Life of Ahmad — Page 361
as THE ESSENCE OF ISLAM 361 laden with intoxicating perfume and delight. He is drawn to God and always meditates upon Him. Life without His Love is with him an utter impossibility. He is not simply ready to sacrifice his life, property, honour and children and whatever belongs to him for His sake but he has already sacrificed everything in his heart. He feels that he is very strongly drawn and attracted but he does not know what has happened to him. He finds the heavenly light fast spreading within him like broad daylight. Love, sincerity, and devotion gush forth very strongly within him. He feels every moment as if God the Almighty were descending upon his heart. When ye, blessed wayfarers, feel this state in full within yourselves, be happy and thank the Beloved God because you have reached the highest stage of perfection, the stage of Liq a. Having attained to this last stage, a man feels that he has been cleansed by many pure waters and that, all the tendons of his self having been cut, he has been created a second time and, the throne of the Creator and Sustainer of all the worlds has been placed within him whereon sits for ever in transcendent purity and beauty God, the Holiest, with His charming face shining with its heavenly lustre. But at the same time it should be remembered that these two last stages of