Ḥurriyyat (freedom) is among the technical terms of the people of ḥaqīqa (inner reality). It is to be liberated from the universe and every kind of servitude it necessitates, and to sever all attachments. The sign of a free person is that the distinction between matters of this world (dunyā) and the hereafter falls away from his qalb (the heart)—that is, in his eyes, the affairs of this world and the hereafter become one and the same. The urgent demands of his worldly life and the deferred matters of his afterlife cannot dominate him.
Ḥurriyyat points to the final stage of realizing servitude to Allah, the Exalted. This is when no created being or anything else can possess you (mālik). Freedom for Allah's sake means:
When you are a servant, you become free. As Bishr al-Sirri said, as it is narrated: Allah, the Exalted, created you free. Remain as you were created in that ḥāl (spiritual state)! Do not show ostentation to your family when at home, nor to your companions when traveling! Act for Allah's sake and leave people aside!
Junayd also said: The final maqām (spiritual station) of the ʿārif (gnostic) is ḥurriyyat. (Lumaʿ, 450)
I heard Junayd say: You cannot easily attain sound ḥurriyyat. For this, something of the reality of servitude to Him must remain with you.
Bishr al-Ḥāfī also said: Whoever wishes to taste the flavor of ḥurriyyat and find rest (musterīḥ) in servitude should purify the secret between himself and Allah, the Exalted, from the world.
Ḥusayn Manṣūr (al-Ḥallāj) said: When the servant gives the full due of all stations of servitude, he becomes free from the weariness of servitude. He is tasked with servitude without any hardship or difficulty. This is the maqām of the prophets and the ṣiddīqūn (the utterly truthful). That is, the servant reaches such a point that even if servitude is difficult from the perspective of the sharia (the sacred law), he takes on worship without any hardship entering his qalb. (Qushayrī, 109)
Ḥurriyyat is to uphold the reality of ʿubūdiyya (servitude) to Allah, the Exalted. Whoever does so becomes free from everything other than Allah. (Iṣṭilāḥī, 536)
For a person to be attached to his Lord or to servitude through worship is more virtuous than being called free by being liberated from servitude to others, yet remaining attached to something else. For freedom is not realized by distancing oneself from Allah.
If a person is in the station of ḥurriyyat, he only witnesses the "other" (aghyār, that which is other than Allah). For a person is freed from dependence on them by seeing them. In this state, he becomes distant from servitude to Him. For a human being, the maqām of ʿubūdiyya (servitude) is more honorable than the maqām of ḥurriyyat, and being a servant is far nobler than merely performing acts of servitude. (Futūḥāt, 1, 697)
Ḥurriyyat is an essential station, not a divine one. For the servant, there is no absolute (muṭlaq) deliverance from bondage, for he is Allah's servant. ʿUbūdiyya does not accept emancipation. We also see this as impossible for the Real (al-Ḥaqq) in His divinity, for due to the existence of the servant, there is a relationship of master and slave between the Real and the servant.