The Commanding Nafs

an-nafs al-ammarah

            And showing its walking, its world, its place, its state, its light or source of arrival, its qualities, its ugliness, and how to be free from it to ascend to the second station of the reproachful self (an-nafs al lawwamah),its walking towards Allah and its world, which is the world of the seen (alam ash-shahada), and its place which is truthfulness, and its source of inspiration, which is the Divine Law (ash-shari’ah).

You know from the previous explanation that the seven selves or souls (nafs) are one thing and are named by seven different names according to its qualities.  So there is the commanding self, the reproachful self, the inspired self, the secure tranquil self, the satisfied self, the pleased self, and the perfect self.

You also know that the expressive nafs is also named the heart, about which Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) says, “In this, there is a reminder for whomever has a heart.” [Q50:37]. What is meant by the heart here is not the piece of flesh, as you already know, but it is the Lordly Subtleness (al-latifa al-rabbaniyya) that when it becomes blemished by inclining to the [physical] nature and becomes established in following its appetites Its praiseworthy qualities change and are replaced by the blameworthy traits and it cannot be distinguished from those low qualities, except in form, and so the shaytan becomes one of its soldiers.

The qualities of the commanding nafs are: ignorance, greed, arrogance, conceit, anger, evil, envy, and harming others by the tongue or hand, and it has many other unpleasing qualities that have been mentioned before.  It is a cunning nafs about which Yusuf (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “Surely the nafs command to evil.” [Q12:53] and the Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “Your worst enemy is your self that is within you.”  This is because it fell into the darkness [of the physical] nature and cannot distinguish between reality and falsehood, or between evil and good.  The accursed shaytan cannot enter a human except through the venue of the nafs.

So, my beloved, beware and do not feel secure in the presence of your nafs, and do not help it or support it when someone attacks it because this [not feeling secure] can help the nafs remember that the shaytan is an enemy who wants to confuse and lead the nafs astray.  If you leave the nafs, you will realize its enmity towards you.  But if you submit to the nafs as it wants, then you will have all the unworthy qualities and ugliness.  This is why you must oppose and discipline the nafs by decreasing your food, drink and sleep so that you may weaken the animal self, because if you weaken it and abide by obeying Allah, then the noble, mighty, lofty, soul will be released from the nafs named “the commanding”.

In this station, let your dhikr be: la ‘ilaha ‘illa-llah while prolonging the la and emphasizing the “hamzah” of ‘il in ‘ilaha.  And beware of pronouncing the “hamzah” in ‘ilaha lightly because if you do, it will turn out as “yaa” and the word will become “layilah ‘illa-llah” and this is not the true Word of Unification (tawhid) and so there is no benefit in its repetition.  So, keep reciting this remembrance standing, sitting or laying down at all times including early morning and late at night.

Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) says in Hadith Qudsi, “La ‘ilaha ‘illa-llah is My fortress; whoever enters My fortress is safe from My punishment.”  And the Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “La ‘ilaha illa-llah is the best of adh-dhikr  and has the best reward.  The happiest of all people who will be granted my intercession is one who says it from the bottom of his heart.  There is no slave who says it and then dies except that he will enter the Garden.”  He (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) also said, “Renew your faith!” And when it was asked, “How can we renew our faith?” he replied, “Repeat the saying: La ‘ilaha ‘lla-llah because saying it removes any sin, and there is no action equal to reciting it; for there is no veil between it and Allah, and it reaches Him Alone.”

Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) says [in Hadith Qudsi], “I am with the good that My slave thinks of Me, and I am with him as long as he remembers Me.  So if he mentions Me within himself, I mention him within Myself; and if he mentions me in a group, I mention him in a group better than his.”  Also, the Messanger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “There is no charity better than the remembrance of Allah,” and he said, “Should I inform you about what is best of deeds, the loftiest in degree, and better for you than silver and gold?” They said, “Yes, please do.”  And he said, “The remembrance of Allah.” And he added, “When you pass by the meadows of the Garden, ascend.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what are the meadows of the Garden?”  He replied, “The circles of remembrance.”

This is why I say: enter therein, O seeker of salvation.  Enter to be saved from your enemy by being sheltered in Allah’s Shelter: la ‘ilaha ‘lla-llah.  Free yourself from the prison of [physical] nature so that you can attain the lofty stations.

Know that when the aspirant mentions la ‘ilaha ‘illa-llahla ‘ilaha ‘illa-llah by his tongue and is lifted from himself in its meaning, which in the unification of actions, this will remove the dark veils from his heart which have resulted from past sins, and he will witness with the eye of insight that there is no mover or one who brings peace and there is no giver or preventer or harm or benefit, except Allah.  He will experience this witnessing through direct tasting, and through a state, not through belief or thought.

Know that the experience of tasting and witnessing cannot be known except through the Essence of His Being.  One of its signs is that you will not find yourself hating anyone at all, and you will not harm anyone – human or animal, not even an enemy.  The effect of tasting and witnessing qualifies one with humbleness, politeness, and a continuation of delight in the heart.  It also has other songs manifesting the beginning of happiness, which is the unification of actions.

Discharge anything worshipped other than Allah from your heart because it is nonexistent, and close your eyes and listen attentively to your remembrance, abide with purity and beware of that which is forbidden [by Allah].

Know, my beloved, that you must know what you need from the science of jurisprudence (al-fiqh) concerning how to purify yourself and knowing how to perform ablution, and how to remove impurities, and the pillars of the prayers (as-salat), and everything else that is obligatory upon you.  You have to know the principals of the creed, such as, what is obligatory and commanded by Allah and what is prohibited.  You must not busy yourself with more knowledge than these basics before you purify yourself, before you discipline your nafs, and clean your heart.  In the beginning your need is to free yourself from the prison of your nature and polish the mirror of your heart in order to remove its diseases, which prevent it from understanding the subtle sciences.  This is because in this station, your mirror is rusted by the rust of arrogance, conceit, boasting, hate, desire, greed and envy, and other blameworthy qualities that you do not recognize in yourselfSo the most important duty in this station is to rid the self from these impurities which prevent the heart from witnessing the unseen.  This can be achieved by remembrance with energy and abundance, and by reducing your amount of food and sleep in order to narrow the passages of the shaytan.  This brings the heart closer to home by witnessing and experiencing the sun that manifests the reality of faith.  This station, and I mean the first station, in which the soul is called “the commanding nafs” is referred to in the Qur’an as “nature’s prison” and “the lowest of the low”.  So freeing one’s self [from this station] is very important.  This is why the heirs of the praiseworthy qualities (al-warithu-l-muhammadi) recommend abundant remembrance aloud to awaken the faculties from their heedlessness.

Therefore, practice the remembrance and stand at the door of the Law (ash-shari’ah) and bring the self to accountability every hour.  And put fear into your soul by reminding it of death from which there is no escape, and the suffering in the grave, and the terrors after it, and the torments of Hell because in this station the two states of fear and hope alternate.

When you cross this station, fear (khawf) changes into contraction (qabd), and your hope (rajah) changes into expansion (bast).  Then later contraction will change to reverence (khashya) and expansion to intimacy (uns).  And if you reach degrees of perfection, reverence becomes Might, and intimacy becomes Beauty.  But in this station, and I mean the first, in which the soul is called “the commanding nafs” you must remember the reasons for fear because this is more beneficial to you than hope, unless your fear reaches the degree of despair – then you must remember the reasons for hope, such as the vast Mercy of Allah, His Forgiveness, and His Generosity.

You must surrender to Allah and beg Him, asking Him to grant you salvation by His Subtle Gentleness and Excellence (‘ihsan: spiritual virtue).  Always invoke and implore Him abundantly, and do not grow weary from supplication.  Do not say, “Allah does not accept my supplication” because this cuts the aspirant from the Real (al-Haqq).

The Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “Prayer (ad-du’a’) is the marrow (the essence) of worship,” and Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) says, “Call Me – I will answer you.  But those who are too proud to worship Me will certainly enter Jahannam – disgraced.” [Q40:60-61].  Also, the Prophet of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “To whomever [the door of] prayer is opened, the doors of response are opened also.”  And he (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) also said, “Nothing revokes the decrees of destiny, except prayer.”  And “Prayer revokes the decree, and benevolence increases provision, and the slave is prevented from committing a sin because nothing is more noble to Allah than prayer.”

See, my beloved, how honorable man is to his Lord?  His Lord allows his prayer and direction to influence His determined decree, and allows it to revoke affliction, and to be of avail for those calamities and afflictions that are sent down.  Prayers are so honored by Allah that He becomes wrathful when a person refrains from praying.  He made it the essence of worship.  This is a favor and an honor from Allah to mankind.  Does it then befit you then, after being given this high honor, to run towards His enemies, the devils (ash-shayatin), and towards the lower world and its pleasures?  Can you be satisfied by being revoked as these devils are, and beings loathed as they are loathed, after you have knowledge of your potential as the best [in the whole creation] and that you are capable of the greatest vicegerency (khalifah)?

Before you, your father Adam was honored when Allah ordered the angels to prostrate to themselves to him, and they did all prostrate.  Allah taught him all the names, and so Adam became vicegerent for Allah on the earth.  Does what you run towards equate an atom’s weight of that which you have turned your back on?  Be alert, my beloved, and wake up from your heedlessness, which is causing your ruin and which abases and belittles you.  Come forward to the One whom you cannot be sufficed without.  Come forward before you are led by the chains of trial; for He has informed you saying, “My slave, if you approach Me by a hand-length, I will approach you by an arm-length; and if you approach Me by an arm-length, I will approach you by two arms-length, and if you come to me running, I will come to you rushing.”

Therefore leave procrastination, and turn away from everything that distracts you from your Protector, your Lord, Allah, and be sufficed with what you have in your hands, whether it is plentiful or scarce.  Abandon the ephemeral pleasures and busy yourself with what matters to you, and do not postpone repentance (at-tawbah), and do not delay coming forward to Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala); for you do not know how much of your life still remains.  The Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “Leave what is doubtful for what is not doubtful; for you will never lose anything that you have left for Allah.”  He (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) also said, “Leave the lower world to its people; for whoever takes from it beyond what is enough for him, his death shall take him by surprise while he is heedless.”  This means that whoever pursues the pleasures of the lower world earnestly and exceeding what is enough for him, he is, in fact, pursuing his own destruction, but he does not feel the destructive force yet.

My beloved, in this narrow and ugly station [of the commanding nafs], you must focus your prayer on freeing yourself from the constriction of the self to the vast realm of the Spirit, and let your aspiration (himma) and your pursuit divest you of all the blameworthy qualities and adorn you with the praiseworthy character traits.  Replace your pride with humility, your hate with love, and your ostentation with sincerity and faith. If you have fame among people and you like to have a high rank, beware of arrogance because its end is within the grave.  Remember that all people are the children of Allah, and that the most beloved among them are the most beneficial to His children.

Know that if you busy yourself with freeing yourself and replacing your blameworthy qualities, you will witness some of the marvelous concealed secrets that are treasured within the world of mankind.  This is why I ask you: Do you think of yourself as the tiny microcosm, and yet within you the magnificent macrocosm is “folded”?

The Blaming Self

An-nafs al-lawwamah

An exposition of its walking, locus,  state, its light or source of arrival (warid) and its qualities and the remedies used to rid oneself of it and ascend to the third station.

What I mean by this station is the station in which the nafs begins to be inspired to walk to Allah.  In this station, the soul’s world is the barrier, or world of the interval between this world and the first heaven of seven heavens (al-barzakh).  Its locus is the heart; its state is love; its source of arrival (warid) is the Way, and its qualities are blaming, conceit, boasting, criticism of others, hidden hypocrisy and the love of fame and leadership.  Some of the traces of the commanding nafs remains, but in spite of this, it sees the truth as truth and falsehood as falsehood, and even though it knows that these qualities are blameworthy, it is not able to free itself from them.  It has the desire to strive and to be in conformity with the Law (ash-shari’a) and performs some good deeds such as, staying up the night to worship, fasting, giving charity, and other good deeds, but these are contaminated by boasting and hidden hypocrisy. The possessor of such a soul, conceals the good deeds and acts for Allah, but loves other to find out about those good deeds.   He likes to be praised and thanked, but dislikes this quality and is unable to free his heart from it completely. If he does succeed in removing this quality from is heart, he will be sincere and also secure.

In this state, the faithful and sincere are still in great danger.  The Prophet of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “All people are ruined except the knowledgeable, and all the knowledgeable are ruined except the workers, and the workers are ruined except the faithful and sincere, but the faithful and sincere are always in great danger.”  This is because Allah brings them to accountability in accordance to the innermost sincerity of their deeds.  The faithful, sincere ones love their sincerity to be known, so this amounts to a hidden hypocrisy; and acting for the sake of being praised by others is a hidden idolatry which is totally condemned.

Know that is you have this quality you are in the second station and your soul is called “the blaming one”.  The possessors of this station are never safe from danger even when sincere in their deeds, as explained above.  This is the second station of the journey of “the ones brought near” (al-muqarrabun), [Q56:11; 83:21] the seekers who aspire to be annihilated (fana’) from themselves and to subsit (baqa’) by their Lord.  So they are commanded to die before their time; their Master, Allah says to them, “Die before you die.”  So they strive to die the death of the self with discipline and purification.

As for the righteous (al-abrar), who are the People of the Right Hand (ashab al-yamin), this is their highest dwelling and station. This is why it is said that, “The good deeds of the righteous are the bad deeds of the ones brought near” for the latter do not stop at this second station, but ascend from one station to the other until they reach to the seventh station.  There are five more stations after this one.  Know that the difference between “the righteous” and “the ones brought near” is that the latter are those who take the favor of their Lord completely and use their will to establish the rights of their Lord in slavery and servitude, seeking to please Him; whereas, the righteous, are those who stop with the favor [i.e. this station] and use their will for righteous deeds and to arrive at the station of certitude (yaqin) to gain the reward of being raised in degrees for their struggle.

Know that “the ones brought near” do not stop at this station because of its great danger; they continue to strive for its highest degree which is the degree of “sincerity and faith” (al-‘ikhlas). But the sincere ones are in danger and they cannot free themselves from this danger except by annihilating their witnessing of the sincerity by witnessing the Mover who is Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) through tasting (dhawq) and witnessing (shuhud).  This depends on the way they travel the road of “those brought near”, for the “righteous” cannot smell [even] its fragrance.

The Ones Brought Near acquire certitude (yaqin) through evidential experiences and through the unveiling (kashf) which Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) [made possible through] prescribed rituals of worship.  He made these acts doors through which those whom He wishes enter into His Presence.  They thus enter through these doors to Him, surrendering between His hands, looking with insight, and not looking at the rituals, or depending on them, or admiring them  because these rituals belong to the lower world.  Thus, they bear witness that Allah is the Bestower of grace upon them; for He opens the doors of worship for them and enables them to enter, and makes them worthy or being accepted [by Him]. One whose state is like this is in no need of sincerity, and it does not even cross his mind because he does not perceive any deed belonging to himself, so he is sincere in his action and does not see any deed belonging to any other but Allah.  Thus he feels annoyed by “righteous” masters because they have not yet arrived at this vision and they perceive themselves as the ones who brought their deeds into existence, so he asks them to free themselves [of this belief].  This is because they do not witness that Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) is the Creator of all Actions and so they complain about some actions and fall into struggle and weariness.

Their situation reaches the extent that even if they entered a locked garden, Allah would decree someone [inside] to harm them.  This is because they still have some human nature which demands boasting, conceit, envy, rancor, bad manners, enmity, hatred, and indulgence in seeking provision, etc.  All of these yield weariness and struggle.

You must be given an example that shows you the difference between the righteous and the ones brought near and how the former are struggling and the latter are at rest.  Suppose there is a large harmful tree with many branches.  Each branch produces a deadly poison.  Some people arrive and proceed to cut the branches, but they do not uproot the tree nor cut its water source so that they could be rid of it.  In the end, they are not completely rid of the poisons, because they cut what does not grow by itself, and the original source of growth, which is the tree, remains.

On the other hand, another group of people arrive and they cut off the water supply to the tree so that its branches begin to weaken and do not produce any poison; so they get rid of the problem and put themselves at rest without the need to repeatedly cut the branches, which would prove impossible to completely get rid of the poison because when branches are cut others grow in their place.

The tree is a similitude of the “hidden” of the human being and the blameworthy qualities are like the branches.  The poison is the outer effect of the [inner] blameworthy qualities.  So the righteous, knowing that these qualities are destructive for the human in the lower world and in the final world, strive to gradually rid themselves of these qualities, but they are unable to be entirely rid of any of them ever; when they free themselves of one quality one day, another appears the next day and they continue like this until they die.  This is because they feed their stomachs and strengthen their physical nature and their blood becomes more abundant so that ash-shaytan is able to take hold of them.  The Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “The worst container that the child of Adam fills is his stomach.  A few morsels are enough to energize his vigor.  If he must [eat] then let one third [of his stomach] be for his food, on third for his drink, and one third for his breath,” and he (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) also said, “Satan flows within any of you as your blood flows, so narrow his passage with hunger.”

There is no doubt that if ash-shaytan is enabled within a person and flows where his blood is flowing, that person will be covered with blameworthy qualities and he will be unable to complete the removal of any of them; and even if he removes some of them temporarily, it is not permanent.  This temporary removal happens only because of his fear when listening to the news of the states in the grave and the suffering therein, and when listening to the news of the Day of the Gathering which is the Day of the Standing for Reckoning.  But when this fear subsides the unworthy qualities take over again after having been temporarily halted because of his fear and admonishment about what will happen to him if he does not stop his disobedience and surrender to the orders of Allah.

As for the ones brought near, when they learn by proof and experience that the stomach is the source of corruption and the cause of the emergence of the unworthy qualities, they adorn themselves with the praiseworthy qualities.  They decrease their food and drink, and reduce the amount of time they sleep, and their talking decreases because one who is hungry and tired does not desire talking.  So they seek solitude, and no unworthy qualities remain in their hearts.  Those with realization [of the Truth] who are actualized by it (al-muhaqiqun0 say, “The ones substituted or transformed (al-abdal) do not become substituted or transformed except by hunger, lack of sleep, silence and solitude.”

If you understood the previous example and know the difference between the righteous and the ones brought near, then you know that the latter is a group of people who have no blameworthy qualities from their root to the extent that they do not even think about them.  This is why you see them void of depression and sadness and their hearts are at rest.  All creatures love them and do not harm them because nothing but good emerges from them.  In spite of this, there are some people who resentfully envy them, but they cannot harm them; whenever they try to do so, Allah protects them from the evil plot and transfers it to the chest of the cunning ones.  The ones brought near may not even be aware of these envious ones trying to harm them.  Allah suffices them and protects them from the distress of the lower world and the final world.

But if you are wondering if this [fact] contradicts some of the hadith, such as the Prophet’s saying, “If the faithful locks himself in a grove, Allah will decree that someone harm him therein” and his saying, “The Lower Realm is the prison of the faithful believer” and other hadith like these, then the answer is that these sayings refer to the righteous (al-abrar); and you now know their states and that they are accepted by Allah; for they are the ones who are aware of Allah and guard themselves against evil.  They are people of taqwa, nonetheless, they are not entirely free from the distress of their selves, and therefore they are not without weariness in this lower world.  However, Allah has promised to give them a generous reward in the final world.

As for the one brought near, they are few.  They are deeply drowned in witnessing the Real so that they forget the creation and they do not think of the pleasures of the lower world, nor the bliss of the final world.  How, then, can they be harmed, distressed, captured or enslaved?

So, my beloved, if you want to persist in travelling their road to free yourself of all pain and to have continuous rest, then continue traveling and follow their traces by ascending from one station to the next until you arrive at the seventh station in which you will see marvelous realities.  In fact, in each station, you will see what makes you rejoice, and allure you to continue your journey.  Ascension does not happen without striving and occupying yourself with the Names.  In each station, you will occupy yourself with a Name that is specific to that station.  As much as you are occupied by the Name, the road is shortened for you; and in as much as you delay and neglect it, the road will be lengthened for you.  So blame yourself alone. Jihad is an obligation and its reality is to abandon accustomed patterns of behaviors.  The accustomed patterns cannot be counted; nonetheless, the heirs of the praiseworthy qualities (wraith al-muhammadi) have determined pillars of the road and there is an obligation to establish these six pillars: 1) to decrease food; 2) to shorten sleeping time; 3) to minimize speech; 4) to isolate oneself from people; 5) to be in constant remembrance (dhikr); and 6) to contemplate Allah’s Signs (fikr).

Out of these six pillars, there are some that might be meant more for you than others, and beyond these six are also accustomed patterns that must be changed, such as some friends and evil companions.  But these six pillars are more important than all the others because if the traveler on the path to Allah establishes them with sincerity and faith, they transform him in a way that enables him to abandon all accustomed patterns.  Balance and moderation are required to be between transgression (tafrit) and rigid limitation (ifrat).  This is why the people of the path are advised to decrease food, not abandon it.  What is beneficial on this road is to eat only when hungry, and to not fill your stomach.  So you can abandon the habit of eating a noon and night meal, and if you do not feel hungry at lunch time or at night time, you should not eat.

The Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) used to omit the night meal if he ate at noon, and if he did not eat at noon he would eat at night.  It is required to abandon eating several types of food together, and to not eat [the amount of] two meals at one time.  This moderation can be difficult for the beginner; his self does not obey him, but he must oppress the nafs until it becomes satisfied with what we just mentioned.  You can begin by minimizing your amount of food and by pushing yourself to do what you cannot bear, even though this is unfair, but one does not rectify and return the nafs to the Real and to lawful food [without applying the opposite extreme in order to bring balance]. But if one finds a change in is disposition, he must take rest because swinging moods corrupts the states and stations, especially if melancholy overcomes you because of hunger.  Also if the traveler is ill he must stop striving until his disposition is rectified and when his illness disappears, he must resume his struggle.  This is because sickness is one of the great obstacles.

In this station, you must occupy yourself with the second Name, which is: Allah – Allah.  You must put a “sukun” at the end of the word “Allah” and this is how you should also practice the remembrance of all the other Names. [Note: the sukun in Arabic indicates silence and tranquility; the sign sukun is a little circle on top of the letter (°), which makes the sound of the letter uttered without a vowel]. This is what those who have realized the Truth and who have been actualized by it recommend.  You must do this remembrance in abundance because it will not benefit you and will not manifest any of its marvelous effects except with frequent repetition.  So you must remember the Name “Allah” abundantly while standing, sitting, and lying down, even in the early morning and late at night.  On your knees or standing are the most preferable positions for the remembrance.  Assign a particular time for yourself where you sit facing the direction of the prayer (al-qiblah), if you can, and then close your eyes, and remember Allah by this Glorious Name with force and with a loud voice, and raise your head and do not turn right or left.  Emphasis on the “A” in Allah, and lighten the “h” at the end of the word (sukun at the end).  You will not feel any effect if you do not put the stress on the “A” because you must actualize it and realize it.

Know that in this station you have lots of thoughts, suspicion and evil suggestions, especially if you do the remembrance in a moderate tone, so do it loudly and not silently.  If you remember with loudness and forcefully, then these thoughts decrease.   This Name is a Fire that burns all thoughts, suspicion and evil suggestions.  Occupy yourself with the remembrance and pay no attention to the thoughts.  Nonetheless, you will be unable to quickly free yourself from these thoughts because the mirror of your heart is directed towards something, that thing becomes engraved upon it, and so the pictures of the creatures, their actions, their good, their evil, their motion, their silence and their speech will be engraved upon the mirror of your heart. However, you hate this and you try hard to discharge it, but it does not go away unless you turn away from all people and do not see any more of their pictures, or hear any of their speech, and you turn away from all pleasures, so that you do not smell any of its odors, or taste or touch any of it.  Then, nothing remains in your imagination.  If you do not turn away from all of that, you will be clothed by these thoughts, doubts, and evil suggestions, and you will suffer from them; for in this state you are veiled by the creation from the Real.  If you are thirsty to be connected and to have direct divine communication (wisal), then abandon the creation and all its pleasures.  This is the struggle (mujahadah) that results from witnessing (mushahadah).

Know that this path is the path of exerting effort and of striving; so strive and gain what you desire, and far beyond what you desire.  Those who delay and neglect are obstructed on the road because there are many obstacles, the greatest of which is to find rest with people, feeling inclined to sit with them.  Whoever does not obliterate these obstacles that obstruct the road will not arrive at what he pursues because the goal is to oppose what common people are accustomed to.  So how can there be any hope to free yourself if you agree with people and indulge in their speech, joking, moods and the other characteristics of their gatherings?  If you desire the exalted stations, turn away from people, forget all of your friends and family, and be wary of all people, until they claim that you are insane – then you will find intimacy (uns) with the Real and you will see wonderous [secrets], if Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) so wills.

Exert serious effort and strive and discharge what remains within you of the traits of the commanding ego, such as conceit, envy, enmity, boasting and hypocrisy and of being cynical towards the servants of Allah, criticizing them inwardly and outwardly.  You will not be able to completely free yourself of these qualities except by avoiding people and turning away from them, inwardly and outwardly, to the extent that you do not have to be commanding good and prohibiting evil, a well known teaching in the Islamic religion.  This is because this duty requires gentleness, subtleness and humbleness towards the one commanded, and in this station you are not capable of doing this.

The Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “Whoever commands what is acceptable to common sense, must command with the well known manners of common sense.”  This is because what is important for your reality is to free the person [who you are commanding] from eternal destruction, but also to purify your own heart from the diseases that prevent it from witnessing the Real, because the heart is the locus of the Real’s sight.  Thus purifying the heart is an individual obligation that must be fulfilled so that one witnesses Him and speaks to Him without the sensory.

Make your supplication for the purification of your heart as follows, “O Discharger of hearts, discharge my heart t obey You,” and after its purification, “O One Who makes hearts return, turn my heart in accordance to Your Way.”  You must perform this supplication at sunrise and at sunset.  This means that Allah turns the heart from heedlessness to remembrance, and from laughter to weeping.  The purpose of this supplication is to ask for uprightness and straightforwardness on this path and in this station, by which I mean the second station of the secret of his saying, “The hearts are between the two fingers of the Universally Compassionate manifest to you.”  He is your Provider Who makes you forget the pain of striving.  So desire wayfaring [on the path to Allah] and abhor everything that is not Allah.   If you do not do what you have just been advised to do, then you will see only weariness and suffering.

If something of this secret manifests to you without struggle, know that it is the ego claiming a perfection that the self does not yet have; for it is one of her characteristics to claim perfection that the self does not yet have; for it is one of her characteristics to claim perfection just by hearing it.  ‘Umar Ibn al-Farid, on of the gnostics, said: “Strive to witness within you and from you what I describe: An [independent] tranquil quietness from the existence of my tranquil quietness.”

Vision (mushahadah) does not occur except with striving, so  strive against yourself and bring forth the treasures that are within you.  Do not accept triviality and mere verbosity; for whoever claims what he does not have, the proofs of trial will expose his lying.  So put yourself on trial and do not believe the self and be the one who brings it to accountability.  Scold and reprimand your nafs for everything in opposition to the Way and be its enemy.  Speak with your Guide (shaykh) and do not hide anything of its ugliness from him because the more you gain from the secrets of this way, the more likely the benefit will be yours; but beware of arrogance and pretention (al-ghurur).

Be truthful in your quest for medicine, and strive until the wonders and secrets of the heart become unveiled for you and until you enter the World of “Similitudes” (‘alam al-mithal) which is a different world from the one in which you now live.  No one knows it except the one in the station of the heart which is the end of the second station of the seven mentioned stations.  It is the first station of the ones brought near, in which the wayfarer beholds the affairs that are not comprehended by the five senses because the heart of the faithful believer is the Throne of Allah and the House of Allah, which means it is the locus of the secrets of Allah.

Be a follower of the Divine Law which includes the sayings of the Prophet  (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) created by the way and follow his actions – frequent hunger, little sleep and silence.  Whenever the Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) spoke, he spoke only good.  Nonetheless, he was mostly silent.  He would stay silent for long times and would laugh little.

Know, my beloved, that if you embody the ethics of the Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) and his states, and then act in accordance with this, the springs of wisdom will gush forth from your heart and tongue, and you will be traveling the path of the ones brought near, and so you will travel higher than the righteous and you will depart from them and travel to the Presence of the Mighty.  Your first house in this journey will be the World of “Similitudes” (‘alam al-mithal) which contains all the imaginary pictures between the density of bodies and the subtlety of spirits.  You will see what veils you, strengthen your himmah to travel, and increase your longing.  The fire of love will ignite in your heart, discharging desires of the self and the shaytan.  If any spiritual desire remains in you in this station, it is not harmful because what it required from you in this station is being cut off from the desires of the self, which are dark considering what is beyond them.

Know that entering the World of “Similitude” is only granted to the travelers on the path and it is a state that is intermediate between sleep and wakefulness, and it usually comes to the traveler while he is sitting, and it is called “the inevitable” (al-waqi’ah).  In this state you will see that your condition is that you know the place and time you are in, and you know that you are between sleep and wakefulness. If these conditions are not met, then it is only a dream and should not be counted [as vision].  Because this state is between sleep and wakefulness, sleep can overcome the traveler at the beginning, then he ascends until the wakeful state overcomes the sleeping state.  In this state, he sees spirits and thinks he sees them in a state of wakefulness, but, in truth, he sees them in the spiritual world.  Because his himmah is strong, this state is closer to wakefulness than to sleep, so he thinks of himself as awake.  It is in this state that Jibril came to the Companions [of the Prophet] in the image of a Bedouin.

In this state, called “similitude”, the spiritual being of the Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) is seen, so that it is said that so and so saw the Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) and spoke to him face to face.  This has an astounding effect that overwhelms the traveler until he is relived from it.

In this world, the true himmah is to see the Real (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) in the World of Similitudes.  Iblis can confuse the traveler in the matter, so the traveler thinks that he sees the Real, but the truth is that he saw his shaytan.  If this [spiritual] vision is followed by knowledge, gnosis, following the Divine Law, and embodying the ethics of the way, then it is a generous honor from Allah to His slave and it comes by true and correct himmah.  But if this vision is followed by an evil attitude, atheism, hypocritical holiness, and following low desires, then it is Iblis who comes to discharge the traveler from the way.

The Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “I saw my Lord, Blessed and Glorified is He in the Best Image and He said to me: ‘O Muhammad! What are the High Assembly quarreling about?’  I said, twice: ‘O my Lord! You know best.’ He then put the Palm of His Hand between my shoulders, and I found its coolness between my breasts, and I then knew what is within the heavens and the earth.”  The Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) then recited: “And in this way, We showed Ibrahim the Dominion (malakut) [of Allah over] the heavens and the earth, that he might be of those who are certain.” [Q6:75] Then Allah asked the Prophet again, “O Muhammad! What are the High Assembly quarreling about?”  And Muhammad (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “About the expiation of sins?” He said, “And what are the expiation of sins?” Muhammad (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “Walking on foot to congregations, sitting in the mosques after prayers, and letting [the water of] ablution reach its place to clean the blemishes.  Whoever does this will have a good life and will be cleaned of his sin, as clean as the day when his mother gave birth to him.  To attain the high degrees, one should offer food, extend the greeting of peace and stay up at night in worship while people are asleep.” He said, “ Say, O Allah, I ask You for goodness, to avoid the disagreeable deeds, and to be provided with good deeds, with the love of the poor. And I ask You to forgive me, bestow Your Mercy upon me, and accept my repentance, and if it is Your will to try people with distraction, let me not die distracted.”  Indeed, Allah has spoke the truth, and so did His Messenger (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam).

This is the true himmah because it follows the knowledge of all sciences and anything beyond this is no more than shayatin persuasion or influence.  This is because the purpose of this Path is to attain Godly knowledge of the sciences which come as a result of self cleaning and as a result of the purification of the heart.  Only then the heart is inspired with Lordly knowledge.  These inspirations must be in conformity with the Book and the Noble Way of the Messenger (as-sunnah). The sign of the purification of the self is freedom from anger, conceit, envy, boasting and the hatred of some people while being biased towards others without right but only from selfishness.  To the pure one, all people are equal, and he does not love them in a way that makes him inclined towards them more than towards the Truth.  At the same time, he does not hate people in a way that changes his inner intention towards them and that occupies him instead of being only occupied by the Real.

O traveler in this station, your greatest duty is to remove the lower desire for food and clothing.  If anyone sees, within himself, a desire for one type of food over another, or for one type of clothing over another, then he must strive and reduce the amount of his food and clothing.  But if all kinds of food and clothing become equal in his eyes, then it will be said that his self is purified and free of this evil.  This is the first degree of perfection because perfection is of many degrees.  In this first degree, the heart inclines more towards the holy world and the self turns away from the pleasures of the sensory world.  But as long as the traveler is inclined towards his selfish lower desires and does not discipline himself with practices, then he is not one of the travelers on the path of the ones brought near.  If he claims otherwise, then he is a shaytan, a confused one who has gone astray and confuses and leads others astray. The traveler must avoid such a person because it is feared that such a person will confuse them and lead them astray.

This is the path of opposing all the habitual habits which people have been afflicted with.  If one does not tear these habitual habits from himself, then the common patterns [of response] will not be torn from him.  You will not attain the high levels unless you turn away from the creation like a madman.  As long as an iota of inclination towards people remains in your heart more than your inclination towards your Beloved and your Goal, then you will not attain these high degrees.  Turn away from everything other than Allah, and do not sit [idly] with any human even if he claims that he is the perfect human.  Inside the heart, wisdom is like a candle in a house that has five doors.  If the doors are shut, the candle will remain luminous, illuminating the house with its light, but if the five doors open, then the candle is blown out and the house becomes dark.

Wisdom is like this inside the heart with the five senses.  If the person inclines towards hearing sounds, and seeing what is visible, and smelling what has a fragrance, and touching what can be touched, and tasting what can be tasted, then wisdom hides and light is shut out and the heart is darkened.  But if the traveler turns away from sensory things with the five senses by practicing spiritual retreats and seclusion away from people, and if he discharges all the selfish low desires, then the springs of wisdom will gush forth out of his heart and on his tongue.  This is the light referred to by the Prophet; he said, “If Light is sent down within a heart, it expands and widens it.”  It was said, “O Messenger of Allah, is there a sign for this?” And he said, “Yes, to be above the house of death before it is sent down.” This the realization that there is a direction of the heart towards the visible world which is the world of the five senses because the heart cannot be conscious of anything in the visible worlds except through the five senses.  On the other hand, the heart has a direction towards the world of the Dominion (al-malakut).

If the heart is inclined towards the visible world through the five senses then it is turned away from the world of the Unseen.  But if the heart turns away from the five senses, it is directed towards the world of the Unseen, and at the beginning of its journey to Allah the heart cannot be directed towards both worlds at the same time; if it turns toward one world, it will automatically turn away from the other; and the difference between the two worlds is great.  This is because the visible world is at the farthest distance from the Presence of the Real, and if the heart is completely directed from the Presence of the Real, and if the heart is completely directed towards this world, it is completely absent from the world of the Unseen.  In this case, it becomes the heart of an animal, and so you will find that the person is a slave to selfish low desires and to anger, and your find that he sleeps a lot and backbites, and scandalizes others.  These people always like to argue without calculating the consequences of the matter.

On the other hand, if a person is completely directed towards the world of the Unseen, by following the Commands and avoiding the Prohibitions, and by turning away from vain talk and from extra food and sleep, then he becomes attributed with praiseworthy qualities.  This means that his anger and desires are under his control and he manages them as he wishes.  He then becomes the perfect human (‘insan al-kamil), and, compared to others, he becomes the locus of the [Divine] Trust (al-amanah). This is because between the human being and the angels, anger and low desires are like a dense mirror for the common spirit.  If the mirror has a dark dense face, images cannot be imprinted upon it, and similarly for the spirit, it cannot be the locus of the epiphanies unless anger and desire are in their praiseworthy perspective, kept away from transgression and under the control of the intellect (al-‘aql) and the [Divine] Law (ash-shari’ah).  With these two qualities – anger and desire – the human being becomes ignorant and oppressive, but when he puts both of these qualities under the control of the intellect and the Law, these two qualities becomes a cause of [or the motive for] carrying the [Divine] Trust (al-amanah).  “Truly We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they declined to bear it and feared it, and the human being [undertook] it. But he has been an oppressor [of himself and others] and ignorant. [Q33:72]

If you know this, then you know that if anger and desire are possessed and controlled by you, then you become the vicegerent (khalifah) referred to when Allah says, “I shall place upon the earth a vicegerent.” [Q2:30] On the other hand, if you are owned by anger and desire, then you will become an animal in human form.  In fact, in this case, animals are considered better than you because animals are not obligated with duties and they do not face suffering in the grave or in Hell.  So exert your utmost effort, strive and practice hunger, silence, contemplation, remembrance and seclusion from people.  Then, you will be able to control your anger and your desires, and your chest will expand, and you will not experience any distress or depression; only then will your burden that bent your back be lifted, and nothing from your physical senses, which demand what is sinful will remain.  You will have eternal happiness in the end, and your reputation will be raised so that you enemies will revere you, and you will be saved from their cunning plots.  In this way, you attain happiness in the lower world as well.  Whoever is in this state is in the second station, which is not without boasting and conceit.  These two qualities are the two causes of anger because anger is a potential fire within the heart, like hot charcoal under ashes.  Conceit brings out anger, for conceit is a quality of the ego-self that emerges out of seeing the self.  So conceit is the reality of boasting.

As for arrogance towards others, it is the outer effect of the quality of anger because it emerges out of seeing the self that overcomes the possessor to an extent that cannot be controlled by the intellect nor by [outwardly obeying] the Law.   So the wayfarer becomes ugly, and there is no doubt that his inner image is uglier.  It is possible that anger is the fire from which Iblis was created because the Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said to ‘A’isha when she became angry, “Your shaytan has just arrived.”  ‘A’isha asked, “And you? Do not you have one?”  He said, “Yes, indeed, but I have invoked Allah in my supplication, so He has helped me to overcome him, and so he (ash-shaytan) has submitted, and he does not command me but to goodness.”

Allah has placed this quality [i.e. anger] in the human being from His wisdom, but when it is kindled for any [false] reason, the blood boils within the heart, and spreads within the veins, and rises to the upper part of the body, and then it pours into the face, so that the face appears red if anger is towards one whose rank is less, and yellow if anger is towards one whose rank is higher out of reverence towards him.  The Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) disapproved of anger in many ahadith like the one just mentioned.  So, whoever seeks salvation, let him free himself of this ugly quality, of which no one with a minimum of contemplative ability approves.  So you must cut its substance by its root, and by that I mean uprooting conceit and boasting; and you know that these qualities cannot be completely removed except by travelling the path of the ones brought near, by exhausting the self with hunger, sleeplessness, silence, seclusion, and by turning away from its habits and illuminating it with remembrance, and by contemplation and reflection, etc.  Also, treat anger by contemplating the meanness of your self and its weakness, knowing that whoever has such an inferior quality has no right to be arrogant towards another.  Know the reward of suppressing anger and frighten yourself with knowledge of Allah’s punishment and painful suffering.  Know that Allah has more power over you than you have power over yourself; so you must warn yourself of the consequences of anger.  When you feel angry at someone and you take revenge, there is no doubt that this person will become your enemy and will prepare to take revenge on you, even though he may be weaker than you at the time.  These thoughts, and fear and stress will occupy your heart; it would have been sufficient for you to have been clement during your anger so that you could have rested from these thoughts and from this distress, and you would have resembled the prophets and the messengers, even though you would have reached endurance and forbearance rather than complete clemency.

The Messenger of Allah  (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “Surely knowledge is attained by education, and clemency by endurance.  Whoever chooses good is given it, and whoever guards himself against evil is guarded.”  So, if anger attacks you, seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Iblis.  He (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) also said, “O Allah, Lord of Prophet Muhammand, forgive my sins and take away the anger in my heart, and shelter me from the confusing attraction that leads me astray.”  If you find yourself in a state of anger, then stand if you were sitting, and if you were standing, then sit down.  The Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “Anger is embers in the heart.  Do you not see how the jugular vein of any angry one swells and how his eyes become red?  So if any of you find something like that within himself, you must sit if you are standing, and you must stand if you are sitting.  If your anger does not go away, you should perform ablution with cold water, or you may take a shower, for nothing can put out embers except water.”

One of the Prophet’s supplications was, “O Allah, enrich me with knowledge, and adorn me with clemency, and honor me with taqwa, and beautify me with vigor.” So, my beloved, look with the eyes of fairness at the difference between anger and clemency, and choose that with which it is best to be attributed.  This is because it is your duty to perfect yourself, to clean and purify your heart, and to polish your mirror.  Remove all of the blemishes and corruption so that your heart is allowed to “be” and so that you become a true human being.  Use these prescribed medicines and heal your noble essence, to free it from psychological disease, which is greater than physical disease.

The most beneficial medicine is to remove conceit and boasting from your soul (nafs).  This is because by removing them, anger is removed as well because they are its source.  There is a medicine to cure the emergence of temporary anger, but its source, which is conceit and boasting, still remains.  Conceit and boasting are not removed except by cutting their supply, which is the filling of the stomach.  So strive against yourself with hunger and sleeplessness to free your soul from anger and its branches, such as rancor(hidq) and resentful envy (hasad).  This is because resentful envy is the result of rancor, and rancor is the result of anger.  Thus resentful envy is a branch of anger through envy, and all are blameworthy qualities.  The Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, “Resentful envy eats the reward of good deeds, just as fire eats wood.” The reality of resentful envy is hating Allah’s bestowal of favor upon another, so that the resentful envier wishes for the worldly or spiritual gift to be removed from another.  Allah (subhanhu wa-ta ‘ala) says, “Many of the People of the Book wish that, after you have come to belief, they could make you to be [among those who] cover up [the Truth].  They do this due to envy (hasad).” [Q2:109].

Know that resentful envy is the result of anger, but it has other causes such as the love of leadership and the cunning evil of the ego-self.  If the one who is resentfully envious knew the harmful effect of this quality in the lower world and in the final abode, he would immediately stop and he would surrender to his Lord and become one of the righteous.  The suffering of the one who is resentfully envious is exposed to Allah’s wrath, and he will continue to suffer in the Final World.

Know that the diseases of the self are many and no one can discharge them all except the truthful, sincere ones among the travelers on the path to Allah, the ones brought near.  This is achieved by striving against the self and by seeking the aid of Allah to struggle against the nafs, and against the shaytan, and against anyone who divides the road of the travelers to turn them away from their Lord, and whether they are a human, a jinn or a shaytan.  Almost everything in existence divides the travelers with jealousy and anger from the Presence of his Lord.  This is because shaytan knows that whoever travels the path with truthfulness and sincerity, will be the vicegerent who rules over them.  Whoever arrives at that state is Praised.  So resentful envy and rancor harm only their possessors.

It is the traveller’s duty to not pay attention to anything, and to not fear any of this because Allah (subhanhu wa-ta ‘ala) is nearer to him than anything else; he must not move an inch except by Allah’s Permission and Power because He is the Best Knower of the inmost secrets of the hearts and of the unseen, and nothing in the earth or in heaven is hidden from Him.  Allah is more merciful towards you than your own mother, and nothing comes from Him except pure goodness.  The evil that is seen is only evil in relation to the outer appearances; if you look to its inner reality with the eyes of realization, you will see that everything is pure goodness.  It is only named “evil” because it is unsuitable for some natural characteristics, but at the same time, it may be suitable for other natural characteristics.  This is why the People of Realization said that goodness is decreed first by the Essence of True Being, but evil is decreed second by the display of temporary harm.  But before the traveler looks at this magnificent secret, first let him exert his utmost effort and strive to purify his heart so that he sees [this secret] with insightful vision and experienced taste.  If you know this, then you have gained the knowledge of four things: 1) Knowledge that there is nothing beyond the power of Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) and nothing is difficult for Him; 2) Knowledge that Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) has full knowledge of everything; 3) Knowledge that Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) is the Most Gentle and is more Merciful than all those who are merciful; and 4) Knowledge that all the Actions of Allah are absolute goodness.

Whoever knows these four things and believes in them will not fear the resentful envy of the envious ones, and will not be terrified of anyone among the humans or among the devils.  My beloved, you must contemplate the meaning of these four things and direct yourself completely [toward Allah] without paying attention to anything else that does not concern you.  Your realization that Allah has power over everything should increase your aspiration (himma) to direct yourself completely towards Him, asking only Him, having certitude that He will respond.   Asking in this way is never turned down.  Your realization that He (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) has knowledge of everything, and that He is the Most Gentle and the Singularly Merciful, and that all of His Actions are pure goodness actualizes the station of reliance (tawakkul) for you, as well as, the station of satisfaction, longing (shawq), and love (mahabbah), and other stations of the Way in which you experience satisfactory and pleasing states.  And this helps you to ascend even further.

As for the third station, in which the soul is named “the inspired self” (an-nafs al-mulhammah), this is the station through which the soul ascends to the secure, tranquil soul, and then to the satisfied soul, and to the pleased one, and finally to the perfect soul.

Know that Allah has made it a rule that the ascent of the soul from the second station to the third station occurs only at the hand of the gnostic guide who knows the stations of the way, its states and conditions.  Nonetheless, it is possible for Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) to change His rule, in an exceptional case, to allow one with intelligence and understanding to ascend without a guide.  This happens when the traveler seeks Allah’s help, and follows what Allah commands, and when he understands what is within His Book, and follows the Messenger’s Way (as-sunnah), and adorns himself with the ethics of the Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam).

However, ascending from the third station to the fourth station cannot happen except with the breath of the Perfect Man (‘insan al-kamil) because the third station is the most difficult and most dangerous one; it is the station that unites good with evil, and benefit with harm, so that reality and falsehood can be confused, as well as sanctimony (zandaqah) and actual realization (tahqiq) – unless worship and following the Divine Law become his ethics, and he is noble with good potential, and he is sincere in his orginal quest, and he has aspiration (himma), and he has piercing and sound thinking, and is close to unveiling; for only then he truly sees the Real as real and  falsehood as falsehood.

The danger of the third station will be clarified for you.  As for the ascent from the fourth station to the fifth station, and to the sixth and seventh station, know that the travelers, except for a few of them, do not need a guide.  This is because Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) kindles, within the heart, a lamp from the Glowing Source of Perfection by which the traveler sees all the perfect qualities.  Nonetheless, his arrival to these stations depends on his himmah and on the granting of success that comes as a favor from Allah.  You now know that the fourth station is a station of perfection, even though it is the lowest level of perfection.

The Inspired Self

An-nafs al-mulhammah

An exposition of its walking, its world, locus, states, light or source of arrival (warid) and qualities and the remedies used to rid oneself of it and ascend to the fourth station.

In this station, its walking is upon Allah, which means that the wayfarer does not open his eyes except to look at Allah, the Exalted, because the manifestation of the reality of faith has permeated his inner being, everything other than Allah, the Exalted has become extinct in his vision.

The world of the inspired self is the World of Spirits, and its locus is the spirit.  Its state is ardent penetrating love (‘ishq) and its light or source of arrival (warid) is gnosis (al-ma’rifa).  Its qualities are: generosity, satisfaction, knowledge, humbleness, patience, clemency, enduring harm, pardoning people and encouraging them to become pious, accepting their excuses and seeing that Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) is holding everything by the forelock. [see Q11:56].  So the traveler has no objection to any creature.  Among some of the qualities of the inspired soul are: yearning, bewilderment, weeping, and contraction (qabd) and expansion (bast).  In this station, fear and hope are absent, and there is pleasure in the beautiful chanting of remembrance and delight in listening to it and rejoicing in Allah.  It speaks wisdom and knowledge and there are visions.

The Inspired Soul is called thus because the Real (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) inspires it with both righteousness (taqwa) and corruption (fujur) and it has begun to hear, without intermediary, the whisperings of the angel and those of the shaytan, whereas in the previous station it heard nothing because it was still close to the degree of the animals.  Because of this hearing, this station is seriously dangerous and difficult and the wayfarer needs a guide who can keep him away from the layers of dark ambiguities and direct him towards the Light of the epiphanies (tajalliyyat).   In this station, the traveller’s state is weak and cannot distinguish between Beauty and Majesty nor between what the angel suggests to him and what shaytan insinuates.  This is because he is not altogether free of his lower nature and what is demands.  It is feared that if he is heedless of himself, he will fall into Sijil, the Lowest of the Low [see Q95:4-6], by which I mean back to the first station where the self is called “commanding”.  He would then return to his old patterns of excessive sleeping and eating and indulging with people.  This may corrupt his faith and he may abandon obedience and commit sins, and then still claim that he is a man of the unity (tawhid) to whom things have been unveiled and he may claim that others who strive in obedience are veiled from this witnessing.

If his belief becomes corrupted like this, he will be destroyed with the rest of those who are ruined and he will join those who cover up the Truth and the polytheists.  At this point, the fire of his lower nature will rise within his heart and intellect (fu’ad) and will turn all the faith (‘iman) that is in his heart.  His efforts and suffering will be wasted and  he achieves none of his desires; on the contrary, he becomes a devil [or an evil one] who is confused and astray and who confuses others and leads them astray.  Satanic imaginations flash to him in glimmering ways and he takes them for Compassionate epiphanies.  This occurs after his human nature has weakened and his spirituality has become stronger, and after distress was removed from his heart and his relief was brought closer, and after there was only a little remaining for him to enter the Presence of the Mighty Sovereign, and after the good news of Unity came to him and he was able to strive for [his goal] and to abstract [or become divested by] Reality.

The reason for this disaster which afflicts the traveler as he comes closer to the station of perfection is that he is still not remote from the first station where the soul is names “the commanding ego”; and when because of his practices (riyadat) and self-discipline (mujahada) some of the veils are removed, the fear associated with them also disappears.  These veils prevented him from committing sins and encouraged him to obey.  On the other hand, his reduced fear does not encourage him to follow the Law.  This is why it is said, “O beloved, you must follow the guide who helps you to travel who is the inheritor (warith) [of the praiseworthy qualities], and if your ego suggests to you that you have ascended higher than him and that you are in Unity and he is veiled, then you must follow the Law and abide by the rules of courtesy more than ever.  You also must make it an obligation upon yourself to recite your al-awrad (pl. of wird) and restrain yourself with the binding of the tariqa.  This may become difficult for the soul because it is in a station in which it inclines to irresponsible liberty, making excuses, and carelessness.

What is required is to oppose the self until it is secured by the arrival of the fourth station in which the soul is named “the secured, tranquil soul”.  In this station it finds happiness in the two abodes.  In this world and the next it finds what delights the eye.  When the traveler sets his foot in this station, he is freed by the Help of Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) from all of the diseases of the soul because he has ascended to the first degree of perfection where the gentle breezes of Divine proximity and the direct connection and communication (wisal) [with Allah] are whiffed upon the soul and so that it transforms from mutability to mastery.

O seeker of perfection! Rise up and abandon the frivolities of the ego.  Beware of becoming arrogant because of what has appeared to you of unification (tawhid), and do not let this be the cause of your return or obstruction in your quest of lofty goals, but seek help in tearing whatever luminous veils still remain, and seek the Presence of the Singularity.   Do not turn in your way to the lofty flashes because they are [the luminous] veils that prevent you from approaching the Highest Essence.  These flashes may be the cause of your return to the level of the animals; so continue exerting the same efforts that led you to arrive to where you are now and to revelation.  Free yourself from this danger and your revelation will continue.

In this station, continue to do what you used to do; continue to keep night vigils by reducing your sleep and decreasing your food, minimizing your speech and secluding yourself from people.  Hold firmly to the garment of your guide, if he is one who is perfect, and you will attain his qualities.  You must inform him of all your thoughts, whether they are good or bad.  As much as your belief in him increases, your attraction to the World of Sanctity (‘alam al-quds) will increase, weakening the pull of your human nature.

In this station, you may think that you have more knowledge than your shaykh, but by thinking this way, you will deprive yourself of the supply of his spiritual assistance (madad).  Therefore expel this suspicion; for when you recognize him as perfect, then you enter his care with the himma to be freed by his hand; and so you must endure the pain of his [medicine], and be as a dead corpse in the hands of the washer.  Beware of being critical of any of his states, and if you doubt something, then repent from this doubt.  Sometimes you may find something that causes your doubt, for example, you see him reproaching his servant for breaking something of no value, or you see him showing annoyance at the loss of that thing.  In this case, you must expel any doubts because the states of the Perfect are not measured by the same scales as those of others, and none but Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) knows his inner reality.

If it does not become easy for you to verify the authenticity of a perfect guide, then you must heal yourself by following the Law, and you must abide by reciting the al-awrad of the Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam). Pray abundantly upon the Prophet (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam), always seek forgiveness, and accompany the righteous when you are in danger and the evil in your soul overpowers the good.

But if the good in your soul overcomes the evil, then be at ease and rejoice in the expansion (bast), and remove the fear which is a barrier between you and your shaykh. Remove all “otherness”, all thoughts and pictures that veil you from your shaykh.  This is why Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) says, “Turn away from those who abandoned Our remembrance and did not want but the life of this world.” [Q53:29].  Instead, in this station, befriend those whose quest is in conformity with yours.

This third station is one in which both good and evil are gathered.  So that if the good overcomes the evil of the traveller’s self then it will ascend to the high stations, but if the evil overcomes the good then it will fall into the prison of the lower nature and descend to the lowest of the low.  Then the traveler must accuse the self, and scold and belittle it with discipline.  The sign that good is overcoming evil in your soul is that you see your inner being filled with the reality of faith (‘imaniyah) and your outer being if filled with the Law of self-submission [to the Will of Allah].  This means that your inner being has realized that everything in existence moves in accordance with the Will of Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) and by His Decree, Blessed and Glorified is He.  On the other hand, your outer being must be in obedience, avoiding all major sins and most of the minor sins, whether they are sins related to your relationships with people or sins you earn when you are in a retreat.  This is the sign that good has overcome evil.

As for evil overcoming good, the signs of this is that the traveller’s vision of the reality of faith increases, but some of his human nature remains.  In such case, his outer being is not in conformity with the [Divine] Law and he will abandon devotions so that he may, unsurprisingly, commit disobedience.  This is because when his vision of Reality is strengthened, and he sees that his actions are flowing in accordance to the Will of Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala), he is veiled by the lights of the reality (al-haqiqah) from the secrets of the [Divine] Law.  He is constantly driven from the door of the Presence that unites both opposites.  In other words, he becomes veiled from witnessing the Real when he stops with the flashes (lawa’ih) that are in conformity with his disposition.  He then loses both his world and his religion.  So his evil continues to overcome his good, and he becomes a zindiq – one who rejects religion, and does not distinguish between human and animal.

I will strike an example that will help you to free yourself from the evil of this station in which you witness the overwhelming Reality but fail to see the complete truth of the [Divine] Law.   On the contrary, it is by this vision that you should be able to know that the [Divine] Law is the aspect of Reality and its secret.  This is the opposite of what you have misunderstood by reading some books and by hearing the speech of some people.  This example will explain to you how Reality is the inner aspect of the Law and its secret.

Assume there is a master who built a great house and within that house he put everything that a human being needs from the pictures of the lower world and the final world.  He put all good and evil in this house and assigned a door for each type of good.  He then informed his servant: It is my way to not let a certain type of good emerge from any door except this particular door.  He also assigned a door for every type of evil and informed his servants of that.  In other words, he assigned a door for good, a door for water, a door for flesh, a door for friends, a door to see him, a door to demonstrate his satisfaction, and a door to demonstrate his wrath, etc.   He assigned limitless and countless doors.  He then sent his servant as a messenger to explain the assigned doors to people so that they could take from what was within the house.  He sent him to give them the good news that whoever stands in front of the doors that are assigned for good and asks for it, shall get what the master assigned for that door, and that his master would be pleased with him.  He also sent him to warn them that whoever stands in front of the doors of evil and asks for it shall have what the master has assigned for those doors, but that the master would be angry with him.

One of the servants came and stood in front of the door of good, a standing of someone who is humble and insignificant, and he asked the master, himself, to favor him from is generosity; he did not see the doors as doors, but looked at the master as the very essence of these doors.  In this way, he did not ask for mere pleasure, and seeing the doors did not veil him from witnessing his master, and humiliating himself with begging.  At the same time, he did not pay attention to any of the other doors, or ask for their gifts, because he did not want to be impolite or to forsake what the wisdom of the master demands.   These servants are the ones brought near to the master.  They are his beloveds because they put everything in its right perspective.

The second type of servants did the same as the first, but when they stood in surrender to the master’s command, they began to admire themselves and saw that they were better than the ones who did not surrender to the master’s commands.  The master sensed that they were veiled, and he gave out the good he assigned for them, but did not bring them closer to his presence, in the way he did with the first type of servant.

As for the third type of servants, they did not stand in front of the doors, and so the master did not give out what he had assigned for them because they thought that the doors had no influence whatsoever or that there were no doors at all; for [they said] the giver is the master without a door and without a demand of any wisdom.  So the master discharged them from his presence because of their ignorance of his wisdom, and because they did not stand by his door, even though they claimed that they loved him, he disliked them.

Therefore servants are of three categories: those who witness the master giving through a door he assigned from his favor; those who witness the same thing, but also witness themselves; and those who do not witness anything except the master.

Know that the master is an imaginative comparison with Allah  (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala), yearning for reunion and rejoining the beloved, remembering the meetings with the beloved, and rejoicing at the beauty of the face of the beloved strengthens the traveler in his walking; especially if he sees himself retreating, then his heart breaks and his weeping increases.  How beautiful is this road and how beautiful are its states! How lofty is the station of its travelers and how many are the gifts bestowed upon them!  If they are in poverty, they are self-sufficient, and if they humiliate themselves, they are honored.  Their assets are humiliation and poverty and manifesting their helplessness, indigence and slavehood to Allah, their Beloved and Creator.

Know, my beloved, that while you are in this subtle and gentle station, the sun of direct experience has risen upon you, and the good news of perfection is approaching you, and the breeze of the divine reunion is blowing upon you.  Most of the dense veils have been removed from your heart and the uglier and most serious traits of your ego-self have also been removed.  This is because this is the station of the spirit, and even though the spirit is still veiled from witnessing the Beauty of the Real, and still has its share of what prevents arrival to His Presence, these veils are luminous veils and acceptable desires.  They seek to see the Real and ask for vision and reunion, because of the overwhelming love and longing and the bewilderment in love that demands asking for something before its suitable time.

This is the station of the passionate lovers delighting in humility and neediness, of the impatient lovers who are unable to bear separation from their Beloved.  So throw away constraint, do not pay attention to being shamed by people, and seek to lower your status in the eyes of people by always changing companions, so that people do not pay particular attention to you, and you are not of special value or regard to them and they do not remember you.  It is in this way, that the passionate lovers rejoice in ecstasy, and this is the sign by which the truthful are distinguished from the liars; for those who claim love are many, but the truthful ones are few.  The one who is truthful in love has nothing in his heart but his Beloved; he has forgotten all creatures and they do not cross his mind.  If they do not cross his mind, he will not cross their minds.

Know, my beloved, that one of the conditions of love is to surrender to the demands of the One Who is loved.  This is why, one of the lovers said: “You disobey God while claiming to love Him, [I swear] by my life, this is horrible behavior; If your love were true, you would obey Him, For surely, any lover is obedient to his beloved.”

Beware of slipping on the path, thinking that throwing off constraint means abandoning the commands of the shari’ah, as some confused people think.  Those people have gone astray and are leading others astray.  They are deviants (zanadiq) and have no true knowledge of Reality (al-haqiqah) nor of the Law (ash-shari’ah).  They abandon the ritual praying and the fasts, and they do not give charity, instead, they follow their appetites and act in disagreeable ways, and in spite of all of this, they still claim to be people of tawhid and lovers of the Presence of the Real (al-Haqq).  Struggle against them, for they have departed from the circle of the Truth and turned away from every religion sent by Allah upon His messengers.

Beware, my beloved, and do not be overwhelmed by the vision of shaytan.  Beware of doing anything in opposition to the Law, claiming in that ay to be humbled in the eyes of people.  Do not try to be humble by sin because this is a blameworthy action and is the cunning plot of shaytan to end your quest.  This is because a characteristic of prohibited action is the darkening of the heart and when the heart is dark, things will not be seen the way they are in Reality.

So, even if you were truthful in seeking that which might eliminate your fame in the eyes of people, you must still follow what is permissible by the Law. If you seek, you will find many actions, more numerous than sand particles, that will help you reach this goal [of humbleness], and you will clearly see that there is no need for any prohibited action, which when you perform it, it corrupts what you have been striving to reach.  Our goal is to guide you to know how to rectify your current affair, and to benefit you in a way that will enable you to cross the obstacles that prevent you from arrival, so that you can walk the remaining part of the road [safely].  The legal ways of throwing off constraint are made to remove the obstacles that prevent you from meeting your Beloved.   The obstacles are many, but to put aside the Law by lifting all constraint is not the right way.

Having luxurious clothes can be considered an obstacle because this demands of whoever is afflicted with this habit to try to have them, even through deception and fraud.  This obstructs the person from reaching his Beloved.  If they throw off constraint and wear whatever is at hand and easily obtainable, and concentrate instead on their Beloved, this will be a benefit of this condition.  In this light, you can measure everything that prevents you from the Presence of Nearness, and everything that turns the face of the traveler away from the Mighty Proximity of the Lord.

Know, my beloved, that in this station, stopping the making up of excuses is not as hard as it is in other stations because this is the station of the deep passionate love and it is easier for a person in this station to stop making excuses.  This was not mentioned in the previous station and it will not be mentioned in the next station because there is “particular advice” in every station. How joyous it is to do things in a legally sanctioned way!  How illuminating and rewarding!  How acceptable it is for those who possess sound intellects, even though it may anger the foolish and the insolent.

Know that when you completely stop making excuses, your ego, which obstructs you from the Mighty Proximity of the Real, dies.  Then you may hear spiritual voices (ruhanis) that command or prohibit.  Do not pay attention to them.  “Leave them alone, recklessly speculating and playing,” [Q70:42] and do not allow their speech to increase your joy or sorrow because their purpose is to divert you from your quest so do not occupy yourself, except with your Beloved. It is better for you to hear nothing, and it is most important for you to not listen because these things may stop you in your journey.  You may hear something that you have never heard before and think that you have reached the end of your quest; your aspiration (himma) may then abate and you may return to your lower nature.  This is one of the dangers of this station, so beware of it; and ask your Lord to help you to overcome whatever obstructs your path to Him, for to your Lord is your final end.  Do not stop with anything except Allah, and seek His help, and do not become arrogant because of what has been revealed to you.  If you become arrogant then you will be diverted from striving after it has become one of your qualities and your ethics, and after it has become easy for you.  Your goal is invaluable, priceless, and very lofty, but it has many dangers, and no one can arrive, except those whose himmah is great, and no one is guided to it, except one whose will [to arrive] accompanies him in all the stations.

In this station, the state of annihilation (fana’) comes to you to help you ascend from this station to the fourth station in which the soul is named “The tranquil, secure self” (an-nafs al-mutma’innah).  Annihilation (fana’) is a state that comes to the traveler to make him absent form everything that can be intellectualized (i.e. all sensory things).  It is a type of absence caused by absorption, not be fainting, or sleeping.  Every sense continues to sense, but it is affected; as if it is unconscious but conscious at the same time!  For example, the eye is distracted from what is visible despite actually seeing it.  The state of the traveler becomes like a man who is afflicted with blindness, and as he passes a friend, he looks at his face but does not greet him.  When asked: “why do you pass by me without greeting me?” He answers: “By Allah, I did not even see you because of my affliction!”

Similarly, the ear will hear sounds, but it is as though it does not hear; and so it is for all the other senses.  Even the intellect will be unaware of its contents.  This is a state very well known, but only by those who actually experience it.  And this is why one of the gnostics said, “My Lord stopped me and He drowned me with a gnosis that is not the opposite of ignorance.  For knowledge that is the opposite of ignorance is ignorance.”  This annihilation is  the first annihilation; the second annihilation occurs in the fifth station where the soul is named “the contented and pleasing self, or the satisfied soul”  (an-nafs ar-radiyyah).  As for the third annihilation this occurs when all the human attributes disappear in the Level of Singularity as was explained before when we identified the Real Certitude.  This third annihilation is the very essence of subsistence in existence (baqa’) as was said.  So the traveler annihilates, then annihilates, and then annihilates until his annihilation becomes his vigorous existence.

Know that in the state of the first annihilation, you hear the speech of the spirituals (ruhanis) [the angels and the jinn], but not with your sense of hearing, and you do not understand what they say.  When the state of annihilation subsides, and you return to your senses, you understand what they said through wisdom.  I refer to this secret by his saying, “Whoever sincerely devouts himself to Allah for forty mornings, springs of wisdom will gush forth from his heart and upon his tongue.”  These spiritual voices are called:  “the ringing of the bell”. “O Allah! You Who gives when asked!  Favor me and do not deprive me or deprive the lovers [of this extinction].  Do not make our share of it be suffering, and do not let our fortune be with ourselves.  Do not let this world be our preoccupation, nor the limit of our knowledge.  Drive from us everything that obstructs us from reaching You”.  If you repeat this [sincerely], asking for the annihilation (fana’), then you will experience this state.

There are six causes that allow the traveler on the path to attain this state [of extinction], and by which the transformed ones (al-abdal) were transformed: remembrance (dhikr), hunger, nights vigils, silence and seclusion.  The most effective cause of these six is hunger.  Therefore, O seeker of this annihilation, do not leave any of your practices, but strive in this station to do them, even when you find them difficult, and do not forget their benefits.  Do not be deceived and become arrogant by what appears to you of the flashes (bariqat), which you may not be able to discern whether they are divine or shaytanic.  As you now know that this third station is the locus of confusion and the traveler on the path cannot distinguish between the inspiration which comes from the angel and that which comes from Iblis.

Once a gnostic was asked, “Now that you have reached Allah, why are you still holding onto your [prayer] beads.”  He replied, “I will not abandon that which brought me to my Beloved.”  So do not be deceived O traveler nor become arrogant by what appears to you, and do not abandon those things which you have come to know to be pure and good; for it helps you, by Allah’s assistance, to walk the difficult parts of the path.  The ego is your enemy, so do not feel secure with it, even when you arrive at the high stations.  You must persevere in self-discipline and your practice; and strive so that your love (‘ishq) may increase, and your bewilderment in love may be strengthened, and you may rejoice in your state of ecstasy by your intoxication and longing.

Do not throw off the restraint of the shari’ah and beware because the station of passionate love is the station of intensive delight for the lover to the extent that he may not desire to ascend further even though this ardent love is a veil between him and the One Whom he has passion for, [the Beloved].  This is because the impassioned one does not want to free himself of the sorrow, distress and grief caused by ardent love (‘ishq).  On the contrary, he asks for the continuation of this state.

A most authentic impassioned one said: “If my survival is in my annihilation from Your annihilation, Then, my heart does not desire a house in which is my alienation.”

The state of passionate love (‘ishq) is acceptable to the impassioned lovers, even though, compared to the states that are higher, it is blameworthy.  So that when the perfect one (al-kamil) remembers that state of ardent love and its days, he regrets how he threw off constraints and was careless.  But with effort (mujahadah) and self-discipline (riyadah) this state becomes sincere, and its possessor is truthful in whatever love poetry he produces.  So, if he speaks, he speaks with whatever love poetry he produces.  So, if he speaks, he speaks with passion, and he moans because of what emerges within his heart and for his lack of effort and practice.  On the other hand, the one who does not practice or make any effort is not sincere or truthful, and his state is a deceitful state, and he is a liar, and his poetry is tasteless and has no effect on the hearts of others and it is repulsive to the ears.  The most authentic impassioned one, “Umar ibn al-Farid, informed us about these liars: “A group of people were exposed to fondness but they turned away From My company, and became too high [to accompany Me]; They were satisfied with mere wishes and were afflicted by their fortunes, They claim to have plunged into the ocean of love, but are unmindful; For they have been travelling in circles, and have not left their place Although they have made no effort to leave their place, they are tired; They have not followed My teaching; they prefer blindness over guidance.  Due of their envious selves, they are confused and have gone astray”

Because this station is the station of the spirit, and because the spirit is the locus of passionate love, it is associated with fondness and is overwhelmed with astonishment and bewilderment.  The secured wayfarer stays in it for long time because the lover is oblivious to himself and even to his Beloved; so busy is he with remembering His Name and with the delight of praising His Beauty and Goodness in his poems.  This happens when the state is one of expansion (bast); but when it is one of contraction (qabd) after expansion, and he awakens from the sleep of passionate love and bewilderment, his chest is constricted and he feels that his heart is about to be removed from his chest.  He is then humbled and quiet in a true state of humbleness and quiet surrender.  These two states alternate in the traveler until he ascends to the fourth station where he acquires firmness in love.  Expansion and constriction are then transformed into awe (hayba) and intimacy (uns).  These are two states alternate in the perfect one, and no one can know them except by taste (dhawq).

The difference between awe and constriction is that the soul is impatient with the second [constriction], but not with the first [awe].  As for the difference between intimacy and expansion, expansion overwhelms its possessor to the extent that it is feared that he may be impolite with Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala).  On the other hand, intimacy does not cause this.

In general one can say that fear and hope, constriction and expansion, awe and intimacy and Majesty and Beauty are two states, but the names of the two states changes with the persons who possess them and their stations.  If the one who has a commanding ego or blaming self experiences these states, then they are called fear (khawf) and hope (raja’); but if the possessor of the inspired soul experiences them, then they are called contraction (qabd) and expansion (bast); and if the possessor of the secured, tranquil soul or the satisfied soul or the pleased soul experiences them, they are called awe (haybah) and intimacy (uns); and if the possessor of the perfect soul experiences them, they become Majesty (Jalal) and Beauty (Jamal).  In conclusion, fear and hope are for the beginner, constriction and expansion are for the ones in the middle, and awe and intimacy are for the perfect one, and Majesty and Beauty are for the vicegerent (al-khalifah).

So, my beloved strive to ascend from where you are experiencing alternating contraction and expansion, so that you experience awe and intimacy, then ascend to experience Majesty and Beauty; this will put  you at rest because in this there is great goodness and bounty, not only for you, but also for your beloveds, especially in the state of the Majesty.  In the state of Majesty there is nothing that you will not be granted because you are the vicegerent of Allah on earth and you are truly and only His slave and servant.  So He is angry when you are angry, and He avenges when you avenge.  Then you see the effect flowing from your hand in the whole of existence with your own eyes without ambiguity, and your politeness with your Creator increases; you repent from all your sins and seek forgiveness for the heedlessness of your heart that [previously] diverted you from the station of slavery and servitude (al-‘ubudiyya), “So remain [on the] straight path as you have been commanded [Q11:112] until certitude comes to you.” [Q15:99].  In this state you are always facing perfection and Godly Attraction (al-jadhbah al-ilahiyyah) and this is better than the actions of the possessors of the burden [i.e. humans and jinn].

Do not be distressed or constrict your heart because you are on the good path, face to face with happiness, but when you experience narrowness and distress, be patient; for in this station, you are not yet free of distress because it is the station of the spirit and the spirit has a desire for freedom.  When the spirit is constricted, it wants to break the cage of the body and arrive in its true world, which is the World of Detachment, by which I mean the formless world, the world of infinite eternal power and possibility (‘alamu-l-jabarut), but the spirit is not able to do so in this station.  So be patient during times of constriction and bear its heat because in this heat is countless and limitless wisdom.  Without the fire of constriction and its heat the souls are not purified of the remaining traces of ugliness and corruption.  This is because good cannot be distinguished from bad except by Fire.

When you see that you are not upright or straight in your effort, but find yourself indulging in eating and sitting with people,  inclining towards their lowest ways, then weep for yourself and about what has happened to you.  Weep because of your descent from the highest station to Sijjin,[Q83:7] and to the lowest of the low.  Then, ask Allah to return you to where you were and continue to ascend towards perfection.   Many seekers do not remain upright and straight and their feet slip because they are not patient enough and later regretted their actions at a time when regret was no longer beneficial.

In this station, you must oppose yourself and be stubborn with your nafs; and when you see its [lower] natural inclination towards something, struggle against it and do not believe it, but when your nafs ask you for something from the Way, then obey it,  even if it goes to an extreme such as, increasing hunger, staying up at night, seclusion from people and minimizing speech.  Only then you must obey your nafs, even though there is no sincerity in this because the purpose of the nafs is hypocrisy, and hypocrisy is polytheism.  The traveler continues in this hypocrisy until he is freed by the Help of Allah  (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala).  The People of the Way say that it is alright to deceive the self in this state by promising it honor, generous gifts, fame and the love of the people.  This causes the self to strive and to abandon blameworthy habits.  Therefore one can say to himself: If you direct yourself entirely towards Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) with practices and effort, then uncommon things will manifest by your hand, but the way between you and Allah must be filled with action and effort to please Him and to purify the self of all unworthy qualities; your effort must be to adorn your self with perfection and with the best ethics.  Nonetheless, beware of some pictures and imaginings that appear to you and do not stop with them because they are obstacles that prevent your quest.

Know that whenever the yearning (himmah) of the traveler stops at one of the stations, its realities call to him to continue his quest.  “We are a trial so do not cover up the truth.” Some travelers do not experience any of this because of the truthfulness and sincerity of their direction towards their Creator and because their walking does not demand this.   Their hearts are not troubled by the difficulties of the trials and they do not stop with any cosmos. Those who received some revelation at the beginning [of walking] are prone to corruption and separation.  This continues until the One Who afflicted him shows him kindness and gentleness.

The greatest achievement of the traveler on the path to Allah is that as a result of his journey, his old blameworthy qualities are replaced by the praiseworthy qualities of his Protector which are acceptable, and this saves him from utter destruction.  This is because the purpose of this travelling is arrival to the King of kings and this arrival cannot be achieved except through the removal of the seventy thousand mentioned veils.  The reality of the veils is that they are an obstruction between the seeker and the One Who is sought.  So replacing the qualities advances the relationship; so understand.  This is one of the secrets so strive to replace your qualities and manners if you are longing for the Ultimate Beauty which is free of every limitation, including absoluteness.  Replace satiety with hunger, speech with silence, sleep with night vigil, and adorn yourself with poverty because hunger, silence, and sleeplessness, when met with idle talk and similar qualities, are some of the qualities of the angels and their opposites are qualities of the animals. The human being is between the angels and the animals; so be a true human, not a human animal, so that you may ascend with humanity beyond the angels.  Ascend until the mirror of your slavehood, and your insignificance, humiliation, and servitude, corresponds with the mirror of His Lordship (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala).

Complete perfection occurs when the slave is at the highest degree of servitude.  This is why it is said that the highest degree of servitude is a station which is particular to the Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam), and you cannot attain this highest degree; so do not covet it, rather, ask for a degree near to that highest degree.  If you know this, then you know that humiliation and humbleness is the elixir of happiness, and you will know that the secrets of Lordship are deposited within [spiritual] indigence, slavery and servitude.  So understand, contemplate and travel the road of humbleness and poverty.  Be one of the faithful slaves free from the bondage of all “otherness” because you cannot attain your goal except through slavehood (‘ubudiyya) and servitude [to the Real Alone].  Completion can only be achieved by the way described by one of the gnostics (Ibn’Ata’illah) who said, “Plant your existence in the soil of obscurity, for the fruit of that which grows from what has not been planted is never complete.”

Know that our Way is not suitable for anyone except for those whose existence has been wiped out; so bury your existence and hide yourself until the saying, “Die before you die” becomes true for you.  You have to embody this death, more than you embody the lower nature, to the degree that when the angel of death in charge of taking your spirit arrives to transport you from one abode to another, where the latter will free you from any remaining distress, the angel will greet you and be gentle with you because you have already offered yourself willingly to death, referred to in the worlds, “Die before you die.”  This is the annihilation (fana’) which I have clarified for you in this chapter.  It is a state in which no inclination remains in the traveler for either wealth, children, or any other thing, and where he has no fear of harm.  There is no doubt that this is the state of the deceased.  The world of the barrier, or world of the interval between this world and the first heaven of seven heavens (‘alam al-barzakh) is unveiled to the deceased, and also to the traveler; so also is the World of Similitudes (‘alam al-mithal) revealed to the traveler.  Both ‘alam al-barzakh and ‘alam al-malakut  are part of the World of the Angelic Dominion (‘alam al-malakut).  If the traveler enters the World of Similitudes he will witness what suits his potential, his receptivity and his readiness.

O beloved traveler!  If you are thirsty to arrive at these states your duty is to strive to attain them; for anyone who seeks something [with sincerity and aspiration] finds it by the Power of Allah, Exalted is He.  So, beloved traveler, seek help by the mentioned practices and effort, and do not be lazy about reciting the third Name, which is Hu.  There are special properties of the Names which are undeniable, especially the first Name (la ‘ilaha ‘illa’llah).   Most travelers know this.  If you persist in the remembrance (dhikr), Allah will illuminate an angelic lamp within you by which you will see the darkness of the commanding ego and the marvelous qualities of the soul, as well as its diseases.  With this knowledge, the traveler strives to empty the nafs, especially through the special effect of the second name, (‘Allah).  This name allows the traveler who is busy with its remembrance to leave the darkness of disobedience and arrive at the Light of obedience.  As for the special effect of the third Name, it is the manifestation of the limitless Essence, and the reality of faith, and the sacred gnosis upon the heart occupying it; the traveler desires the eternal life and abandons the pleasures of the lower world.

Know that the special benefits of the Names do not manifest except by abundant dhikr, strong loud dhikr, with courteous manners (‘adab).  This includes kneeling, or standing facing the direction of prayer (qiblah) if possible, with nothing distracting your mind, listening to your invocation attentively, with inward and outward purity, and maintaining your ritual purity (wudu’).  If, while maintaining courtesy in this manner, you are also upholding the shari’ah, then your state is sound.  So avoid impatience and restlessness if the opening is not forthcoming, for it must arrive, even if it takes a long time.  The condition of opening is rectitude (istqama) and the upholding of the shari’ah and the tariqah.  From time to time, remember this Name: la hu illa hu.  Elongate the a in illaaa and also the u in hu because it is a formidable invocation (dhikr).

During your remembrance address your limbs reminding them that there is nothing in existence but He (Hu), the Real (al-Haqq), Exalted is He, and that everything other than Allah is no more than His Qualities and Actions, and this is the true vision.  It is the vision of the perfect ones. If you keep yourself witnessing this continuously, then your state [of perfection] will never end.  This is the ultimate goal, and the possessor of this continuous remembrance is not veiled from the Real by the creation, or from the creation by the Real; and he is not veiled from the Unity by the multiplicity, nor is he veiled from the multiplicity by the Unity.  He witnesses the Real, Exalted is He, Outer (adh-Dhhahir) in the apparent phenomenon, and he would not witness Him as the manifest far above everything without the apparent phenomenon, as is the case of some [religious] monotheists.  Nonetheless, he would not witness Him as the apparent phenomenon (the Outward) without a Transcendent Manifest [Reality], as in the case of the veiled ones I have spoken about.  To witness Him both [far above and emanating the phenomenon]  is the witnessing of the perfect ones.

In conclusion, vision (witnessing) is of three types: perfect, lacking and scanty.  I have just explained the witnessing of the perfect one.  As for the witnessing of the monotheists: they have been taken by their vision of the Manifest, far above everything, and are consumed within the Manifest to the degree that they are not able to see any multiplicity in the creation.  This vision is lacking because it implies the nullification and suspension of the special effects of the Names of Allah, Exalted is He [i.e. they deny the active role of the Qualities as manifested in the creation].  Nonetheless, the possessor of this vision is excused because he is still in the third station, and is overcome [by it], for the third station lacks [perfection].  As for the witnessing of the beginners; their vision is scanty because they are veiled by the creation (al-khalq) from the Real (al-Haqq) and therefore they only witness the multiplicity of the creation.

As for the perfect one, he witnesses the multiplicity in the eye of Unity and witnesses they Unity in the eye of the multiplicity without either veiling the other.  So the perfect one is not veiled by the creation from the Haqq from the creation.  And the first degree of perfection is the fourth station, an-nafs al-mutma’innah, which I will clarify, if Allah so wills.

The Tranquil, Secure Soul

An-nafs al-mutma’innah

An exposition of its walking, its world, locus, states, light or source of arrival (warid) and qualities.

Its walking is with Allah.  Its world is the Muhammadan Reality (al-haqiqa al-Muhammadiyyah).  Its locus is the secret.  Its state is sincere serenity, or tranquility and security.  Its warid [for further ascension] is some of the secrets of the [Divine] Law.   Its qualities are: generosity (karam), reliance [on Allah] (tawakkul), forbearance (hulm), worship (‘ibadah), gratitude, thankfulness (shukr), contentment with destiny, and being patient when afflicted with difficulty.

One of the signs indicating that the traveler is in the fourth station where the soul is called “the tranquil, secure soul” is that he does not abandon his duty any moment of his time.  He finds pleasure only when he embodies the ethics of the chosen one (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam).  He is not serene except when he follows his teachings.  This is because this station is the station of mastery (tamkin) of the Eye of Certainty and of perfect faith (al-kamil), whereas the previous station was that of mutability (talwin).

In this station people are delighted to look at the traveler and listeners feel delight listening to him; were he to speak without ceasing, his words would never be boring or wearisome.  This is because his tongue does not utter a word except that which conforms to what the Messenger of Allah (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) said, without reading it from a book and without hearing it from anyone.  This is because his hearing was not sensory; he heard what Allah cast within his secret: “O My beloved! I am your Secret and you are My secret.”  When his disturbance calmed with serenity, and he drowned in the ocean of life and the courteous manners that gave him a sense of reverence and awe always.  Allah bestowed upon him veneration and charisma, manifesting [through him] the reality of the world in the cosmos, and the reality of annihilation (fana’) and the knowledge (‘ilm) [that comes from gnosis] of the meaning of His saying: “All things will perish save His Presence.” [Q28:88].

In this station, it is the traveler’s duty to meet with people occasionally to emanate upon them from the gifts that Allah has blessed him with and to share the wisdom within his heart. O perfect one! Go out to meet them and excel in giving good as Allah excelled good for you.  But set a time for personal retreat for yourself because this in this station, you are in the lowest of the degrees of perfection, so it does not benefit you to meet people all the time, for this will impede your ascension into the remaining stations, and by that I mean the fifth, sixth, and the seventh.  If you find benefit in seclusion, then be in solitude and if you find benefit in gathering with others then meet people.  The sign of the benefit of gathering is when all those who are present benefit from you by that which Allah has bestowed upon you from the heart’s gnosis, not from the knowledge in books.

In this station, busy yourself with the fourth Name which is “Ya Haqq” by mentioning it with or without the calling particle Ya.  Remember it as much as you can and do not pay attention to what appears to you and ask your Lord to not reveal anything to you which may cause your discharge [from the path] and stop you from serving Him and from standing at His door.  If what will be revealed to you is not protected by Him it will be the cause of discharging you from the Presence of Nearness because no one can dwell in the Presence of Nearness except the pure, faithful slaves and servants who are not deceived by or become arrogant by being exalted [to the level of] being able to pierce through supernatural phenomenon beyond what is common.  This is why you see that when Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) manifests some extraordinary event (karamat, miracles, etc.) at the hands of the protected perfect ones, they do not even sense it, and they do not know if a miracle (karamah) has manifested through them or not.

Know that when the traveler arrives at the Presence of [Divine] Proximity, all miracles are at his finger tips, but if the lower desire of the traveler asks for this manifestation before its time [has matured], and he demonstrates a pursuit of [performing] miracles, then he will exhaust himself, and be cut off from his pursuit, even if the supernatural event happened.  This will not benefit him in this world (dunya) or in the final world (akhirah) because these events are still part of this world.  When he realizes this, he will regret [his attachment to them], and weep, and withdraw from the station he exhausted himself in attaining.  Know that the soul that is raised up by these supernatural events is not ugly in itself because it has been honored by the generosity of Allah towards His slave.  Nonetheless, pursuing it and desiring it is an ugly quality that cuts one off from the Presence of [Divine] Proximity, which cannot be attained except through slavehood and servitude in which the secrets of Lordship are deposited.  Do not stop with any part of the creation because that will become your only fortune.

Know that in this station, you will lean towards litanies, recitations or invocations (al-award), and supplications (al-ad’iyah), and you will love the Presence of the Chosen One (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam), a love that is different from your previous love for him before you arrived at this station.  O faithful perfect believer!  Do not feel safe with your ego-self (nafs) in any station because enmity is implanted within its nature and cannot be trusted, and one is not secure from its cunning plots, even if it claims friendship.  This is because the human being is vulnerable and is exposed to many afflictions and difficulties during his life, and he is subject to corruption, so he must liberate himself from all destructive blemishes.

In this station, you may experience a wish for money to help you in serving Allah, and helping your beloveds.   This is not harmful as long as it meets the following conditions: 1) Your intention must truly be to help yourself and others to obey Allah; 2) Your heart must not be so occupied with earning it that it makes you heedless of Allah; and 3) When you earn some money you must not conceal it and appear to be poor.

In this station, you may also experience the desire for leadership and fame and your ego will whisper to you that you are able to guide others to spiritual maturity and to become a shaykh around whom people gather, so that by your hand they may be guided and you will be rewarded [by Allah].  Beware of this because it is a blameworthy quality of the self.

Nonetheless, if Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) establishes you in this station, and causes you to become known, and clothes you with the garment of a shaykh, without any effort on your part and without any desire or seeking this, then stand [in obedience] to the Order of Allah; for it is then better for you than seclusion.  The sign of this order is that your beloveds love and obey you.  And also that, when you look within yourself you do not see any distinction between you and them, but perceive them as better than you because you are indebted to them for their belief that they are lower and for their respect for you.  If you are in this state with your beloveds, then guide them, glorify and beautify the Path of Purification (tariq at-tasawwuf), humbleness and poverty for them, and lower the wing of humility to them.  Praise Allah for qualifying you for this station of which you are not worthy, and testify that it is His favor upon you.  And if you think that they are in your debt, then know that people of this field, and you must then abandon this place.  Separate yourself from them, and seek freedom for yourself from all the remaining blemishes and “otherness” because this is more important for your sake and for their sake.

Some souls are gentle and soft and by natural disposition (fitrah) and they have intelligence and nobility.  When these souls cross the stations, they pass through them easily, and when they arrive in this fourth station, they deserve to become guides because they are affable, gentle, and forbearing by nature, and while crossing the stations, they purified themselves of human turbidities.  For them there is no harm in guiding their brothers and sisters and prescribing for them the beneficial remedies of this Path under the previously mentioned conditions.  This applies in the absence of a more perfected guide because in the presence of a more perfect guide, the traveler should see him as a Divine favor that allows one to rest and to leave toiling to someone else.

Other souls are coarse and cunning.  When they cross the stations, and their blameworthy qualities are replaced by the praiseworthy qualities, and they arrive at the fourth station and become serene, they still do not qualify as guides because they lack the conditions necessary to guide others.   So, you who possess this soul, you must not hasten [for this], but you should complete your journey by ascending to the fifth station then to the sixth and the seventh station.

The stations through which the travelers ascend are seven: the first in which the soul is named “the commanding ego”, then the second in which the soul is named “the blaming self”, then the third in which the soul is named “the inspired soul”, then the fourth in which the soul is named “the tranquil, secure soul”, and some stop here and they do not count the fifth, sixth, and seventh stations because they consider only the naturally, pure souls (fitrah), which when they reach the fourth station are undoubtedly perfect and worthy of guiding others.

Know that when you complete the fourth station, and your soul rests in compassionate serenity [with the All-Merciful], then your feet do not slip from following the Book and the Way of the Messenger (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) (as-sunnah), not even the length of an ants step.  On the contrary you abide by the noble [Divine] Law, following the rules with your body, heart, soul and spirit.  At this point you find that your speech, your actions, and your states are with Allah, as He wills, not as you will.  It will be said to you, “O you soul whose self is at peace! Return to your Lord well pleased, well pleasing.  So enter [the ranks of] My worshippers and enter My Garden.” [Q89:27-30].  Then, forgetfulness of all the things of the world other than Allah overwhelms you, and you do not comprehend any of the affairs of the lower world or the final world except when it is present before you; when they are absent from you, you are absent from them.  This is because your heart is continuously contemplating the Beauty and the Majesty of the Real, and He is Allah.  “Truly I am Allah – there is no deity other than I – so worship Me and establish the salah for My remembrance.  Truly, the Hour is coming, though I have willed to hide [its time], so that every soul shall be rewarded according to its striving.” [Q20:14-15].

 The Satisfied or Contented Soul

An-nafs al-radiya

An exposition of its walking, its world, locus, states, light or source of arrival (warid) and qualities, and how to ascend from it to the sixth station.

Its walking is in Allah.  Its world is the Divinity (lahut).  Its locus is the secret of the secret. Its state is annihilation (fana’), but not in the manner of the annihilation previously mentioned.  The difference between this annihilation and the previous one is that the former is the state of one in the middle of the Path.

Know, my beloved, that when the senses are bewildered, so that they are unaware of the objects of perception, this is the state of those who are on the threshold of subsistence (baqa’) of those at the end of traveling.  Annihilation (fana’) here means the end of human qualities, in preparation for subsistence, until subsistence is reached.  The subsistence which then follows annihilation immediately is because the annihilation is the Truth of Certainty (haqq al-yaqin), which began in the previous station; the difference there being that  the human qualities remained.  In this station, these qualities annihilate until no trace of them remains.  This is why the traveler in this station is annihilated and his ego-self does not subsist as it did in the stations before this station.  Nonetheless, he does not completely remain with Allah, as will be the case in the seventh station.  This is the state that cannot be discerned except by direct tasting (dhawq).  However, a perfect guide may be able to explain it to a seeker who has himself reached [a degree of] perfection.

The qualities of this soul are: detachment from everything other than Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala), sincerity, faith, scrupulousness, and a contented acceptance of everything that occurs in the world, without the heart becoming agitated, and without resorting to spiritually to lift the harm.  This is because this soul is drowned in witnessing absolute Beauty.  This state does not prevent him from guiding and giving advice to people, nor from commanding them [with good] and prohibiting them [from evil].  No one listens to his words without benefitting from them.  His heart is occupied with the world of Divinity (lahut) and by the secret of the secret.

The possessor of this station is drowned in the ocean of politeness with Allah  (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala).  His supplication is never turned down; but out of modesty and politeness he does not allow his tongue to ask for anything unless there is an emergency; then he asks and his prayer is never refused.  He is loved and honored by people, and is respected by those of high rank and low rank because he lives in the Presence of Proximity.  “Surely today you are established [in a place of] trust.” [Q12:54] So people are obliged to venerate him even though they are unconscious of why they venerate and respect him.  He must then beware of inclining towards them, especially towards the oppressors among them, so that the fire of their traits does not touch him, especially if they excel in giving to him and he is poor; for the heart is inclined to love those who treat them well, but Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) says, “And do not lean toward those who unjustly oppress [themselves and others], lest you be touched by the Fire.” [Q11:113]

O beloved! Occupy yourself with your Lord, and do not lean towards the oppressors, for as long as you turn away from them and occupy yourself with your Lord, their yearning will increase.  And if Allah decrees a share for you in their money, it will reach you, even against their will.  So do not lean towards them or hope for anything that they possess.  Do not turn away from them if they come to you while you are in this station.  And even though there is nothing for you to fear from the cunning plots of the ego, caution is best; so be safe and beware.  Nonetheless, do not make people hate you and turn away from you.  The truth is that the one in this station has no choice, but to find rest in Allah because he has no other.  So if you see yourself inclined towards people, then know that you are not in this station, because the possessor of this station is on the threshold of authentic inner control and all outer events are under its authority.  How can he then incline or reply on anyone other than Allah?

In this station, occupy yourself with the fifth Name which is Hayy.  [One Who possesses life and over whom death holds no sway]. Repeat if abundantly so that your annihilation will depart and you will remain in subsistence by the Living One, and you enter the sixth station, and ascend from standing at the doorway to the houses of the Beloved.  As long as you occupy yourself with this Name, your annihilation will depart and you will remain in subsistence by the Living One, and you will be qualified by the perfect qualities, and this is the meaning of, “I become the hearing by which he hears and the sight by which he sees.”

Know that there are Names that are called subsidiary Names, and these Names are: the One Who Bestows Favors (al-Wahhab); the Opener (al-Fattah); the One (al-Wahid); the Unique (al-Ahad); the Self-Sustaining (al-Samad).  In this station, occupy yourself with the Names al-Fattah, or al-Wahhab together with al-Hayy, which I mentioned previously, to ease your progress to the sixth station, of which you are in dire need; your will hear marvels in it!

 The Pleased Soul

An-nafs al-mardiya

An exposition of its walking, its world, locus, states, light or source of arrival (warid) and qualities and how to enter the seventh station.

Its walking is from Allah.  Its world is the visible world.  Its locus is the Hidden. Its state is perplexity and its warid [for ascenscion] is the Divine Law.   It abandons everything other than Allah and is gentle and kind with people, encourages them to righteousness and pardons theirs sins, loves them and becomes inclined towards guiding them from the darkness of their traits and egos to the lights of their spirits; this is not the inclination experienced by the commanding ego which is a blameworthy quality.

One of the qualities of this soul is uniting the love of Allah with the love of people.  This is a marvelous quality that is not easy to embody except for the people of this station, by which I mean the sixth station.   This is why in this station the traveler is not distinguished from the common people in his outer appearance.  Inwardly, however, he is the essence of the secrets, and he is the role model of the best of people.  In his witnessing, he does not see and “otherness” as “others” for he is the circumference of Godly Knowledge, not the knowledge gained by books.

This soul is named “the pleased soul” (an-nafs al-mardiya) because the Real (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) is  pleased with it; and its walking is from Allah, which means that it obtains what it needs of knowledge from the Presence of the Living, the Self-Subsistent (al-Hayy al-Qayyam) then returns from the Hidden to the visible world by the permission of Allah to benefit people by what Allah has bestowed upon it.

Its state is perplexity which is mentioned in the hadith, “O my Lord! Increase my perplexity in You!”  This is not the blameworthy kind which exists at the beginning of the journey.

One of the qualities of the traveler in this station is to keep his promises and to put everything in its right perspective.  He thus spends liberally on the right cause to the extent that the ignorant think he is extravagant, or he may withhold a little when he thinks that the cause is not appropriate, so that the ignorant may call him the worst miser among all the misers.  If he praised someone who was not worthy of praise, then the suffering of that person would increase, and if he blamed someone worthy of praise, that blame would not prevent his right to receive [the intended blessing]; but his quality is to take the middle course in all affairs.

These are the state of the perfect ones, who possess hearts.  The quality of the perfect one is always balanced and does not lean towards excess or deficiency; this is a state that no one is capable of except one in this station.  This quality [of balance] is easy to describe by the tongue, but it is heavy on the heart during the time of trial.  Everyone loves this quality and loves to be attributed with it, but it is very difficult and there is almost no one who is capable of [embodying] it.

Know that at the beginning of this station, the good news of the greater vicegerency (al-khilafa al-kubra) begins to show itself, and by the end of this station, you are invested with it.  This is the investiture of, “I am his hearing by which he hears, and his sight by which he sees, his hand by which he strikes, and his feet by which he walks.”  This is the result of the nearness reached by voluntary extra practices (nawfl).  The slave’s effect is actualized by his complete absorption in the Real.  Understand this because it is very subtle and accurate, and beware of misunderstanding that can lead you to believe that you are the Real, as some unbelievers think. They read books about the khawass (the elect in contrast to the commonality), may Allah be pleased with them, but they do not understand what this means; they especially misunderstand the books of Shaykh Muhyid-Din al-‘Arabi, and their misunderstanding confuses others.

The realization (tahaqquq) of this station is when the traveler arrives at the station of annihilation, as mentioned before, and when his blameworthy human qualities are annihilated.  These qualities are the locus of his reactions and misery.  This annihilation occurs because he seeks nearness to Allah through extra practices, which are the discipline and effort against the ego, the greater jihad.

It is the Way of Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala), from His  generosity, to favor the traveler with an effective quality to compensate him for the loss of the annihilated quality by leave of the Giver.  This is the Truth of Certainty.  Beware then of following the path of those who are confused and straying, those who think that Allah, Exalted is He, is located in anything or that anything is located in Him.  Allah is far beyond being located within something and nothing can be located within Him.  The Truth is that these matters cannot be comprehended by minds.  If the mind tries to comprehend it, it falls into a hopeless state of infidelity (zindiq) and into covering up the Truth (kufr).  This is because these matters cannot be comprehended, unless by Godly Support, because annihilation (fana’) cannot be seen outwardly, so it cannot be measured or demonstrated.  The same can be said about subsistence in Allah (al-baqa’) and to nearness brought by voluntary actions (an-nawfl) and the nearness of the obligatory ones (fard).  What I have mentioned  in this chapter is only for the one in this station; this one will understand all that is mentioned and, moreover, he will taste it, if Allah so wills.

Know that the end of the station is when the traveler arrives at this Adamic form, which was the qiblah for the angels.  The traveler will be the reality of this form, the praiseworthy Muhammadan reality, which is Allah’s greatest secret, and which is the Lordly Subtlety.  This is the Ultimate Nearness to the Lord’s Presence.  If the traveler arrives at it, he is actualized by pure slavehood, servitude, helplessness and humility.  And he knows himself by these qualities, and knows his Lord by the Qualities of Lordship.  If one knows himself with humiliation and annihilation, then he knows his Lord with Honor, Might and Subsistence.  This explains the correspondence of slavehood and servitude to the levels of Lordship, and the engraving of the One in the helpless, as expressed in His saying, “Neither My heavens nor My earth contain Me, but I am contained in the heart of My faithful, believing, slave and servant.”

Whenever the slave knows his Lord through gnosis (ma’rifah), he knows the secret that is deposited in the reality of all things, which is mentioned when He says, “And He taught ‘Adam the Names – all of them.” [Q2:31].  Here we come to a place where expressions are too limited to carry the meaning of the secrets; exalted is Allah, far beyond equals and analogies.

If this [original] form is revealed to you, you will know that this is the greatest goal of the travelers, and it is the loftiest house of the ones walking [on the Path to Allah].  This form is the most precious thing in existence to the perfect ones.  Exert your utmost effort to seek it by being straight on the path, and by holding firmly to the [Divine] Law (al shari’ah), and occupy yourself with the sixth Name, which is the Sustainer (al-Qayyum), so that the good deeds of the righteous becomes the offenses of the ones brought near.  Be always polite by following the good manners (‘adab) of the [Divine] Law (shari’ah), the good manners of the Way (tariqa), and the good manners of Reality (haqiqah), and let neither distract you from the other, until you reach the seventh station, seeking to be actualized by the Adamic form, and by the praiseworthy Muhammadan reality.

 The Perfect Soul

An-nafs al-kamilah

An exposition of its walking, its world, locus, states, light or source of arrival (warid) and qualities.

Know, my beloved, that the walking of the Perfect Soul is by Allah.  Its world it unity in multiplicity and multiplicity in unity.  Its locus is the Most Hidden; the relationship between it and the Hidden is like that between the spirit and the body.  Its state is Subsistence (baqa’), and its warid is all the previously mentioned waridat of the nafs, and it combines all of the aforementioned praiseworthy qualities.

Know that the Name that occupies the traveler in this perfect station is the Compeller (al-Qahhar) which is the seventh Name. [O Compeller, the One Who imposes His wishes on the creation without resistance.]

This is the greatest station because the authentic authority of the Truth over falsehood is completed, and effort has reached its completion.  The possessor of this station has no other desire and has attained the good pleasure of Allah.  So all of his movements are acts of goodness, and is breath is an expression of power, and his authority is worship.  If people see him, they remember Allah, and how could they not be when he is the Friend of Allah and he is the friend [for you]?

This state begins in the fourth station; because the fourth station is the station of the common Friends, while the fifth station is the station of the special Friends (khawass awliya’) and the sixth station is the station of the Friends of the elite among the Special Friends.  Glory belongs to Him, there is no preventing what He gives and there is no giving to what He withholds.

Know that the Name the Compeller (al-Qahhar) is one of the names of the spiritual axis (al-qutb) and from this name, the Qutb gives from the gifts of the lights and the good tidings, and the seekers experience joy, happiness and attraction in their hearts.  It is the supply that the Qutb gives to the seekers in compensation for their remembrance and their directed effort towards their Lord.  The person of this station is continuously worshipping with his body, his tongue, his hand, his feet, and/or with his heart.  He seeks forgiveness in abundance, and is humble.   His joy an delight is in [seeing] people turn towards the Real.  He loves the seeker of the Real more than he loves his own child that came from his body.  He has plenty of pain, weak in his body and movements.  In his heart there is no hate of any creature, even though he commands to good and prohibits evil.  He manifests love to the family of love.  He is not taken away from Allah by any blame directed towards him; however he still shows aversion where aversion is deserved.  He puts everything in its place.  If he wants something and asks Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) for it, Allah does not turn his request down, but He responds in approval and grants it for him.  This is the state of the People of the Truth by Allah.

Listen, my beloved, and be absent from this world.  Be with the Word, with the owner of the Word, the most beloved, the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam), “Whoever is pleased with Allah as Lord and with self-submission (‘islam) as a Way to fulfill spiritual debt (din; religion) and with Muhammad (salla allahu ‘alayhi wa-salam) as a Messenger, has tasted the sweetness of faith (‘iman).   “This [sweet] tasting emerges from the joy of gnosis and from having knowledge of the Light, which Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) made dwell in the hearts of those whom He loves.  There is nothing more mighty or glorious than this Light.

The reality of gnosis is that the heart takes its life from the One Who gives life (al-Muhiyy).  Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) says, “How can you cover up [the Truth] about Allah when you were dead and He made you alive?” [Q2:28]. And He (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) also says, “To warn every living being who is truly alive.” [Q36:70] And He (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) says, “We gave them and their fathers the good things [of life].”[Q21:44].  If the ego-self dies, the lower world is removed, and if the heart dies, the Protector (Waliyy) is far away.

A gnostic was once asked, “When does the slave know that he has real gnosis?” The gnostic replied, “When he sees the Real with the eye of annihilating everything except Him.”  It was said that gnosis is the end of seeing anything else but Him; and anything other than Allah becomes more insignificant than a tiny mustard seed.  Allah says, “Say, ‘Allah’ and leave them.” [Q6:91] for whoever looks at Allah (subhanahu wa-ta ‘ala) will not look at this world (dunya) or at the final world (akhirah).  The sun of the gnostic’s heart glows stronger than the sun, and when its radiating light rises, it is more pleasant.

The sun of Whom I fell in love with has risen at night,

Illuminating everything so that if does not set;

The sun of every morning sets at night,

But the heart’s sun never sets.

Knowledge of certainty (yaqin) has three dimensions: 1) Knowledge of the Unity, and this is the knowledge of the common believer; 2) Knowledge with clear logical eloquence, and this is the knowledge of scholars and wise ones.  3) Knowledge of the Qualities of the Oneness of the Singularity, and this is the knowledge of the Friends of Allah, Exalted is He, and His chosen purified ones to whom He manifests what He does not manifest to those below them [in knowledge and rank].  He gives them miracles (karamat), but it is not permissible to describe this to anyone who is not one of its people.  Allah singles them out from all creatures, purifies them for Himself, and chooses them.   Their lives are Mercy (rahman)and their deaths are an aspiration (ghabtah) [for every traveler].  Blessed are they!

Knowledge has two dimensions: Affirming the Oneness of the Unity (al-Wahid) and the Compeller (al-Qahhar); and then there is the Knowledge, one step greater than perfect, which no one has a way to attain.