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6.Nafsi Mardiyya – The Gratified Self

“Return to your Lord content and gratified.” (Fajr 89:28)

At this stage, the self is not only content with its Lord, but also gratified by Him. At this stage, the light of the heart is complete. The heart advances from wholesomeness (Qalb-i Saleem) to a heart that is in total awe (Hashyat) of Allah, constantly inclined (Muneeb) toward Him, imbued with humility (Hayaa) toward Him in every condition.

The people of this station are the people witnessing the manifestations of the actions of the names of Allah (Mushahadat Tajalliyyat Afa’al Allah). Their witnessing in their hearts to the manifestations of Allah’s power results in their awe in the face of Allah’s greatness and majesty in all of His actions which are essentially the manifestations of His names. The people of this station are also gifted with unveiling and miracles that enable them to call people to the love of Allah. These miracles are essentially for those who deny and reject the truth but who are at the same time called to Allah. So He sends to them miracles through the people of this station so that the egos of these people will submit to these miracles and thus return through Allah back to the path of Allah. For when Allah loves one of His servants He seeks Him and calls him to Himself. If the servant responds at the first call, then he is brought near; otherwise Allah seeks him through trials, or through miracles. For Allah’s command must come to be and is utterly irresistible.

This station is the last of the stations of faith (Iman) and through it; the self enters the presence of the station of “…the most beautiful station of excellence” (Ihsan) which is the goal and the desire of the heart of every servant.

At this level is manifested the bond between the Creator and the created, with a love common to both. The Creator finds in the perfect man the qualities, which He has bestowed on him when He created him, as He says,

‘’Certainly we created man in the best form.”

His own Beautiful Names, His Attributes that He taught to our father Hz. Adem (as), become manifest in the seeker. Thus the perfect man who has attained the level of deserving Allah’s pleasure has lost all his physical animal characteristics as well as his imperfect human aspects. Now Allah’s Divine Attributes are manifest in him, and he sees the Truth (Haqiqah), because he is blessed with Ayn al Yaqin (certitude by seeing).

He sees beauty in everything, loves everyone, forgives the faults of those who do not know, he is compassionate, generous, giving, never asking, serving with all he has to bring others to the light of the soul, and to protect them from the dangers of their nafs and the darkness of their worldliness. All this, he does for the sake of Allah and in His name.

It is difficult to recognize these beings. Their state cannot be described in words. They cannot be conceived with common, ordinary concepts.

Their one identifiable characteristic is that they are always in a state of perfect balance, like the center of a circle, like the fulcrum of a balance: right in the middle, neither more nor less, the medium.

The remembrance of this state is called Qayyum (Self-Subsistent).