(arkān al-īmān; īmān bi’l-nubuwwa; mufassal īmān; mujmal īmān; maqāmāt al-sabʿa; the rank of ihsan; the light of iman; the light of islām)
Salvation in regard to the world is attained by renouncing worldliness. Yet, you have become tainted by it, he said, and added: O dunyā (the world)! You are nothing but a number of counted days; when some of these counted days pass, a part of you has melted away. When a part of something is gone, soon its entirety will also be gone. So do as you wish, it is up to you.
(Someone) asked him: What is the ḥaqīqa (inner reality) of your iman (faith)? (He replied:) I have not worshipped Allah out of fear of His Hell nor out of love for His Paradise, lest I fall into the position of a bad laborer. I have worshipped solely out of love and longing for Him.
Tawhid (the oneness of God) is a secret, and maʿrifa (gnosis, experiential knowledge of God) is birr (goodness). Iman (faith) is to preserve the secret and to witness the birr. Islam is to show gratitude for the birr and to submit the qalb (the heart) to the secret. For tawhid is a secret, and the servant attains that secret only through Allah’s hudā (guidance) and the evidence He shows him. Otherwise, without Allah’s support and hudā, one cannot comprehend it with one’s own intellect.
Maʿrifa is a grace and ihsan (spiritual excellence) from Allah. For, before the servant deserves it, Allah grants him iman-islām-ihsan.
For this reason, He has opened to him the door of blessing and ihsan, and bestowed upon him hudā. The servant has believed that all of these are from Allah. He has both granted him blessings and granted him the ihsan of shukr (gratitude) for that blessing. Without Allah’s tawfiq (divine enabling), the servant cannot show shukr to Him. This, too, is a new blessing and ihsan from Allah to His servant. Thus, the servant perceives Allah’s grace and preserves the secret. For it is only He who enables him to succeed in this. For the servant cannot comprehend the nature of His lordship. Thus, His oneness...