He has concealed them by enfolding them within their garments, casting the veil of form over them, and thus hidden them from the eyes of the worlds. Another group He has enfolded within themselves for Himself, thereby purifying them even from being veiled and concealing them even from themselves. (Manāzil, 41)
Allah, Exalted is He, has said: He creates you in that form (by creating you from pairs). Bast (expansion) is when He transfers the witnesses of the servant to degrees of knowledge and casts the cloak of particularization over his inward. These are the people of talbīs (those who are clothed by Allah, whose states are bestowed by Allah). They are transferred to bast only for one of three meanings present in the field of bast. Each meaning has a group that follows it. One of these is a group who are expanded by extending mercy to people. They act generously toward them, establish intimacy with them, and illuminate them with their own lights, in which the realities are gathered and secrets are concealed.
Another group is expanded due to the strength of their meanings and their steadfastness in what they witness. For the witnesses do not encompass their witnessing. The winds of form do not touch their existence. They live in the state of bast while in the grip of qabḍ (constriction).
Another group always lives in the state of bast in order to be a signpost on the path of hudā (guidance) and a lamp for the sāliks (travelers). (Manāzil, 42)
The sign that a servant has entered the station of destiny, trial, and bast is that after being commanded to abandon and distance himself, he is then commanded to desire pleasures. For when his inward is purified of pleasures so that none remains but Allah, the state of bast befalls him. Then he is commanded to seek, desire, and pursue the portion that he must obtain. This command is due to his rank and station before Allah, and so that by fulfilling this desire, the grace of the Real (al-Ḥaqq) may reach him. The use of the term 'request' regarding the bestowal of pleasures is among the greatest signs that after qabḍ comes bast, and that Allah removes the servant from the obligation of observing states, stations, and limits. (Futūḥ, 125-126)
The nafs (lower self) becomes so spiritually elated that its first state is the divine luminous influx which the brethren call tajrīd (isolation) with bast. (Hayākil, 95)
Qabḍ and bast have a specific time and definite moment. They neither occur before their time nor after. Their time is at the beginning, not the end, of the special state of maḥabba (divine love). They do not occur before the state of special maḥabba. For one who is in the station of firm and general maḥabba, which is like the rule of iman (faith), the states of qabḍ-bast and bast do not occur. For such a person, the opposite of fear and hope sometimes occurs, resembling qabḍ and bast, and they may think it is qabḍ and bast, but it is not so. What they think is qabḍ is merely a distress, and what they think is bast is a carnal pleasure or natural joy. Anxiety and joy arise from the nafs and its essence, as long as the attribute of the nafs persists.
As long as the nafs retains the attribute of amāra (commanding to evil), pleasure, joy, and anxiety—which are the uppermost reins of the nafs—arise from it. Joy is the swelling of the wave of the nafs when the waves of the sea of temperament clash. When the Sufi rises from the general state of maḥabba to the beginning of special maḥabba, the possessor of state, the possessor of qalb (heart), and the possessor of the self-reproaching nafs (nafs al-lawwāma) appear. Then the states of qabḍ and bast come in succession. For he has ascended from the degree of iman to the degree of yaqīn (certainty) and special maḥabba. For this reason, the Real sometimes gives him the state of qabḍ, sometimes bast.
Wāsiṭī said: (Allah) constricts you with what is within you (errors and sins), and expands you with what is with Him (mercy and compassion).
(Abū Ḥusayn) Nūrī also said: He constricts you with yourself, and expands you with Himself.
The manifestation of the state of qabḍ is due to the emergence and dominance of the attribute of the nafs; the manifestation of the state of bast is due to the emergence and dominance of the attribute of the qalb. As long as the nafs is amāra, it is sometimes dominant, sometimes defeated. Qabḍ, like being under a luminous ḥijāb (veil), and the possessor of the attribute of the nafs is under a dark ḥijāb due to the existence of the nafs. If the possessor of the attribute of the qalb rises from the attribute of the qalb and leaves its veil, then the state can no longer confine or control him. For this reason, at that time, he is no longer subject to the influence of qabḍ and bast. As long as he is freed from the luminous existence that is the qalb, and has stripped away the veils of the nafs and qalb and realized proximity (qurbiyya), he is not exposed to the states of qabḍ or bast. Thus, when he returns to existence from fanāʾ (annihilation in God) and baqāʾ (subsistence in God), the qalb returns to its true attribute of luminous existence. Then qabḍ and bast return to him. If he gives himself to fanāʾ and baqāʾ, then no trace of qabḍ or bast remains.
Fāris said: First comes qabḍ, then bast. Then neither qabḍ nor bast remains. For qabḍ and bast occur in existence; they do not occur with fanāʾ and baqāʾ (when existence is effaced). The state of qabḍ may sometimes arise as a punishment for excess in the state of bast. This happens as follows: a divine influx comes to the heart from Allah, filling it with ease, joy, and glad tidings. As a result, the nafs listens and takes its share. When the effect of the influx reaches the nafs, the nafs, by its nature, oversteps its bounds and becomes excessive in bast, so that bast turns into joy, and as a result, it is punished by the state of qabḍ. Upon investigation, it is found that all qabḍ arises only from the movement and manifestation of the nafs and its attribute. If the nafs is disciplined and changed, and does not act with rebellion or transgression for a time, then as long as the possessor of the attribute of the qalb finds ease and intimacy, qabḍ does not befall him. (ʿAwārif, 304)
Qabḍ, when it strikes, is a state of fear. It is also said that qabḍ is a divine influx that comes to the heart by way of rebuke and discipline. It is also said: qabḍ is to receive the influx of the moment.
According to us, the possessor of bast is one who encompasses things, but things do not encompass him. This is a state of hope or an indication of acceptance, mercy, and intimacy.