Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Sixth Fascicle

one. When love culminates, obedience becomes immaculate.
When the lover attains an obedience as flawless as the human
nature can afford for the beloved one, he becomes blessed with the
(ten gifts termed) Maqâmât-i-’ashara. [It is written in the book
entitled Neshr-ul-mehâsin, (written by ’Afîf-ud-dîn ’Abdullah bin
Es’ad Yâfi’î ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih, 698 [1298 A.D.], Yemen –
768 [1367], Mekka,) that the maqâmat-i-’ashara are: Tawba, zuhd,
wera’, sabr, faqr, shukr, khawf, rejâ, tawakkul, and ridâ.]
Alongside this (progress termed) Seyr-i-mahbûbî, the seyr-i-enfusî
as well as the seyr-i-âfâqî will have been completed. For, the
unfailing truth-teller, (i.e. the blessed Prophet,) ‘’alaihi wa ’alâ
âlihissalâtu wa-s-salâm’, stated: ‘A person will be with the person
he loves.” Since the Beloved One is outside of the âfâq and the
enfus and the lover will be with the Beloved One, he gets beyond
the âfâq and the enfus. Thus he leaves the seyr-i-enfusî behind,
too, and attains the greatest blessing of togetherness. It is owing to
this fortune of affection that these great people do not engage in
the âfâq or the enfus. Instead, the âfâq and the enfus adapt
themselves to them. The sulûk and the jadhba attach themselves to
these great peoples’ actions. Affection is these great people’s
capital. Affection requires obeying the Beloved One. And obeying
the Beloved One means obeying Islam’s commandments. For,
what the Beloved One loves is the Islamic rules. Then, the
symptom of a strong affection is a strict obedience to the Islamic
rules. Obedience to the Islamic rules (Ahkâm-i-islâmiyya) means
performing the (commandments termed) farz and avoiding the
(prohibitions called) harâms. A perfect obedience to the Ahkâmi-islâmiyya
requires ’ilm (knowledge), ’amal (acting compatibly
with one’s knowledge, performing the Islamic acts of worship in
manners dictated by Islam), and ikhlâs (doing Islam’s
commandments only because they are the commandments of
Allâhu ta’âlâ and only for the purpose of pleasing Allâhu ta’âlâ).
Spontaneous ikhlâs in everything said and done, in every action
and behaviour, falls to the lot of people called ‘mukhlas’. People
called ‘mukhlis’ cannot understand this mystery. It has been
stated: “People who are mukhlis [1] are in great danger.”
Let us resume again! The purpose in seyr and sulûk, and
therefore what is expected from jadhba and tasfiya, is to cleanse
[1] ‘Mukhlis’ means ‘(one) who tries to do everything with ikhlâs’; and
‘mukhlas’ means ‘(one) who habitually and spontaneously behaves,
talks, acts, and feels with ikhlâs’.
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