Just as there is no place where God is not, there is no state where saintliness cannot find a place. Whether anchorites or wanderers, princes who retreat to the desert, merchants who abandon their shops and go begging by the roadside, there is in Islam no lack of vocations which take their impulse from renunciation and find their fulfilment in exile. But perfection does not come from these ruptures. The best stay where they are, since "He is with you wherever you are". They do not flee their condition, be they caliph or water bearer; sometimes it is their condition which flees them. Their retreat is the crowd, their desert is the public square. Conformity is their asceticism, the ordinary is their miracle.
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