Malfuzat - Volume VII — Page 420
Malfuzat - English translation of Urdu Volume 7 420 wi sa lin —exact union], but is one of the displays and signs of wi sa l [union] because fan a’i -i-attum refers to the state where the seeker removes himself completely from the right of the creation, will, and self, and is completely lost in the action and will of God to the extent that he sees only through Him, hears only through Him, grasps only through Him and lets go only through Him. So all these are indicators of wi sa l and not of ‘a i n wi sa l [exact union]. The ‘a i n wi sa l is an incomparable and unfathomable kind of light which the people of wi sa l recognize but cannot describe. In summary, when the seeker of perfect wi sa l separates him- self from all his existence for the sake of God and no activity or inactivity of his remains for himself—rather, everything is given up to God—then in this state he encounters a spiritual death which entails baq a [immortality]. So in this state, it is as if he is brought back to life after death and there remains no being other than Allah in his vision. He even imagines his own being to be non-existent due to dominance of the presence of the Divine Being. Therefore, this is the level of servitude and fan a’i -i-attum [complete annihilation of the self ], which is the goal of the journey of the Auliy a ’ [Friends (of Allah); i. e. , Saints]. It is at this stage that by the command of God Almighty a light from the unseen descends upon the heart of the seeker, which is beyond the realm of description in words spoken or written. The predominance of shuh u d [display of the presence of God] is a state that is superior to the rank of ‘ilmul-yaq i n [knowl- edge by inference] and ‘a i nul-yaq i n [certainty by sight]. Sahib- e-shuh u d t a m [one who has experienced the perfect display of the being of God] has a knowledge, but the kind of knowledge that has alighted upon his own self akin to someone burning in a blaze. So, although he maintains a knowledge of burning, it