This state is realized through a process known as tahallī (adornment with virtues).
Philosophers have said about this state: "This is striving to resemble the Divine and pushing one's capacity to its limits." If this statement was truly made, then whoever said it is utterly ignorant. For tashabbuh (imitation) is not possible, in ḥaqīqa (inner reality), for one who already possesses an attribute as his own (if a quality is inherent in a person, it is not possible for him to imitate another in that regard). That person is predisposed to subsist with that attribute. By the capacity of his essence, that attribute becomes necessary for him. If an attribute is present in both one and another, then there is no question of striving to resemble one another (for they already resemble each other). The existence of that form is the same, whether people are veiled from it earlier or later. If they saw it before, and then saw it again later, they would say: "In this form, the latter resembles the former." They do not realize that the later ḥaqīqa (inner reality) of that form is actually the same as its earlier ḥaqīqa (that in reality, the being has not changed, it is the same being). (Futūḥāt, II, 473)
According to the Sufis, tahallī means to turn away from everything that distracts one from the Real (al-Ḥaqq) and to choose seclusion (khalwa). In our view, tahallī is attained from mustafād wujūd (acquired existence). For this is how it occurs in matters of belief. The reality is that there is no existence except for the wujūd (existence) of the Real (al-Ḥaqq). That which is characterized by acquiring existence is none other than this.