It is a supposition (ẓann). The observation (mushāhada) of a person in this state, since they are in wakefulness, derives from the spirit of yaqīn (certainty) and from the clarity (ṣafāʾ) of dhikr (remembrance of God). When the intensity (shiddat) of their ḥāl (spiritual state) passes and they return to themselves, their ecstasy (wajd) disappears, and only the knowledge of this ecstasy remains. From this, along with the yaqīn that increases through unveiling (mukāshafa), the spirit also benefits. This state varies according to the servant’s degree of nearness or distance to Allah and according to what their Creator (Khāliq) has enabled them to witness. (Lumaʿ, 386)
Wajd (ecstasy) is the regaining by hearts of the clarity (ṣafāʾ) of dhikr (remembrance of God) that they had lost. Tawājud and tasākur are two terms with closely related meanings; they refer to the efforts by which the servant seeks to invite wajd and sukr (spiritual intoxication), and to force themselves to resemble the truthful ones among the people of wajd and sukr. This is a state accompanied by such striving. The waqt (moment) is situated between the past and the future. (Lumaʿ, 418)
Wajd and faqd (loss) are two things that can be perceived through the senses. The meaning of the tawhid (oneness of God) of the common people is to affirm the One (Allah) with all His names and attributes, to declare this with the tongue, and to establish it in the heart so that it is verified there. This verification is achieved by affirming what He affirms, negating what He negates, and affirming for Allah what He affirms for Himself, and negating from Him what He negates from Himself. (Lumaʿ, 424)
Wajd is the arrival in the heart of a fear, a sorrow, or a meaning from the states of the Hereafter, or the unveiling of a state between Allah and His servant. It has been said: Wajd is the hearing and seeing of the hearts. Allah the Exalted says: "But it is not the eyes that are blinded, but the hearts (qulūb) within the breasts are blinded." (al-Ḥajj 22:46) and "He listened as a witness" (Qāf 50:37).
Tawājud is seen in those whose wajd is weak. Tawājud is the outward manifestation of what the murīd (aspirant, disciple) finds inwardly. The one who is strong is the possessor of composure and tranquility (tamkīn and sukun). As Allah the Exalted says: "The skins of those who fear their Lord shiver from it (the Qur'an); then their skins and their hearts (qulūb) relax at the remembrance (dhikr) of Allah." (al-Zumar 39:23)
Abū Ḥusayn Nūrī said: Wajd is a flame ignited in the hearts by longing (shawq). During this influx, a person immediately begins to tremble, whether from joy or from sorrow.
It has also been said: Wajd is destined to vanish (it is a passing state), whereas maʿrifa (gnosis, experiential knowledge of God) has no end and is lasting. (Taʿarruf, 82)
They have transmitted to us this poem of Junayd:
The one whose comfort is in wajd, his heart cannot be contained within himself
When wajd is in the presence of the Truth (God),
it is destined to vanish
Formerly, my wajd would excite me
But it separated me
from seeing wajd
This poem was also transmitted from another great walī (friend of God):
A veil was drawn in between
His power was humbled
by the superiority of forms
and all existent meanings
Can He be understood by existence?
It is a sign of crushing incapacity
Not even a particle of wajd can be understood
Only a faint form
Tawājud-wajd-wujūd
When that Mashhūd (the Witnessed One) appears
wajd veils Him
A troubled ecstasy fills my heart
In the state of wujūd (being)
Sometimes wajd would cast me into absence (ghayba)
The manifestations of that Mashhūd annihilated existence
existence and every meaning
Another has said: Wajd is a glad tiding that the Truth (God) gives to His servant by raising him to the stations of witnessing (mushāhada) Him. A poem from one of the Sufis was also transmitted:
How beautiful is the ihsan (spiritual excellence)
of the One who bestows wajd
With virtues and blessings that will annihilate existence
At the moment when wajd appears
I had no doubt left
By bestowing even greater ihsan
He will give me life
This poem is attributed to Shiblī:
For me, wajd is denial
unless it is based on witnessing (mushāhada)
In my view, the witness (shāhid) of the Truth (God)
annihilates the seeing of existence
Wajd is a state that comes to the heart without intention or compulsion. For this reason, the shaykhs have said: Wajd is a chance encounter (the graces and bestowals that the heart meets). The states of wajd are the fruits of the performed wirds (regular litanies). Allah increases His graces for the one who increases his wirds. (Qushayrī, 37)
Tawājud is the beginning (bidāya), wujūd is the end (nihāya), and wajd is an intermediary between the beginning and the end.
I heard Ustadh Abū ʿAlī Daqqāq say: Tawājud requires that the servant be able to bear what he receives. Wajd requires the servant’s immersion (istighrāq) in spiritual states. Wujūd requires the servant’s total annihilation (istihlāk). In this respect, the servant is like one who sees the sea, then boards a ship, then plunges into the sea.
The order of these states is: first intention (quṣūd), then arrival (wurūd), then witnessing (shuhūd), then tawājud-wajd-wujūd. (Lumaʿ, 1061)