These are individuals for whom striving is difficult, who possess limited understanding (ṣāḥib al-fahm al-qaṣīr), and who can only grasp instruction (taʿlīm) through subtle discourse. Their tariqa (Sufi path) consists of performing acts of worship, fulfilling religious rites, fasting frequently, performing prayers, reciting the Qur'an, undertaking the pilgrimage, engaging in jihād (struggle in the path of God), and other outward acts. This group is able to endure the hardships of worship. They do not experience weariness in devotion; rather, worship becomes such a habit for them that it forms a part of their lives. They constantly seek to draw nearer to the maqām (spiritual stations) of maʿrifa (gnosis, experiential knowledge of God). The light of the Beloved (the Mahbūb) is unveiled to them, and thus they witness the wondrous states of the unseen.
Those endowed with sharp intellect (dhū al-afhām al-lawdhaʾiyya), possessing seven akhlāq (moral traits), a fiery temperament, and an arrogant nafs (the lower self), are like those in positions of rank and station (maqām) who cannot control themselves in moments of anger and follow apparent causes without investigating the reality. The path for such people is to strive in mujāhada (spiritual struggle), practice riyāḍa (ascetic discipline), transform their character (tabdīl al-akhlāq), purify their nafs, and perform acts that cultivate their inner world (bāṭin). They endeavor to uproot the evil traits entrenched in their nafs and replace them with pure fiṭra (innate disposition). The essence of the matter is to oppose the inclinations of the nafs and resist its desires. This should be such that contentment and anger, ease and hardship, friendship and enmity, the lowest and highest levels of rank and gain, or abandoning all professions and causes, become equal in the person's eyes. Thus, the nafs becomes weakened on the path of the people of ināya (divine favor) and particularity.
The path of those with a contented nafs (nafs al-rāḍiya), pure intellect (ʿuqūl al-zakiyya), and the fiṭra of ṣiddīqiyya (truthfulness) is the way of those who journey to Allah by walking and flying to Him. This is the path of the people of maḥabba (divine love). The foundation of traversing this path is the purity of the qalb (the heart), sincerity in love (ṣidq al-ḥubb), and affirming maḥabba both outwardly and inwardly (with faith in the heart and actions in the body). So much so that one becomes annihilated (fanāʾ) from one's own power, intellect, intelligence, and mind—in short, from everything. Even if one expends all one's strength on this path, no hardship is felt. At that point, the rūḥ (spirit) of kāb al-ʿiyān is breathed into the person. Thus, the reality (ḥaqīqa) of the verse, "Everything on the earth will perish" (al-Raḥmān 55:26), is realized.
This path is far more exalted than the paths of those who seek to attain His beauty. Perhaps the sālik (traveler) surpasses those who have worn themselves out with long periods of mujāhada (spiritual struggle) and reaches that path in a single breath.
(See also: sharīʿa-ḥaqīqa)
Ṭarīq al-saʿāda al-Āl-i Bā ʿAlawī (The Path of the Exalted Happiness of the Bā ʿAlawī) is one of the Sufi paths whose foundation is adherence (ittibāʿ) to the Book and the Sunnah, whose beginning is fidelity in poverty, and whose aim is witnessing Allah's beneficence to His servant. This prescribed adherence is of a particular kind and involves reviewing the fundamentals to draw near to union (wuṣūl).
This has a benefit beyond what is required by adherence to the Book and the Sunnah. The science of rulings related to the outward aspect of Islam is foundational and concerns the general public. Its purpose is to establish order, restrict eating, and address other matters related to the common people.
Undoubtedly, people differ in their spiritual stations (maqām) within the religion. Each particular matter requires its own knowledge. This is the domain of the elite (khawāṣṣ) concerning the reality of taqwā (God-consciousness) and ikhlāṣ (sincerity). This is the ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm (straight path), which is finer than a hair and sharper than a sword. General training is not sufficient in this regard; rather, each juzʾ (part) requires its own definition and restriction. This is the science of Sufism (taṣawwuf). Journeying to Allah by means of this science is the method of the Sufis. The outward aspect of this path is knowledge and action in accordance with it; its inward aspect is sincerity in turning to Allah and being content with what He is content with.
Ultimately, this is the path of the qualities, actions, realization of secrets, stations, and states that the people of Allah actualize through opening (fatḥ), virtue, and the divine gifts bestowed upon them, through realization, taste, action, and receptivity.
The Ṭarīq al-saʿāda al-Āl-i Bā ʿAlawī is organized in this manner. Its outward aspect is the correct acquisition of religious knowledge and action, as Ghazālī has stated. Its inward aspect is the realization of ḥaqīqa (inner reality) and the isolation of tawḥid (the oneness of God), as explained by the Shādhiliyya—that is, nothing remains but tawḥid, pure tawḥid.
Their knowledge, their own traces and attributes, are the sciences of a group whose traces and attributes have been effaced. They seek to draw near to Allah by every means of nearness. They accept taking the covenant and talqīn (spiritual instruction), don the cloak (khirqa), and enter into retreat (khalwa), ascetic discipline (riyāḍa), and spiritual struggle (mujāhada). They form circles of companionship (ṣuḥba).
To show sincerity in seeking Allah's riḍā (contentment with God's decree), Allah's grace is necessary; to strive greatly, Allah's opening (fatḥ) is required. "And those who strive for Us—We will surely guide them to Our ways. And indeed, Allah is with the doers of good." (al-ʿAnkabūt 29:69)
Ṭarīqat al-Ishrāq wa'l-Jilā
The foundation of the Āl-i Bā ʿAlawī tariqa traces back to Shaykh Abū Madyan Shuʿayb al-Maghribī. Its pole and touchstone of realization is Muḥammad ʿAlī Bā ʿAlawī al-Ḥusaynī. Many Sufis have continued this lineage after him, though they have not authored any works on the subject.
Ṭarīqat al-Ishrāq wa'l-Jilā (the Path of Illumination and Polishing) is so ancient that it predates the times when sharia (the sacred law) was sent to humanity. Its aim is to polish the mirror of the nafs to the utmost. At the same time, it is a path that never disappears with the passage of time. However, in this tariqa, sometimes terms such as retreats (khalwa) and arrangements (tartīb), sometimes only preserving the fundamentals, sometimes only maintaining ḥurma (reverence), sometimes only talqī (receiving what comes from the Real) and ilqāʾ (inspiration from the Real) are used. Such practices never cease to exist. Although such terms have disappeared in recent times, and as far as can be seen from the signs and results of investigation, their effects have also vanished. (Rihla, 41)