The question of whether it will come or not has cast the ʿārifūn (gnostics) into ḥayra (bewilderment).
Indeed, that is the Real (al-Ḥaqq). The union (waṣl) of al-Ḥaqq, Exalted is He, does not admit of infisāl (separation). He does not first manifest (tajallī) to a thing and then veil His manifestation from it. For Allah, the All-Knowing, knows it as it is. His knowing cannot be contrary to the ruling of His knowledge. For the Real (al-Ḥaqq), in the state of union, is always together with the cosmos. It is by this characteristic that He is God. (Futūḥāt, TI, 469-470)
Union (waṣl) is the unity (waḥda) of the ḥaqīqa (inner reality) between totality (bāṭin-ness, inwardness) and manifestation (ẓāhir-ness, outward appearance). Because mercy takes precedence, this is also called maḥabba (love). In the sacred ḥadīth, "I loved to be known and so I created creation," this is also indicated (ishāra). It is also called kayyūmiyyat-i Ḥaqq li'l-ashyāʾ (the subsistence of things by the Real), for it binds and unites multiplicity. By means of separation (faṣl), the ʿārif purifies Allah from limitation.
Imam Jaʿfar Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq said: Whoever distinguishes between separation (faṣl) and union (waṣl), between motion and stillness, and understands their difference, has attained to the point of tawhid (the oneness of God). This is also called waṭanāt (1178).
This statement is also narrated concerning maʿrifa (gnosis). By movement is meant traversing the path (sulūk) so that stillness remains in the very essence of aḥadiyyat-i dhāt (the oneness of the Divine Essence).
The servant's stripping away of his own attributes and becoming annihilated (fanāʾ) in the attributes of the Real is also called union (waṣl). This is realized through the Names of Allah, Exalted is He. This is called iḥṣāʾ al-Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā (enumeration of the Most Beautiful Names). As the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said: "Whoever enumerates them (the Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā) will enter Paradise." (Bukhārī, Tawhid, 9, 118; Daʿawāt, 68; Muslim, Dhikr, 5) (Kāshānī, 50; Jāmiʿ, 103)
Union of separation (waṣl al-faṣl) is the gathering of what is scattered, the mending of what is broken, the transformation of difference into unity, and the manifestation of unity in multiplicity. For unity is attained through the ittiḥād (union) of its separations and the gathering of its diversities.
The vast separation (faṣl al-wāsiʿ) is the manifestation of multiplicity in unity. For multiplicity separates (faṣl) the union (waṣl) in unity, multiplying it through determinations (taʿayyunāt) that require the diversity of the manifestation of unity in various capacities, like the forms of a single face in different mirrors.
The vast union (waṣl al-wāsiʿ) is the return after departure, the ascent after descent. Each of us has fallen from the highest station, which is the very reality of the primordial union (jamʿ) of aḥadiyya (Divine Oneness) to the lowest place to be fallen into, the world of opposing elements (the material world). Some of us have descended to the lowest of the low (asfal al-sāfilīn) so that the lowest point could subsist, while others have traversed the path (sulūk) to Allah, turning toward the station of union (jamʿ), becoming adorned with His attributes, annihilated (fanāʾ) in His Essence, and thus, as in pre-eternity, attaining true union (waṣl, reunion) in post-eternity as well. (Kāshānī, 51; Jāmiʿ, 104)
Someone has said about union (waṣl): Union is that the servant sees none but his Creator, and that his secret and thought connect with none but his Maker. Another has said: Union is that the servant's thought is with Allah, his occupation is for Allah, and his return is to Allah. Yet another has said: It is the unveiling (mukāshafa) of hearts and the witnessing (mushāhada) of secrets. (Nabhānī, I, 236)
waṭanāt (Olb 3): Waṭanāt is that which makes a thing in the secret a waṭan (station) from among the Divine meanings. (Hujwīrī, 466)