And he is subject to punishment (ʿiqāb), happiness (saʿāda) and wretchedness (shaqāwa) come to him. The animal soul (ḥaywānī rūḥ) follows him in everything and is always with him.
To know the reality of the qalb (the heart) and to recognize its attributes is the key to maʿrifatullāh (maʿrifa, experiential knowledge of God). In order to know it, you must strive (mujāhada). For it is a precious essence of the same kind as the essence of the angels. Its true origin is in the Divine Presence; it has come from there and will return there. (Kīmiyā, 5)
The wondrous states of the qalb: Know that the heart has two doors opening to knowledge. One opens to the world of dreams, the other to the external world called the waking world (dunyā). When a person sleeps, the gates of his senses (the doors of the sense organs) are closed, and in their place, the inner gate opens to him; a world of the unseen (ʿālam al-malakūt) like light from the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ (the Preserved Tablet) is revealed. Most often, dream interpretation is needed to discover it. As for what is manifest, people think it can be seen while awake, and that what is seen while awake is superior in maʿrifa. However, nothing from the unseen world is seen while awake. What is seen between sleep and wakefulness is, in terms of maʿrifa, better than what is seen with the senses. (Kīmiyā, 11)
The qalb is like a mirror, and the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ is also like a mirror, for every form exists there. When one mirror faces another, the forms in one pass to the other, and thus the forms in the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ are seen in the qalb, provided it is not filled with worldly desires (shahwa). If the qalb is preoccupied with worldly shahwa, the world of malakūt is closed to it. In sleep, when the senses are cut off, the essences of the malakūt emerge and some forms from the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ appear in the qalb. If the gates of the senses are closed, what follows is imagination (khayāl). Therefore, what is seen remains under a veil, and the qalb is not as true and clear as reality. If the qalb dies with its owner, neither imagination nor sensation remains. At that time, one sees clearly without illusion or imagination. (Kīmiyā, 12)
Seyr (walking the path of Sufism [taṣawwuf]) is the journey of the qalb... (Fath, 30)
Tawhid (the oneness of God) is in the qalb, zuhd (asceticism) is in the qalb, taqwa (God-consciousness) is in the qalb, maʿrifa is in the qalb, knowing the Truth is in the qalb, loving the Most High is in the qalb, drawing near to Him is in the qalb. (Fath, 49)
The fatwā of the qalb (the heart's legal opinion) overrides the fatwā of the jurist. For the jurist gives a fatwā according to his own ijtihād (independent reasoning). However, the qalb gives a fatwā only with resolve (ʿazīma), in accordance with what pleases the Truth and is in harmony with Him. (Fath, 286)
The qalb has become the abode of tawhid, maʿrifa, and knowledge. (Futūḥ, 66)
The nafs (the lower self) is, first, a dark and worldly veil to be escaped from. The qalb is, finally, a luminous and heavenly veil to be escaped from.
My heart is ready to be adorned with all colors
It became a pasture for gazelles
A monastery for monks
A temple for idols
A Kaʿba for the one who circumambulates
The Torah with its tablets
The Qur'an with its pages
Now, whichever way the caravans of love turn
my religion is its iman (faith)
My existence vanished, my star set
at the moment when the secret was born in my heart
My heart was transformed by the secret of my Lord
I passed beyond the form perceived by my body
(Poem) This alludes to the fact that when maʿrifa is attained through the qalb, the senses disappear. (Divān, 2)
The heart of the realized one is a mirror to the beholder
Whoever looks, sees in it
who created the spirits
When the echo of all created things is annihilated
when the attributes are united with the attributes of the Truth
He understands who resembles
the qalb to the highest assembly
This is the station (maqām) of the qalb
If it gives shukr (gratitude)
Whoever resembles the all-acting attributes of the Truth
immediately understands everything
And whoever resembles the station of the Essence
in order to annihilate its attributes
Every qalb upon which the divine presence manifests, by virtue of being the yāqūt-i aḥmar (the red ruby) which is nothing but the manifestation of the Essence, is a witnessing, perfecting (mukammil), and knowing qalb. No one surpasses Him (the Essence) in manifestation. Below this is the manifestation of the attributes, and below that, the manifestation of acts. Yet all these manifestations are from the Divine Presence. The qalb of one who does not possess any of these manifestations is a qalb heedless of Allah and distant from the station of nearness (qurb). (Futūḥāt, I, 137)
The fuʾād is a human (insānī) subtlety. According to them, this is what is called the rational soul (nafs-i nāṭiqa). In reality (ḥaqīqa), it is, on the one hand, the descent of the spirit (rūḥ) to a level close to association with the nafs; on the other hand, it is the nafs associating with the spirit. The first aspect is called ṣadr, the second is called fuʾād. (Kāshānī, 73; Jāmiʿ, 94)
The qalb is a purely luminous essence situated between the spirit (rūḥ) and the rational soul (nafs-i nāṭiqa). The rūḥ is the inward aspect of the qalb, while the animal nafs is its mount. Its outward aspect, as likened in the Qur'an to a lamp, a star shining like a pearl, and the spirit to a lamp, is situated between the spirit and the body. Its light is like a lamp in a niche. That lamp is in a glass, and the glass is like a shining star. The lamp is lit from a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west (al-Nūr 24:35). The tree is the nafs, the glass is the body. The qalb, in the degrees of existence and descent, is like the Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ in the world. (Kāshānī, 145; Jāmiʿ, 93)
The tranquility (ḥuḍūr) of the qalb... This means to empty the qalb of everything that occupies it. This is achieved through himma (directed spiritual aspiration). For whenever you direct your himma to something, it necessarily comes to your qalb. The only way to prevent your himma from coming to your qalb is to direct your himma to prayer. The direction of himma increases or decreases in proportion to faith in the Hereafter and the strength of seeing the world as insignificant. Whenever you do not find your qalb ready for prayer, know that the reason is weakness of iman. In that state, strive to strengthen your iman. (Qudāma, 22)
The qalb, by its original creation, is capable of receiving hudā (guidance). However, due to the shahwa and caprice (hawā) placed in it, it tends to turn away from hudā. The armies of angels and devils are constantly attacking the qalb. This sal...