They have become so. Interfering in people's dunyā (worldly affairs) does not affect them. (Ādāb, 16)
As for maqāmāt (spiritual stations); it is the servant's station before Allah in matters of worship. The Exalted Allah has said: "And for every one of us is a known station." (al-Sāffāt 37:164)
The stations are as follows: The first is intibāh (wakefulness), which is the servant's emergence from the bounds of heedlessness.
Tawba (repentance); after separating from things that lead to heedlessness, it is to turn to Allah with constant remorse and abundant seeking of forgiveness. Ināba; is to turn from heedlessness to dhikr (remembrance of God). As it has been said: Tawba is rehba (fear), while ināba is raghba (desire). It is also said: Tawba is outward (ẓāhir), while ināba is inward (bāṭin).
Warāʿ; is to abandon what is doubtful.
Nafs accounting (muḥāsaba); is to examine the excesses and deficiencies of the nafs (the lower self), and to check what is for and against it.
Irāda; is to strive and to abandon comfort.
Zuhd; is to renounce the lawful things of the dunyā and to distance oneself from the world and its desires.
Faqr; is not to possess property and to erase from the qalb (the heart) the love of things not in one's possession.
Ṣidq; is for the hidden and the manifest to be equal.
Taṣabbur; is to burden the nafs with what it dislikes. This station is the last station for the murīd (aspirant, disciple). After this comes sabr (patient endurance); which is to abandon complaint.
maqām/maqāmāt Riḍā; is to find pleasure in tribulations.
Ikhlas; is to remove creation from the dealings of the Real (God), that is, to act in every matter solely in accordance with the Real.
Tawakkul ʿalā Allah; is to rid oneself of the habit of expecting anything from other than Allah, and to rely solely upon Him. (Ādāb, 20)
Ḥāl (spiritual state) is so called because it is characterized by change, while maqām (spiritual station) is so named because it does not change and is established. A thing is, in its essence, a ḥāl, then it takes on the form of a maqām. For example, when the feeling of muḥāsaba arises in the servant's qalb, then disappears due to the dominance of nafsānī (egoic) traits, and then sometimes reappears and sometimes vanishes again. If the servant maintains the state of muḥāsaba, this condition persists. The disappearance of the state of muḥāsaba due to the emergence of nafsānī traits continues until divine aid arrives. With the help of the Real, the state of muḥāsaba dominates the servant and the nafs is subdued. The state of muḥāsaba envelops him with all its effect, becoming the homeland, place of stability, and maqām of the nafs... (The same applies to other states and stations.) (Jāmiʿ)
If this becomes continuous and firmly established in the servant, he is elevated from the station of muḥāsaba to the maqām of murāqaba (spiritual vigilance). When muḥāsaba becomes his station, murāqaba becomes his state. Then the state of murāqaba, due to the occasional dominance of error and heedlessness in the servant's inner world, leads to the dispersal of error and heedlessness. Allah supports His servant with His help. Thus, after murāqaba becomes a state, it transforms into a station.
The station of muḥāsaba only attains stability with the arrival of the state of murāqaba. When the servant is granted the opportunity (imkān) to ascend to the state of mushāhada (spiritual witnessing), his murāqaba becomes established and turns into his station. Mushāhada is a state that sometimes is hidden and sometimes manifests openly. Then it becomes a station, and the illumination of this station is freed from the veil of concealment (its becoming a station removes its hiddenness).
After mushāhada comes the ascent to the highest degrees, such as realizing fanāʾ fī-llāh (annihilation in God), attaining baqāʾ bi-llāh (subsistence in God), and progressing from ʿayn al-yaqīn to ḥaqq al-yaqīn. Then the state of ḥaqq al-yaqīn arises in the servant, tearing the veil that covers his qalb. This is the highest degree of mushāhada.
Maqāmāt (stations) are acquired (kasbī), while aḥwāl (states) are bestowed (wahbī). According to our arrangement, all are wahbī. The acquired are attained with the help of the bestowed, and the bestowed are attained with the help of the acquired. States are the fruits of ecstasy (wajd). Stations are the paths leading to ecstasy. In stations, acquisition and striving are manifest while bestowals are hidden; in states, bestowals are manifest and acquisition is hidden. States are heavenly and lofty bestowals, while stations are the paths leading to these bestowals.
Some Sufis have said: The station in which a servant finds himself is only completed when he ascends to a higher station. After that, by looking from the higher station to the lower one, he judges his previous station. Allah knows best, but it can be said:
While the servant is in a certain station, he is given a state from the station to which he will later ascend. Due to possessing this state, he realizes the manifestation of the Real in his current station. Whether he ascends or not, nothing else is given to him.
The servant ascends to stations through states. States, when one reaches the stations, are bestowals intertwined with acquisition. The state from a station to which the servant will later ascend is only seen when he approaches that station.
Again, the servant continues to ascend to stations by increasing his states. Thus, until tawba, it is seen that states and stations are intertwined. There is no virtue that does not contain both state and station. There is state and station in zuhd, in tawakkul, and in riḍā.
In maqāmāt (stations), acquisition is manifest, bestowal is hidden; in aḥwāl (states), acquisition is hidden, bestowal is manifest.
Tawba is the foundation and support of all stations, and the key to every state. It is the first station and is like the land for a building. Without land, there is no building. Without tawba, there is neither state nor station.
(According to the leading Sufis (Rihla)), a station is to fulfill all the rulings of the ceremonies (the outward and inward conditions and etiquettes of the present state). (Iṣṭilāḥ, 530; Rihla, 209)
The establishment and rooting of every characteristic in the person is part of the quality of the station... Some maqāmāt (stations) are such that a person is characterized by them both in this world and the hereafter, such as mushāhada, jalāl (majesty), jamāl (beauty), uns (intimacy), hayba (awe), and bast (expansion). Others are such that the servant is characterized by them until the moment of death, the Resurrection, and until he takes his first step into Paradise, such as khawf (fear), qabḍ (constriction), ḥuzn (sorrow), and rajāʾ (hope). With others, he is characterized until the moment of death, such as zuhd, tawba, mujāhada (spiritual struggle), riyāḍa (ascetic discipline), and tajallī (divine manifestation). There are also some that disappear when their condition ceases and return when the condition returns, such as sabr, shukr (gratitude), and warāʿ. (Futūḥāt, 1, 72)
It has been said: Ḥāl is the change of attributes upon the servant. If these attributes become fixed and permanent, this is a station.
If you ask, What is a station? We say: A station is to fully realize the rights of the present condition. The aim of its possessor is not the next station. This is adab (proper conduct).
If you ask, What is adab? We say: By adab, sometimes the adab of the sharia (the sacred law), sometimes the adab of service, and sometimes the adab of the Real are meant. The adab of the sharia is to fully observe the outward of the religion in the maqām/maqāmāt. These are the boundaries of Allah. The adab of service is, while advancing in service, to become annihilated from seeing what proceeds from oneself. The adab of the Real is to know what belongs to Allah and what belongs to oneself. The person of adab is one who is under the ruling of the moment or who knows his moment.
If you ask, What is the moment (waqt)? We say: The moment is to live in the present without looking to the past or the future. This is the understanding of waqt among the people of the path.
If you ask, What is the path (ṭarīq) according to the Sufis? We say: It is to fulfill legitimate rights in matters where concessions are not given, by means of strictness and concessions that are of the degree of strictness. Only those who possess strictness fulfill concessions of the degree of strictness. It is a mistake that many among the people of the path do not permit acting upon concessions. (Futūḥāt, II, 130)
Maqāmāt are among the things acquired by one's own effort. This effort is to fully fulfill the legal dealings from the sharia perspective. When the servant fulfills the dealings assigned to him and the types of spiritual struggle and ascetic discipline whose manner and times have been prescribed for him by the Lawgiver, and gives their conditions their full and perfect due, he becomes the possessor of a station because he has constructed its form as commanded. (Futūḥāt, II, 380)
The journeying in maqāmāt is not done by abandoning a station. Rather, it is by attaining a higher station without leaving the one he is in. This is not moving from this station to that station, but rather, in Sufism, one arrives at a station together with the previous one (i.e., when one attains a station, one attains it together with the previous one). (Futūḥāt, III, 220)
A station is to fully give the due of religious commands and required acts of worship. It is not correct for one who does not fulfill the requirements of his present condition to ascend to higher stations. Just as it is not permissible to move to the station of tawakkul before realizing the station of contentment (malaka), nor to move to the station of submission before fulfilling the right of tawakkul, so it is with other stations. By giving the due of a lower station is not meant to remain in it permanently, but to move on to others after fulfilling its right.
Most of the lower stations and their higher degrees and ranks are realized at higher levels. The aim is to become firmly established in that station so that it does not transform into another state. As with the names contented (qāniʿ), reliant (mutawakkil), and all other station names, the person is named by these qualities when he firmly establishes himself in the meaning of that station.