Documents of the Right Word

Tasawwuf. Also, the Meshâikh-i-kirâm have said that the way
ended here. It is quite all right if you, too, know this state as the
last grade. Yet if you say that there are other higher grades, please
write to me, so that I shall visit you and attain Haqq ta’âlâ.’ ” In
his answering letter Imâm-i-Rabbânî wrote to this person, “A
person who has reached this grade has reached only a fourth of
the grades of heart. This state is to become Fânî (to attain Fanâ)
in the element of air, one of the four elements. Because air
contains (and penetrates) everything, he (the person in this grade)
sees air whereever he looks, and thinks that all this thing he sees
is Haqq ta’âlâ.” Most people thought this kind of tawhîd to be a
kashf and a hâl. However, the thing that reveals itself to the heart
is not a kashf. It is an image. It happens in the imaginations of
people who are preoccupied in this thought. As a matter of fact,
Imâm-i-Rabbânî states in a letter of his, in which he elaborates on
Tawhîd-i-shuhûdî and Tawhîd-i-wujûdî: “Tawhîd-i-wujûdî mostly
happens on a person when he meditates on Tawhîd very much
and when he interprets the word ‘Lâ ilâha il-l-Allah’ as ‘There is
no being except Allâhu ta’âlâ’. It occurs in the imaginations of
those who make dhikr in this manner. It is not a kashf or hâl
coming to the heart. A person in this state is quite unaware of
grades pertaining to the heart. When a man of Tasawwuf who is
in the right way is so much vulnerable to erring, one should
imagine the degree of deviation in the utterances of those
depraved people who have fallen into the devil’s trap.”
The Murshid is a vehicle transporting fayz. [He is like a tap
allowing the fluid coming from the basin, from the main source.]
How can one attain one’s goal if the vehicle is not a true one [if
the tap is not connected to the main source]? Then, for attaining
the rank of Fanâ fillâh it is necessary to become fânî in a Murshid
who is connected to the main source, [to attain his love and to
forget about everything]. To love a Murshid is to adapt oneself to
him. The fayz coming through the Murshid’s heart is received in
proportion to the amount of love felt for the Murshid. If one has
the luck of sohbat (being in the Murshid’s company), the fayz
received will be much more. When fayz comes, love of the mâsiwâ
[creatures] leaves the heart. Names of Allâhu ta’âlâ begin to
make tajallî [manifest]. Beqâ (annihilation of self) takes place
with these Names. Kemâlât and Esmâ-i-ilâhî (Divine Names) are
endless. Their tajallîs in the heart are endless. If the Râbita is
powerful and the Murshid’s outward appearance manifests itself
permanetly, the fayz will be abundant and it will be easy to receive
– 408 –