Sirr (secret) is that which the nafs (nafs, the lower self) does not sense (is not aware of), and which God (al-Ḥaqq) has rendered absent. The Sufi community says: There are two kinds of sirr: the sirr for God—that is, that which God discloses directly without intermediary—and the sirr for creation, which is that which God discloses through an intermediary. It is said: Sirr is from sirr and for sirr. This too is God (al-Ḥaqq), but it only manifests through God. That which manifests through creation is not sirr. (Lumaʿ, 303)
Sirr, in meaning, is the hiddenness between nonexistence (ʿadam) and existence (wujūd).
Sirr is that which God (al-Ḥaqq) has rendered absent and has not made known to creation. The sirr of creation is that which God discloses directly without intermediary. The sirr of God is that which only God knows. The sirr al-sirr (secret of the secret) is that which even the sirr cannot sense. If it were something sensed, it would not be called sirr. (Lumaʿ, 430)
Sirr is a subtle thing entrusted to the qalb (qalb, the heart), like the ruh (ruh, the spirit). The essence of the spirits requires that they be loci of witnessing. Thus, the spirits are the loci of maḥabba (love); the hearts are the loci of maʿrifa (maʿrifa, gnosis, experiential knowledge of God). The Sufis say: Sirr is that to which you are privy. The sirr al-sirr is that to which none but God is privy. The Sufi community, due to their states, have spoken in this manner. According to their principles, sirr is subtler than the ruh, and the ruh is loftier than the qalb. The Sufis say: The secrets are freed from the servitude, remnants, and traces of things. The term sirr, in relation to spiritual states (aḥwāl), is used for that which is hidden and concealed between the servant and God. The Sufis say: The hearts of free people are the tombs of secrets. (Qushayri, 48; Jāmiʿ, 271)
Sirr is the concealment of the state of maḥabba (love). (Hujwīrī, 497)
The state of the scholar before ḥaqīqa (inner reality) is called sirr al-ʿilm (secret of knowledge); his state before understanding God's will is called sirr al-ḥāl (secret of the state); and his state before ishāra (spiritual indication) is called sirr al-ḥaqīqa (secret of reality). (Iṣṭilāḥ, 533)
According to the Sufi community, sirr has three levels, each of which has a possessor (ṣāḥib): sirr al-ʿilm, sirr al-ḥāl, and sirr al-ḥaqīqa.
Sirr al-ʿilm (secret of knowledge) is the reality of the knowers who know not by any name but by the Name Allah alone. The secret of knowing by Allah is the unification of opposing judgments in a single essence (ʿayn) at the locus to which nisba (relationship) is attributed. In this ʿayn, there may also be oppositions of the kind that are contrary to it. Only those who find this secret in themselves can know it. Thus, they are characterized by it, and without any other nisba or attribution, they judge their own essence by the judgment of its opposite at the locus of its opposite. For this reason, God has made it sirr al-ʿilm. For knowledge (ʿilm) is any information obtained from a sign (dalāla). Knowledge is derived from a sign. Therefore, knowledge is attributed to God along with things, for God knows Himself and knows the world. This is a proof and sign for the world. Likewise, the world is a sign for Him in our knowledge.
When God is the servant's hearing, sight, and the knowledge He has taught him, and when He makes him a proof and sign for Himself, this is sirr al-ḥāl (secret of the state). When the form fashioned from clay by Jesus (peace be upon him) was breathed into, it became a sirr... (Futūḥāt, II, 468)
Sirr al-ḥaqīqa (secret of reality) is to know that knowledge is not something added to the Essence of the Knower. He knows things not by something other than or in addition to His Essence, but by His Essence. (Futūḥāt, II, 469)
Sirr is that which God has assigned to everything during its orientation toward the world of matter. This is alluded to in: "Our word to a thing when We intend it is only that We say to it, 'Be,' and it is." (cf. al-Nahl 16:40) For this reason, it is said: None knows God but God, none loves God but God, none seeks God but God. For this sirr seeks God, loves Him, and knows Him. As the Prophet said: "I knew my Lord by my Lord" (reported from Abū Bakr by Munāwī, VI, 181) (Kāshānī, 100; Jāmiʿ, 86)
Sirr al-ʿilm is the reality of knowledge, for knowledge is, in reality, identical with God (al-Ḥaqq), though considered as other in a notional sense.
Sirr al-ḥāl is that which is known from God's will.
Sirr al-ḥaqīqa is that which does not spread from the reality of God to everything. (Kāshānī, 101; Jāmiʿ, 86)
The possessors of sirr are those who are ahfiyāʾ (hidden ones). The first subtlety among them is that they are those who, wherever they are, possess the treasures of God and contemplate the attributes of these secrets. The second are those who indicate a station; they are different from the first. They see such a state and call out for it. They are between the striving of knowledge that veils them and the adab (spiritual courtesy) that protects and guides them. The third are those whom God has concealed from themselves. To them appears a tablet that enables them to perceive and witness what they are in. While God shows them signs of the truthfulness of their intentions, love, and ecstasy (wajd), He has concealed their states. This is one of the most subtle stations of the people of walāya (friendship with God). (Rawḍa, 492)
Sirr is of three kinds: the sirr of the human being, which is a trust subtler than the ruh, and the ruh is subtler than the qalb; (second) the sirr of things, which is the aspect of the manifestation of the names; (third) the sirr of God, which is the sirr that He discloses only to the greatest of the prophets (anbiyāʾ) and the awliyāʾ (friends of God). (Jāmiʿ, 63)
Sirr means that which is hidden from the perception of the senses. In this respect, its reality is the sirr of essential walāya at the moment of annihilation from the forms of human attributes. The possessor of this sirr conceals his state from people out of jealousy, adorns himself with the adab of the religion for protection, and is adorned with a guardian in matters of akhlaq (character) and dealings. This person is the most beloved of God's servants, the God-conscious (muttaqī) and the hidden (ahfiyāʾ).
The form of sirr at the beginning (bidāya) is to conceal one's deeds to avoid ostentation and to attain purification. Its form in the abwāb (gates) is to honor the sirr with taqwa (God-consciousness), to seek ikhlas (sincerity), and to realize zuhd (asceticism). Its form in dealings is to perfect ikhlas through tawakkul (reliance upon God) and tafwīḍ (entrusting affairs to God), and to efface actions.
Its form in character is to purify the inward from evil, from the attributes of the nafs, to adorn oneself with virtues, and to assume divine character. Its form in character is to purify the heart and to be resolute in determination. Its form in remedies is to illuminate the intellect with the light of the sacred, to accept insight (firāsa) and inspiration (ilhām), and to free it from the taints of imagination. Its form in states is the sovereignty of the love of beauty through witnessing God by God.
Its degree in realities is the concealment of its form by the light of God and the veiling of its state from perception. Its form at the end is annihilation in the primordial identity. (Jāmiʿ, 295)