The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 101
Faith, Certainty and Insight 101 of every favour is opened to him and Divine favours proceed towards him in full force. This stage is also called experience of God, inasmuch as in this stage the wonders of Providence are revealed to the seeker and he experiences such Divine favours as are hidden from others. He is favoured with true visions and is honoured with the words of God and is informed of the delicate mysteries of the hereafter, and is given a large portion of knowledge and comprehension. In short, he becomes the recipient of so many overt and covert bounties that he arrives at that stage of certainty in which he feels as if he is beholding the True Designer with his eyes. Such perfect knowledge of heavenly mysteries is called experience of. God. This is the stage at which a person is granted love of the Divine, but it does not yet become his characteristic. . The third stage of progress, which is the ultimate step in treading the paths of nearness to God has been described in the verse: 88 غيرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالّينَ : 3. This is the stage when the love of God and the enmity to all beside Him become characteristic of the seeker and dwell in him as his temperament. In this stage the seeker is naturally enamoured of Divine qualities and the personal love of God so grips his heart that any departure therefrom becomes impossible and not to be thought of. . If his heart and soul are wrung in the machinery of severe tests and trials, nothing but love for the Divine emerges therefrom. At this stage the seeker experiences delight 88 'Those who have not incurred displeasure, and those who have not gone astray. Al-Fatihah, 1:7 [Publisher]