Tadhkirah — Page 476
476 form and hollow shell. Rather, one ought to offer true sacrifice, and carry it out with all their intellect, and with a spirit of righteousness and the spirit of sacrifice. This is the height of the pilgrim’s journey, the ultimate objective of those seeking enlightenment, and the culmination of all the stations of the righteous. All the destinations of the truthful and the saints are arrived at, and the journey of the auliy a ’ reaches its height zenith. If you arrive at this station, you have taken your struggle to its ultimate limit and have achieved the stage of fan a. It is then that the tree of your sojourn [towards God] will thereby grow to its utmost perfection; and the neck of your soul will reach the soft green buds in the meadow of purity and sublimity like a she-camel with a long neck reaching the high branches of a verdant tree. Thereafter begins the experience of the feelings, the fragrance, and the glorious manifestations of the One True God, so that He may cut asunder any remaining veins of human frailties. Thereafter, the soul that is content and pleased with God and whom God is pleased with, and which has achieved the stage of fan a , is granted life, permanence and nearness, so that this servant may be equipped with the capacity to receive favours after his second life. After this, the perfect man is adorned with the robe of khil a fat by the One True God. He is conferred the colour of divine attributes by way of reflection so that it is proven that he is worthy of the station of khil a fat [i. e. , vicegerency]. Then, he descends towards humanity so that he may draw them to spirituality and bring them out of mundane darkness into the heavenly light. Such a man is made to inherit from those that have preceded