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The_Savior_from_Spiritual_Error, page : 101
actual mystic „way‟ it is the first step, what comes before it being, as it were,
the entrance for those who are journeying towards it.
With this first stage of the `way‟ there begin the revelations and visions.
The mystics in their waking state now behold angels and the spirits of the
prophets; they hear these speaking to them and are instructed by them.
Later, a higher state is reached; instead of beholding forms and figures,
they come to stages in the `way‟ which it is hard to describe in language; if
a man attempts to express these, his words inevitably contain what is
clearly erroneous.
In general what they manage to achieve is nearness to Allah; some,
however, would conceive of this as `inherence‟ (hulul), some as `union‟
(ittihad), and some as `connection‟ (wusul). All that is erroneous. In my
book, The Noblest Aim, I have explained the nature of the error. Yet he who
has attained the mystic `state‟ need do no more than say:
Of the things I do not remember, what was, was;
Think it good; do not ask an account of it.
the entrance for those who are journeying towards it.
With this first stage of the `way‟ there begin the revelations and visions.
The mystics in their waking state now behold angels and the spirits of the
prophets; they hear these speaking to them and are instructed by them.
Later, a higher state is reached; instead of beholding forms and figures,
they come to stages in the `way‟ which it is hard to describe in language; if
a man attempts to express these, his words inevitably contain what is
clearly erroneous.
In general what they manage to achieve is nearness to Allah; some,
however, would conceive of this as `inherence‟ (hulul), some as `union‟
(ittihad), and some as `connection‟ (wusul). All that is erroneous. In my
book, The Noblest Aim, I have explained the nature of the error. Yet he who
has attained the mystic `state‟ need do no more than say:
Of the things I do not remember, what was, was;
Think it good; do not ask an account of it.