Ṣāliḥāt-i fāḍilāt (virtuous righteous women) arrive in the presence of Allah and there they witness the lights of Truth (nūr) that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has ever conceived, and they are submerged in the ocean of light. Thus, they attain angelic and sovereign qualities. (Heyākil, 82)
sālik/sālikūn (sālik li ṭarīqi'l-ākhira)
A sālik (traveler on the Sufi path) is one who surpasses spiritual stations not by knowledge but by spiritual state (ḥāl). Thus, knowledge becomes ayn (direct vision). (Iṣṭilāḥ, 530)
A majdhūb (one drawn by God) is a person whom the Truth (al-Ḥaqq) has chosen and employed in His service, and whom He has washed with the water of sanctity. For this reason, the majdhūb attains all stations and ranks through ihsan (spiritual excellence) and divine bestowal, without bearing the burden of labor and fatigue. (Kāshānī, 77; Jāmiʿ, 95)
The sāliks we have mentioned are distributed according to various degrees: the sālik who journeys from Him to Him transitions from one manifestation (tajallī) to another. The sālik who journeys to Him, from Him, and in Him, traverses from one divine name to another in the matter of divine names. The sālik who journeys from Him, to Him, in Him, and with Him, traverses from one name to another with that name. The sālik who journeys from Him but not in or to Him, departs from one cosmos to another from the presence of Allah. The sālik who journeys not from Him or in Him, but to Him, flees to Him from within the cosmos, just as Moses (Mūsā) fled from the veil. The sālik who does not journey from Him, in Him, or to Him, transitions from this world (dunyā) to the hereafter (ākhira) in terms of righteous deeds; these are the ascetics (zuhhād) who are not gnostics (ʿārif). (Futūḥāt, II, 376)
If the one who enters the tariqa (Sufi path) continues to turn towards Allah and away from all else, this becomes a meleka (acquired faculty) for him. This state is the first step in departing from the corporeal (physical) world, for the corporeal world is the first thing from which he turns away. Turning away from it is, in essence, separation from it. The order of emergence in creation is not the same as the order of the great realms in the cosmos. The first thing to separate from the macrocosm is earth, then water, then air, then fire. When a human separates from these elements, he enters the sky of the world with his ruh (spirit).
Our shaykh says: When Allah Most High willed to elevate me to show me the names that reside in His names, He first removed me from my place. And He elevated me with the Burāq that was in my realm of possibility. He scattered me with all my elements. I could not discern whether He was pleased to befriend me. It was said to me: Allah created your father from earth, took him from it. When I separated from the element of water, I lost a part of myself. It was said to me: You were created from a simple water (semen). Its simplicity is its lowness. When you united with earth, you made it lowly. Therefore, I separated from it, and two more parts of me diminished. When I reached the element of air, I became air. He (Allah) said to me: The air in you is from Me. This air did not separate from Me, for it does not need to exceed its own value or extend its foot beyond its rug. You must desire nothing but that which disrupts your chemistry. If it were not for that (air), that which you must seek would not become mesnūn (properly formed). In essence, I am pure, but due to the companionship of those around me, I am not pure. His companionship and neighborhood contaminated me with impurity. It was said: There is mud that has waited in it, and the impurity of that mud has contaminated you. For it is characterized by that. Then...
sālik/sālikūn He, the being who transforms me, turned me into a temperament capable of perceiving scent. I said to Him, 'Why do you keep it with you?' He replied: I kept it with Me so that it may be purified from the impurity that befell it due to your corruption and its association with your earth and water.'
When I reached the element of fire, it was said: Fehhār (dry clay) has come. And it was said: Has it been sent to him? 'Yes,' he said. 'With whom?' he asked. 'With Jibrīl al-jabr (Gabriel of force), who is compelled to travel with it and to be separated from its children.' He said: 'At its birth, there is a part of Me in it. I do not leave it without that part. For it has reached the station where the angelic and sovereign emerges. Thus, my governance remained alone, and I passed to the first heaven. With me, nothing remained of the body from its birth that could be trusted or regarded. The shaykh's words end here. (This miʿrāj is the miʿrāj of analysis [miʿrāj-i taḥlīl].)
As the shaykh indicated, the body dissolves and disperses at birth there. Just as its composition was in relation to its consciousness, so too its dissolution and separation are only in relation to the consciousness of the sālik. (Asfār, 148)
The sālik is one who walks to Allah and, as long as he is in the state of journeying, is an intermediary between the murīd (aspirant, disciple) and the muntaḥī (one who has arrived). (Kāshānī, 99; Jāmiʿ, 85)
The sālik is one for whom the path of spiritual striving (gayra) is taught, the states of the tariqa are shown and explained, and who, together with his guide, overcomes certain obstacles. Among these paths are being with friends and companions, and with those on the path of bodily and nafs (lower self) discipline. This is achieved first by fleeing from the world (dunyā) and seeking the hereafter (ākhira), then by plunging into the ocean of deeds and persistently maintaining bodily and nafs discipline. This is one of the goals attainable through striving. The murshid (spiritual guide) undertakes the keys to what sets one on the path. These are retreat (khalwa), silence (ṣamt), hunger, and sleeplessness. (Rawḍa, 470)
The beginning (bidāya) of the sālikūn (plural of sālik) is Islam (islām) in terms of knowledge, and their end (nihāya) is to realize the station of ihsan (spiritual excellence) in terms of action. When the sālik purifies his actions from afflictions such as ostentation (riyāʾ), and acts solely for the One for whom action is to be performed, he realizes the station of Islam. When he purifies his actions from claims, and when he is free from the thought of duality (i.e., when he sees his Lord and is absent from seeing himself), he attains the station of ihsan. (Rawḍa, 617)
The sālik li ṭarīqi'l-ākhira (one who journeys the path of the hereafter) is never without one of these six states: he is either a worshipper (ʿābid), a scholar (ʿālim), a learner (mutaʿallim), a walī (friend of God), a craftsman (muḥtarif), or one who is absorbed in the love of Allah by being occupied solely with Him. (Qudāma, 56)
One transitions from one station to another, from one name to another, from one manifestation to another, and from one nafs to another by means of knowledge. Sāliks and sālikūn are divided into four types in their spiritual journey (sayr wa sulūk): the sālik who journeys with his Lord, the sālik who journeys with his nafs, the sālik who journeys with all, and the sālik who is not a sālik. The journey (sulūk) differs according to the sālik's intention and his degree of knowledge of Allah.
The sālik who journeys with his Lord is one for whom the Truth (al-Ḥaqq) becomes his eye, his ear, and all his faculties.
The sālik who journeys with his nafs is one who, at the beginning, draws near to his Lord through obligatory acts and virtuous supererogatory acts. Even if they have heard and believed in this divine report, they have not tasted it. Thus, by persisting in these acts of worship, the Truth becomes their faculties. Such people journey through all stages with their nafs.
The sālik who journeys with all is one who, after tasting that the Truth is his eye and ear, and after first knowing his journey with his nafs without seeing himself according to a particular determination, realizes that the Truth is his sense of hearing, that the existence of the hearer is possible only by means of the sense of hearing, and that the sense of hearing is not itself. Thus, when he sees that the qalb (heart) is fixed and witnesses the true owner of hearing, he realizes that his nafs and his eye are beings who hear, speak, move, and stand with Allah, and are addressed through journey and transition. Thus, he journeys with all of these.
The fourth type, the sālik who is not a sālik, is one who does not see himself as independently qualified for the journey unless the Truth is the attribute of his nafs, and unless the nafs of the responsible person exists, the quality of journeying cannot become independent. This quality is like the locus of the nafs; it affirms that he is a sālik with all. When journeying with all appears for the sālik, this journey manifests. There is no existence identical to the sālik's receptivity. The manifest is also limited by the capacity of receptivity. He sees the Truth saying: "You did not throw when you threw, but Allah threw" (al-Anfāl 8:17). The one who is aware of this knowledge concerning his nafs realizes that he is the sālik who is not a sālik. (Asfār, 40)
The sālik who journeys from Him to Him transitions to manifestation. Among the sāliks, those who journey to Him, from Him, and in Him, traverse from one divine name to another. Again, among them, those who journey from Him but not in or to Him, depart from one cosmos to another from the presence of Allah. Among them, those who journey not from Him or in Him, but to Him, flee to Him from within the cosmos, just as Moses (Mūsā) fled. Again, among them, those who do not journey from Him, in Him, or to Him, transition from this world to the hereafter in terms of outward deeds; these are the ascetics (zāhid). (Asfār, 41)
The sālik first enters the world of sensation (ʿālam al-ḥiss), then the world of imagination (ʿālam al-khayāl), then the world of spirits (ʿālam al-arwāḥ), and finally the world of attributes (ʿālam al-ṣifāt). (Asfār, 129)
The sālik (one who enters the tariqa) continues to turn towards Allah and away from all else, and this becomes a meleka (acquired faculty) for him. This state is ...