The Path
Adab أدب
In the Rifāʿī tradition, courtesy is not an ornament of the path. It is the path.
“The whole path consists of adab”: every moment, state and station has its own. Adab covers the bond between sheikh and seeker and the rules of ritual; beyond these it is the sum of all good deeds and virtues — generosity, preferring others to oneself, renunciation and self-sacrifice.
It cannot be walked without love. The Pîr taught that love of God is reached through continual remembrance, reflection on His favours, closeness to His friends, obedience and prayer; and that all adab comes through following the Sunna of the Prophet, whose character was the Qur'an.
Adab in the Pîr's own life
The biographies give the Pîr's adab in concrete acts: he greeted others first, visited the sick whoever they were, fed the hungry, and spoke of himself as “poor little Ahmad.” The fifteen principles end the same way — simple dress, the character of the Prophet, leaving what does not concern one.