.” And in an earlier chapter, he gives a balanced account of how the Prophet divided his time:

With perfection of hal, and of tamkin, Muhammad was not, all day, in men's society. For asking the aid of God's bounty, of mercy, he chose khilvat; for diffusing the mercy on the people, he chose society.

— Awārif al-Maʿārif, Chapter IV

From that example Suhrawardī derives a practical rule: “To the old men, the passing of their time in khilvat is best. To the youths, the house-assembly sitting in suhbat is better than khilvat.” A convent, he says, contains three kinds of people: “ahl-i-khidmat (men of service),” “ahl-i-suhbat (men of society),” and “ahl-i-khilvat (men of khilvat).” (Chapter IV) The rule is about suitability, not about one correct path.

What goes on inside

When Suhrawardī describes the practice itself, the list is short: “Little eating. Little talking. Shunning the society of man. Perseverance in zikr. Denying thoughts. Constant murakiba (fearful contemplation).” He adds, on the effect: “In the purifying of the interior, in the cleansing of the heart, in affecting nafs, — freedom from occupations, reduction of food, and continuity of zikr have perfect effect.” (Chapter V) The best-known example in Nicholson’s Studies in Islamic Mysticism is the cell of Abū Saʿīd:

He did not sleep by day or night but shut himself in his cell, where he had made an excavation in the wall, just high and broad enough to stand in, which could be closed by means of a door. He used to stand here and close the door and occupy himself with recollection (dhikr)

— Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism, Chapter I

Al-Ghazālī treats the matter as a test of love rather than a rule. In the Alchemy of Happiness, the fifth sign that a person loves God is that “he will be covetous of retirement and privacy for purposes of devotion; he will long for the approach of night, so that he may hold intercourse with his Friend without let or hindrance.” (Chapter VIII) But he is equally pointed against using solitude as an excuse: in his chapter on marriage, a saint who refused to remarry because “it was easier to concentrate his thoughts in solitude” dreams of angels asking, “Is this that selfish wretch?” (Chapter VII)

See Dhikr for what the cell was used for, and Shaykh and Pīr for the question of who should guide a retreat.