Jiva

MIND, MATTER AND GOD : JIVA, JADA AND ISVARA
M.M.NINAN
world the Sufi might expect to arrive at the stage of Illumination and thence proceed to the
unitive life in God”. (Jurji, "Illumination - A Sufi Doctrine", The Muslim World, Vol.27, p.129).
The whole of Sufism rests on the belief that when the individual self is lost, the
Universal Self is found, or, in religious language, that ecstasy affords the only means by
which the soul can directly communicate and become united with God. (Nicholson, The
Mystics of Islam, p.59).
“In the Sufism of the orders this ecstasy or trance-like 'state' is called a hal, though in
Sufism proper a hal more strictly refers to the succession of illuminations, through
experiencing which the Sufi progresses a further 'stage' (maqtam) towards the goal of
spiritual perfection.” (Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam, p.200).
“Such experiences are, to the Sufis, not to be regarded as hypnotic phenomena to
which the human spirit is susceptible in appropriate circumstances but rather gifts from
God confirming the Sufi's striving for his presence. Each stage reached by the disciple
is the result of his own effort, each experience is a token of the divine favour upon the
endeavour - "the hal is a spiritual mood depending not upon the mystic but upon God"
(Arberry, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam, p.75).
Sufi whirling (or Sufi spinning) is a form of Sama or physically active meditation which
originated among Sufis, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of
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