Chapter Nineteen: Divine Beloved

God possesses servants whose upbringing He does not entrust even to His divine names or the name of the Lord (Rabb), but rather engages with these eternal beloveds directly through His essence and intrinsic love.

The Essence of the Divine Beloved

The intrinsic divine beloved embodies the ultimate aim of gnosis and servitude, namely, attaining divine likeness and reaching the Exalted Truth. In the realm of awareness, the primary and intrinsic beloved first attains the Exalted Truth; in the realm of action, they align with truth and divine decrees; and in the realm of destiny, they remain with the Exalted Truth, connected to His essence. Thus, the beloved comes with truth, lives with truth, and departs with the Exalted Truth. The pinnacle of gnosis comprises these three aspects.

The sustenance of the beloved is pure and divine, enabling them to pursue God’s decrees without concern for provision.

The Divine Necessity of the Beloved

The beloved not only enjoys proximity to the Exalted Truth but attains Him through a divinely bestowed and wholly authentic gift, wherein human effort or acquired attributes play no role in their perfections. The authentic capacity to endure affliction and the divine aspiration for delicate refinement, fervor, harmony, and the beloved’s radiance necessitate their existence. The necessity of the beloved, as an essential aspect of the Exalted Truth’s essence, does not conflict with free will, volition, or freedom, nor does it engender determinism.

Necessity refers to the natural standards, measures, and boundaries of a phenomenon, arising from freedom and not contradicting it. Determinism, however, stems from problems, mismanagement, and poor choices, which deprive humans of freedom and volition.

The material world (nāsūt) operates on requisites for devotees and ordinary individuals, but the intrinsic, primary, and authentic beloveds live and act through causality and necessity, not determinism or requisites. Generally, the requisites of lofty manifestations and intrinsic attributes of the Lord lack requisites; their requisites are rooted in causality and necessity. At that level, neither action nor acquired effort exists—only divine decree and necessity, even if related to action, prevail. Requisites pertain to the realm of action and worlds characterized by striving and effort.

The system of volition, requisites, and partial causes grants devotees and ordinary individuals a collective free will. However, in the realm of divine will and the intrinsic attributes of the Exalted Truth, the authentic beloved passionately pursues the allure of the beloved, where the grace of divine beauty and the awe of divine majesty are indistinguishable. Thus, the beloved, bearing the love of truth, operates through divine will, not mere volition. All manifestations possess prior requisites, not complete causality in their expressions. Hence, their requisites of good or evil can transform within the collective and communal system, and the ordinary devotee possesses free will and rational capacity for choice.

Attaining the Essence of the Exalted Truth

The ultimate aim of most devotees’ gnosis is the station of pervasive unity (aḥadiyya sāriyya), but the primary beloved attains the essence of the Exalted Truth. As I have stated in Awareness and the Divine Human, pervasive and lordly unity is the expansive, actual manifestation, representing the creational aspect of divine guardianship (wilāya), while the authentic aspect of guardianship is the immediate manifestation of the determination of unity.

“Unity” (aḥadiyya) has two meanings: intrinsic unity, which is a manifestation and determination prior to the station of singularity (wāḥidiyya), and pervasive, flowing unity, present with every particle and valley—including the material world—conveying the unity of the Exalted Truth’s action, attributes, and essence.

Beholding pervasive unity is the witnessing of the Divine Presence. In this witnessing, one sees the face and aspect of the Exalted Truth, the omnipresent beauty, in every place. With pervasive unity, all that is seen is the Exalted Truth, and polytheism is entirely eradicated from the individual.

Pervasive unity entails a short journey, unlike one who seeks to reach the divine names and the station of singularity by contemplating phenomena, then, after passing through the keys of the unseen and specific singularity, attains unity—a path that requires a profoundly long journey.

The station of singularity is the realm of the realities of divine names, the treasuries, and the keys of the unseen, serving as an intermediary between the essence of unity and the emanation of manifestation. Singularity, in terms of the keys of the unseen—which are the exclusive divine names of the Exalted Truth, possessing only authentic manifestation without emanative manifestation, though they have emanative manifestations—is called specific singularity. General singularity encompasses all the beautiful divine names.

The keys of the unseen operate from the essence’s hidden interior, sometimes without apparent cause, manifesting something unexpectedly. The keys of the unseen are identical to the Exalted Truth’s essence, its very breath, exclusive and inner divine names, and pure existence, while also being His knowledge and other attributes. These names are inherently open and unlocked, accomplishing tasks without intermediaries.

Divine Love

The beloved is divine love. The beloved has beheld divine love and lives in the material world with the same aura of God’s eternal love, where the hue of authentic love overshadows their creational and human hue.

The beloved embodies the collective love of the Exalted Truth and the love of truth for truth. They are immersed in divine love, where mercy and wrath are equal, for they possess the entirety of the divine essence through divine gift, grace, and love.

A sign of the beloved is that they delight in all things to the measure of the Exalted Truth, loving the entire cosmos as it is themselves. Moreover, being endowed with collectivity, the beloved is the aspiration and beloved of all.

Enduring Connection with God

The beloved is under divine care from childhood, and one who has not seen themselves under God’s guardianship and guidance from childhood, before entering school, is not a beloved.

Even before the formation of their embryo, the beloved is endowed with an active spirit and attainment, born into the material world.

The intrinsic beloved is perpetually in the embrace of a God who renews moment by moment, while they themselves never remain static, engaging in an endless movement of divine becoming, infinitely adaptable in their divine realization.

The intrinsic beloved’s connection with God is never severed. They do not engage in transactional manifestations, and all they possess is directly from the Exalted Truth, from eternity to eternity. Thus, the framework of guardianship, revelation, and other descending perfections never halts, with their longitudinal and qualitative growth continuing indefinitely.

The divine beloved is filled with the Exalted Truth and, regarding the presence within their heart, exists in certainty, clarity, love, and sweetness, living the divine command and decree. The beloved is not merely proximate to the divine but surpasses proximity, existing in attainment.

The subject of gnosis is the Exalted Truth, the independent essence and manifestor, and the aim of gnosis is also the Exalted Truth. The collective manifestation of the Exalted Truth is the perfect human, the final and comprehensive manifestation of God. Thus, gnosis pertains to the Exalted Truth and the perfect human, predominantly the intrinsic and authentic beloved guardian, who is the breath and special grace of the Exalted Truth—there is no other subject to discuss.

Attaining the Exalted Truth occurs either through prior absorption and the attainment of the beloved, which follows a singular path, or through absorption after asceticism, effort, and the diverse spiritual practices of devotees. Thus, gnosis is divided into two types: the diverse, ascetic gnosis of devotees and the unitary gnosis of the beloved.

The foundation of gnosis is formed by attaining the collective and final station, the presence of all lordly realms, the worlds of descending and ascending emanation, and the capacity to connect with their realities within this material world. Beyond this, one beholds and visits the Exalted Truth with all determinations and without determination, attaining Him. This gnosis and attainment is either acquired, devotional, and based on creational diversity or a singular divine method through the bestowed state of the beloved.

The heart of one who has attained can, without verbal remembrance, ritual structures, effort, or hardship, attune the Exalted Truth and all manifestations to their breath at every moment, traversing them within their essence and effortlessly partaking of this sublime spiritual, gnostic, and faithful sustenance.

Honored Awareness of Significant Events

The beloved possesses divine, overwhelming awareness and abundant knowledge, capable of answering any question from eternity or infinity. However, to utilize the beloved’s awareness, one must actively maintain a pure heart and inner sanctity, surrendering the mind to love. I have discussed the nature of this gnostic system in Awareness and the Divine Human.

The beloved guardian possesses complete knowledge of all aspects of phenomena without any negligence or error, with no aspect distracting them from another. All manifestations are the vessel of the divine beloved’s awareness, distinguishing each manifestation and degree from others, preparing them for divine mission and guidance of phenomena by God’s decree.

The beloved possesses profound and intense concealment, such that the breadth of their penetrating awareness does not disturb anyone’s peace or tranquility.

In their divine endeavors, the beloved is never afflicted by doubt, hesitation, or confusion. No mental disturbance can penetrate their authentic essence.

The beloved is informed and aware of significant events and impactful incidents destined to occur in their life. God does not act without the permission of His beloved guardian, nor does He place them in distressing or calamitous events without their consent. Thus, the authentic beloved endures affliction by their own choice, or rather, by divine necessity.

If one finds that they are not informed of or consulted about significant events in their life, it is forbidden to consider themselves a beloved, lest they lead themselves and others astray.

The beloved derives their awareness from the night and its attained content, even from their dreams, not from mental scholarly effort or daytime instruction. Personal development in gnosis, revelation, and attainment is a product of the night, and one who focuses on the day reaps incomprehensible and unworthy gains.

The Dignity of Gnosis

The highest dignity of the beloved is divine gnosis, or rather, their possession of truth. The beloved’s gnosis, love, unity, and attainment of realities and the good guide phenomena toward righteousness, truth, and the Exalted Truth.

The dignity of gnosis far surpasses sensory dignities and tangible manipulation of the natural material cosmos. The dignity of gnosis manifests in heartfelt guidance, wise and innovative speech, writings, and scientific advancements.

Penetration into All Realms

Through voluntary attention and the power of their aspiration, the beloved guardian can manifest something in any realm they desire, preserving and maintaining it without negligence.

The authentic beloved, endowed with the collective and final station, observes and monitors both the sensible world and its lowest phenomena, as well as the intermediate realm (barzakh) and other subsequent realms, in this very world. They can voluntarily connect with the inhabitants and phenomena descending or ascending in spiritual ascent, and possess an abstractedness that enables them to observe and attain lofty intellects and lordly realms without relinquishing their human aspect.

The Nature of Enduring Affliction

The beloved holds an authentic perspective on every event, with truth revolving around them and they around truth. The beloved seeks the face of the divine essence in every moment, and God, in this absolute visage, manifests for them with purity, love, delicacy, and grace.

For this singular vision, the beloved is endowed with resolute capacity filled with aspiration and purity, willingly embracing martyrdom in a state of divine intoxication. The beloved has an inherent nature of enduring affliction and is resilient in its face.

The material world fiercely opposes the authentic and intrinsic beloveds. Proximate beloveds, who possess only a trace of belovedness within, are insignificant in spiritual and ascetic matters compared to authentic beloveds, and the true gnostic is solely the authentic beloved.

The material world brings profound afflictions upon the authentic beloved, first assassinating their character and tarnishing their reputation, ultimately leading to their martyrdom and honorable transition, as natural death is not the fate of the intrinsic and authentic beloved.

The divine beloved is recognized by purity, love, unity, endurance of affliction, sacrifice, divine necessity, and righteous oppression. In their endeavors, they are filled with assurance and faith, termed divine necessity.

Inexhaustible Energy

The beloved possesses extraordinary capability, unaffected by aging or senescence, never declining into weakness. The beloved is endowed with an inexhaustible flow of energy, never diminishing regardless of their ascent, work, or effort. To this capability, one must add their power of disguise and transformation of appearance when confronting the weak or obstructors.

They can render themselves or others identical without leaving any trace or evidence.

The Emergence of the Accursed and Misguided

Wherever a divine beloved manifests, as the blessing upon creation is complete, corresponding to those blessings, misguided and accursed individuals arise, corrupting the blessings—especially the revelatory and gnostic content of the beloved—through their tyranny and obstinacy. They refuse to follow the path of the beloved guardian and obstruct their lofty intellectual, scientific, and gnostic content.

The destruction of the accursed and misguided is inevitable. For instance, there is no permanence for the ungrateful who have not followed the path of the guardianship of the Commander of the Faithful as the complete and perfect divine guardian, and they will one day be eradicated by Jews and Christians. The Jews, a resentful, vengeful, corrupt, belligerent, industrious, and farsighted people, will not relent until they have eliminated the Sunnis. Islam will endure only in the name of Shi’ism, meaning the true followers and devotees of the Commander of the Faithful, provided Shi’ites correctly understand and follow the true path and conduct of his guardianship, not the fraudulent or hypocritical claims of guardianship that may belong to the accursed and misguided, and provided Shi’ites do not support or align with erroneous beliefs and convictions.

The Visage of Oppression and Righteousness

The intrinsic beloved, with the visage of oppression and righteousness of their belovedness, exposes and humiliates the falsehood of the accursed. The higher the quality of the divine beloved’s righteousness and the greater their degree of perfection and completeness, the more intense their oppression, intertwined with righteousness and allure, and the more harm they endure from creation.

This oppression arises from purity, love, and righteousness, resulting from enduring affliction through the trials of the essence’s valleys and realizing the stations of estrangement, immersion, concealment, and divinely bestowed guardianship, not from weakness or incapacity.

This oppressed existence conveys the message of truth and the disgrace of brazen falsehood to truth-seekers. This visage of oppression, stemming from righteousness and affliction, coupled with the attribute of divine belovedness and the revelation of their freedom, inspires freedom-seekers and truth-seekers with a love for their complete and perfect truth, making them beloved and exemplars in exposing the traps of falsehood, the slaughterhouses of deceivers, and the overthrow of the oppression of hypocrites.

The Capacity to Accompany Intrinsic Beloveds

If one lacks the capacity to accept the decrees of the divine beloved or bear the weight of their manifestation yet constantly remains in their presence and partakes of them, like one who consumes excessive saffron, their mental and heartfelt faculties burn, leading to profound misunderstandings, heavy delusions, persistent imitations, and even potential psychosis.

Accompanying a beloved requires capacity. One lacking the capacity to be with a beloved burns themselves, not because the beloved burns them.

The worst obstacle to accepting a beloved guardian is arrogance, self-aggrandizement, and haughtiness, which lead to nothing but beggary.

The Beauty of the Known

The beauty of enjoining the known is the living divine guardian who commands all to obey the Exalted Truth and forbids obedience to anything else, guiding toward a life of love.

The authentic guardian is akin to a speaking, living Quran. The authentic guardian is the beauty of the “known,” and the loyal companions of the authentic guardian are the army of enjoining the known. The vilest face of the “reprehensible” is illicit guardianship and the covetous, tyrannical visage, which is forbidden.

Guardianship Stratagems

The beloved is replete with guardianship stratagems. In both their actions and writings, they operate and write in such a way that no one can definitively pin evidence or catch them with certainty. Their approach is so multifaceted and intricate that they can easily deny or disavow anything, surrounding it with indications that keep the path open to interpret their actions as they wish. Ultimately, nothing exists but God, the possessor of every decree. Beloveds are not prone to speech or discourse, rarely speaking or explaining their actions in advance.

The Spirit of God

The divine guardian (walī ilāhī) bestows divine life upon an individual, breathing the spirit of God into humanity. This guardian is the very manifestation of the Lord, embodying divine names and attributes. Consequently, fidelity to the divine guardian is tantamount to fidelity to God Himself. An individual bereft of a guardian and master remains unawakened, failing to realize their true essence, devoid of the name of the Lord (Rabb) and the divine essence, thus spiritually lifeless and akin to a corpse.

The divine guardian acquaints people with the light of guidance, delineating the boundary between truth and falsehood in every matter. Should people seek to revive their rights, the guardian aids them. Enlightened individuals, in turn, become supporters of the rightful guardian, assisting in matters of faith and pursuing the truth of their cause. Deviation from this path leads to entanglement in the camp of falsehood, aligning with tyrants, oppression, corruption, and the dominion of arrogance and despotism, even waging war against the rightful guardian—an act of immense loss and eternal ruin.

In the era of occultation, divine beloveds can extend their guidance to humanity. They prune the flourishing tree of spiritual and human perfections, cleansing it of delusions, baseless beliefs, and religions tainted by deceitful greed. This enables individuals to pursue a path of pure and authentic growth toward rationality, knowledge, and the attributes of phenomena in the realm of thought, followed by gnosis and recognition of the existential aspect of phenomena in the realm of the heart, and ultimately to the essence of the Exalted Truth in the realm of the spirit. Through the strengthening of will, they attain vision, proximity, and realization in the realm of action.

The Straight Path

While all created phenomena manifest the divine will of the Exalted Truth, the “Straight Path” (sirāṭ mustaqīm) and divine structure are exclusively embodied by the intrinsic, beloved, and divinely graced guardians. A devotee (muḥibb) must turn to a divine beloved to embark on a short, swift journey along the Straight Path, which aligns with God’s intent, decree, and indeed, His love.

Through the intoxication and love received from the beloved, the devotee shortens their journey, accelerating their spiritual movement. Following a fellow devotee does not yield such intoxication or profound awakening and is less effective. It is the beloveds who can assume the role of guiding and nurturing devotees. Thus, the foremost principle for a devoted wayfarer is to seek the beloveds with a lantern in hand, cherishing their rare and precious presence upon finding one, valuing their companionship, and serving them until the dawn of their divine sovereignty breaks.

The upbringing of a beloved is perpetually immersed in love, affection, and unity, leaving no room for otherness, duality, excommunication, denial, enmity, resentment, malice, or grudge. They refrain from even the slightest criticism of others. In attaining the Exalted Truth, the beloved perceives no stranger and honors every entity for its designated rank and limited manifestation.

The initial stage of a devotee’s perfection lies in possessing ardor. Without the fervor of longing, a wayfarer’s life becomes tedious. It is this longing, zeal, and, above all, love that imbue the devotee’s life with meaning, dispelling the monotony of repetition.

The Unitary Gnosis of the Beloved and the Fragmented Journey of Devotees

Gnosis (ʿirfān) entails the tangible realization of the Exalted Truth through the inner self under divine lordship and upbringing. The subject of gnosis is knowledge (maʿrifa), which, at the introductory stage of instruction, transforms into science (ʿilm).

Gnosis and spiritual wayfaring (sulūk) are not matters of conceptual or intellectual sciences but are heartfelt, authoritative, and practical. While knowledge and awareness are prerequisites for wayfaring, knowing the map of the path does not equate to traversing it. Semantic sciences must be lived. Although any science possessing a prescriptive quality is inherently powerful, conceptual sciences—accurately termed “information” with a narrative or descriptive aspect—are merely concepts and reports.

Love and gnosis are not attained through reading texts or partaking in the communal meals of a khanqah. Rather, it is devotion, conscious journeying, and divine proximity that grant the power of steadfastness.

An effortful or material (nāsūtī) wayfarer driven by desire and greed may be blameworthy and fiery, like Pharaoh, or praiseworthy and luminous. A praiseworthy wayfarer may be benevolent, seeking their own good without wishing harm on others, or superior, desiring both their own good and that of others.

Devotee wayfarers harbor limited earthly desires and selfishness, striving to fulfill their wants, hence they are termed material wayfarers. They are divided into two groups: novices and devoted disciples. Novice devotees pursue a wholesome life in harmony with others, their aspirations not wholly tethered to worldly attachments. Devoted disciples find contentment in their devotion to a divine guardian, which diminishes their selfishness, yet they do not consent to afflictions. They seek to avoid sins and attain virtues, provided no harm befalls them. Their perfections are of the material realm, and their gnosis does not surpass the gratitude for pleasant blessings. When faced with hardship, they lack resilience and prefer escape.

Proximate wayfarers and beloved devotees emerge from material wayfarers, sharing the same initial journey but transcending its confines to ascend higher. They master the material realm and willingly abandon it, finding no savor in it. Some, at the time of death, possess no worldly goods, having inherited only its afflictions. The ultimate destination of proximate beloveds is the realization of one of the divine names, which may be an active or descriptive attribute. Most prophets were proximate beloveds—devotees who, through effort and asceticism, attained one of the names of the Exalted Truth at varying stages and ages.

Proximate wayfarers can emulate true beloveds, aligning some of their desires with truth. For instance, they may eliminate greed toward others, greeting them without coveting their possessions, seeking to alleviate loneliness, or pursuing personal gain or even goodwill, instead viewing others as manifestations and servants of God. Next, they must eradicate self-directed greed, a more arduous stage, where one ceases to derive benefit from oneself.

In the third stage of severing greed, desire for the Exalted Truth and the Lord of the worlds is relinquished. Friendship with God becomes rooted in companionship, unaffected by His possessions, powers, paradise, hell, or realms. One can only accompany God by gradually abandoning the pursuit of desires and begging, leaving no hand outstretched for personal gain. This path leads to proximity or realization of the love of the Exalted Truth by divine permission.

The Station of Discipleship under a Beloved Master

In gnosis and divine proximity, an individual’s worth is determined by their master and their knowledge of their master’s station. One who attains the privilege of studying under a true beloved master, grounded in knowledge and awareness rather than imitation, holds a higher rank.

The principle of “master-centrality” is a cornerstone of spiritual wayfaring, indeed its most pivotal element. An individual’s inner reality and proximity to the Exalted Truth are directly tied to the master’s power and station. Thus, a person’s rank is discerned through their master. One can become attuned to the unseen realms only if it is clear from whom they have received guidance and who has accepted and guided them to realization.

In the spiritual journey, companionship with an experienced elder or beloved master is possible only through inner absorption and an innate love and devotion to them. The disciple’s love and devotion to the master ensure they harbor no doubts, avoid conditional agreements, and refrain from setting terms for companionship, aligning with the master wholeheartedly and sincerely.

The realization of the heart, its wisdom, and spiritual knowledge requires trust and resolute commitment to the master. Trust and determination are the sources of strength in the journey and human empowerment. While one must verify the master’s authenticity and the validity of their path, those who cannot find a master they can trust and commit to will not attain the heart or gnosis. Initially, trusting a master and their path risks one’s future, causing hesitation and undermining trust and resolve. This is the greatest barrier to success. Once complete trust and conviction in the guide are achieved, no doubts or conditions should arise.

The Devotee Wayfarer

A devotee wayfarer must become seasoned and resilient, shedding indolence, consuming lawful sustenance, embracing solitude and darkness, seeking aid through forgiveness and sacrifice, reflecting the character of those with gnosis, and maintaining trust and conviction in their journey. They acquire gnosis gradually through asceticism and effort, dedicating time to it and banishing despair, for sometimes decades of persistence are needed to open a door. They must perform their duties well, knowing that the outcome is not their concern.

Asceticism, worship, sleep, inner purity, health, sincerity, solitude, and avoidance of multiplicity, falsehood, oppression, and the forbidden are essential. However, the novice wayfarer cannot comprehend the results, except in certain effects like ecstasy or sorrow. In gnosis, one should not seek what asceticism yields but remain a servant, content with whatever God places in their path.

The heart can attain divine matters, the purity of love and gnosis, and, at a higher level, the spirit, unity, and truth. These grant the power of awareness, up to divinely inspired knowledge, or the power of action, up to miracles. Intellectual power surpasses practical power. Perfect guardians excel in both gnosis and action, while other guardians vary in their strength in either gnosis or action, gaining rank and virtue accordingly.

Divine proximity plays a fundamental role in the gift of gnosis. It is a powerful attractive field that preserves the heart within a specific domain, enveloped in divine mercy and grace, exposing it to divine realities and truths. The heart’s fervor, tranquility, dignity, calmness, and purity are signs of companionship and proximity to God.

The Heart of the Devotee

In the journey of devotees, one attains a heart after passing through the stages of beginnings, gates, transactions, and ethics, entering the fifth stage of “principles.” Such an individual has established a “foundation,” becoming trustworthy, a reliable confidant to whom secrets can be entrusted. They possess a heart, its blossom, and its fruit, their heart enriched by spiritual exercises, proximity, and the “secret” (sirr). They make no outward claims, asserting nothing, and are a steadfast trustee of divine secrets bestowed upon them as a trust. Their foundation is the heart, and the subsequent stage of the “secret” is the blossom of their heart. Indeed, divine secrets are the growth of the heart and divine effusion, with the fruit of the heart’s growth being divine bestowal and grace.

The “secret” and aptitude for spiritual wayfaring must be an innate gift within the individual’s inner self. Otherwise, acquired or scholastic gnosis cannot yield the “secret.” One must possess an inherent aptitude for wayfaring, honed through acceptance of a spiritual master and adherence to their spiritual prescriptions, effectively unlocking this hidden treasure. The gnostic discovers and consciously realizes their latent inner qualities, dwelling in their presence.

In spiritual wayfaring, the individual does not seek to receive something but must recognize and uncover their own latent talents and capacities. Gnosis is not instructional but proximate, involving the rediscovery of inner foundations under the guidance of a master, a matter of realization and attainment. In wayfaring, one must first find oneself, then relinquish and lose the self, allowing the Exalted Truth and His decrees to govern.

In the divine order of perfection, wherever the mind, heart, or ego asserts illusory independence, it will be humbled and broken. The mind and heart must be purified of the delusion of possessing an autonomous essence, whether alongside or in extension of the blessed divine essence.

Thought and intellect are swiftly corrupted by a single nudge or the infiltration of seductive, delusion-inducing semantic factors, rendering the mind unreliable and unworthy of pride.

One who attains the station of the heart is relieved of fear, anxiety, and regret, becoming a wayfarer free of fear and sorrow. The journey toward proximity and the attainment of wisdom begins at this station.

Based on the foregoing, humanity pursues two paths of realization: a philosophical, rational, and intellectual attainment, and a present, heartfelt attainment. Heartfelt presence is particular and real, a personal, tangible, and concrete realization of the Exalted Truth and phenomena.

The sole station of this realization in the gnosis of the beloved is the negation of greed and living with pure love, encompassing gnosis, expansiveness, openness, sincerity, prayer, need, and charm.

Mental and Heartfelt Inspirations

Through the negation of greed, one can attain the silence of the mind, liberation from mental and psychic inspirations, and access to the heart, activating this engine of awareness. This progresses through the three distinct stages of the “secret” (annihilation and unity of actions), the “hidden” (effacement and unity of attributes), and the “most hidden” (obliteration and unity of essence), reaching the state of non-determination.

Psychic inspirations, distinct from rational ones, that enter the mind are either formal (possessing form and representation) and satanic or spiritual and divine. Satanic formal inspirations may arise from the interference of a tainted mind and body, producing false imaginings, or from semantic factors like demons, devoid of truth. Such interferences do not affect intrinsic and true beloveds, who possess relative infallibility by divine gift.

The agent and purpose of divine spiritual inspirations are the Exalted Truth Himself, with proximity as their aim and the Lord as their agent. These inspirations are endowed with a proximate and lordly aspect, while formal inspirations lack any such quality.

Divine inspirations yield either knowledge of fixed truths or mutable events and incidents. These matters, whether spiritual or formal, may be unmediated or facilitated by intermediaries such as magic and sorcery, which are esoteric and inner matters, not rational (unlike sleight of hand or trickery, which lack spiritual or esoteric dimensions and are rational). Other intermediaries include the employment of jinn or angels, appointing a guardian, or accepting a perfect complement.

The human mind pursues education, skills, employment, income, and material affairs without regard for eternal felicity, driven by profit. Even if prosperous in material terms, life remains fraught with distress and dissatisfaction unless the mind surrenders to the higher realm of management—the heart, love, affection, and the capacity for sacrifice. A mind subservient to the heart, enriched by the wisdom of the heart and spiritual knowledge, becomes steadfast, resilient, and hopeful in the divine vista ahead. “Wisdom” entails perceiving the inner reality, possessing interpretation, penetrating the truth of every matter and event, and foreseeing the outcome and divine intent behind each action. One estranged from passion and love, unable to access the inner reality or connect with the unseen, lacks insight and foresight, becoming superficial, imitative, and shallow.

Through the heart, humanity can unlock the divine dominion within, reaching divine revelation and inspiration. The inner self must be pure to apprehend the truths of diverse imaginal and intellectual realms.

The Distinction Between Mind and Intellect

With inner purity, mental awareness can submit to a heart imbued with divine grace, transforming into an intellect aligned with the heart. Rather than conflicting with the heart, it draws greater purity and radiance from it. Similarly, a strong mind and inner self can subdue inclinations and desires, taming their commanding nature. Conversely, if desires overpower the mind and valid awareness, they weaken intellect and mind, interfering in decision-making.

The mind provides the path to perfection and a blueprint for development, but the heart leads the way, delivering truths and realizing development. The mind speaks of the attributes of phenomena, at best constructing philosophy, while the heart delivers the very determination and truth itself, embodying the presence, vision, or realization of truth. The pinnacle of heartfelt awareness and gnosis is bewilderment, where the knower believes in the truth but cannot grasp its essence.

Mental knowledge is beneficial only if one first cultivates the capacity and foundation for it, fostering fidelity, love, purity, affection, and devotion to the source of knowledge. Through knowledge and affirmations, one reaches the heart and its vitality, loving and drawing life from it, regarding the source of knowledge as its progenitor. One must not act like a leech, greedily and mercenarily exploiting another, adding to their arrogance and pride. When no further benefit or gain is perceived, such a person detaches harshly, like a swollen leech, not only untroubled by their separation from the source of knowledge but immersed in callousness, corruption, impurity, misery, and ingratitude until their demise.

Callousness, the hardening of the heart, is not contingent on faith, disbelief, knowledge, or ignorance. It afflicts those lacking awe, humility, and gentleness, dominated by force, bullying, and tyranny. Such individuals do not become scholars or sages but masters of techniques, skilled in accumulating and retaining information and concepts. Instead of vibrant, life-giving knowledge, they succumb to the stagnation of skill, self-destruction, delusion, obsession, and self-satisfaction, embodying “one who walks with his face downward.”

Awareness is either sensory and experiential, acquired gradually and uncertainly, or derived from rational, demonstrative thought and conceptual reflection. At a higher level, it manifests through the vitality of the heart as inner or overwhelming awareness, which may be divine and bestowed. Thus, human insights may be mental (sensory, imaginative, illusory, or rational), heartfelt, or spiritual in the realm of transcendence.

Human senses are numerous, with major senses counted at fewer than twenty, akin to colors, which are infinite but categorized into a few primary hues. The mind is confined to material matters unless it attains intellectual vitality and inclines toward disciplines like philosophy and gnosis. Though bound by linguistic limits, it can point to the heart and surrender to it.

One seeking knowledge, awareness, and gnosis experiences their gradual effects, but attaining the heart, spiritual wayfaring, and the divine secret demands patience, lawful sustenance, avoidance of oppression and falsehood, renunciation of greed, and ultimately love and unity. The peak of human selfishness crumbles under the needle of wayfaring, not incrementally but suddenly, after years of persistence, when a summit turns to dust and vanishes. This requires immense time, patience, and endurance until a door opens abruptly, a moment equaling decades of effort.

Knowledge pertains to gradual matters, but gnosis is sudden, though its foundations form gradually. In knowledge, daily effort and results are clear, but gnosis is different, with the wayfarer sometimes pounding at their inner self for years, feeling stagnant, until a door opens suddenly—or they may fail after decades. In academia, this is not so; a student learns daily, and none can master a year’s knowledge in a day.

Another distinction between knowledge and gnosis is that doubt and conditions are the wayfarer’s greatest pitfalls. One who doubts or sets conditions in wayfaring is like an ant falling from a height arduously climbed, forced to retrace the path with great effort. Yet, a scholar’s doubt fosters the growth of their knowledge.

The heart, its wisdom, the spirit, and its knowledge are attained through vision and realization, a spring embedded within humanity. In devotees, this spring is covered by the dust of desires, worldly heedlessness, and whims, which must be cleared through worship, devotion to the Quran, and the structure of spiritual wayfaring to approach its pure, gushing water. Every act of worship and effort is like a pickaxe striking the inner ground of devotees, digging toward the spring of gnosis within, which brings vision, proximity, or realization.

For novices, dreams and representations, like vision, yield wisdom and awareness, especially if the connected imagination is pure. Subsequently, accessing the heart and connecting to the external disconnected imagination, beholding the realms of emanation, and then the truths of divine presences grant awareness. Generally, the gnosis and wayfaring of devotees, particularly through lawful nourishment, spiritual diet, adequate sleep, self-care, unity over multiplicity, and master-centrality, form a reciprocal, interdependent relationship: wayfaring yields gnosis, and gnosis fosters wayfaring.

Inner, overwhelming awareness, knowledge of truth, and divine inspirations enter the hearts of those who restrain mental temptations, block the infiltration of false demons and deceivers, and calm their hearts. Truths enter tranquil, assured hearts, granting them awareness and gnosis.

Proximity of Obligations and Supererogatory Acts

I have discussed the four types of proximity and the two categories of proximity through obligations (farāʾiḍ) and supererogatory acts (nawāfil) in Awareness and the Divine Human. Obligation is true, mandatory proximity, the infusion of the Exalted Truth into creation, where the Truth is the agent acting through the servant’s limbs and faculties. Supererogatory acts are non-mandatory proximity, the infusion of creation into the Truth, where the individual is involved as the agent acting through the limbs of the Exalted Truth. This terminology derives from sacred traditions and has entered gnostic discourse.

The nearest and most effective path to proximity is through obligations, which must be prioritized. The proximity of obligations leads to annihilation and effusion. The annihilation of the gnostic is real and tangible, not merely intellectual.

The pinnacle of obligatory proximity is guardianship (wilāya) and infallibility, bestowed innately by divine gift, wholly dependent on divine will, grace, love, and affection. Thus, belovedness entails guardianship, prophethood, messengership, and leadership (imamate). Infallibility and guardianship are the inner essence of prophethood, messengership, and leadership, the noblest of human perfections. The guardian and prophet are intermediaries of the Exalted Truth with manifestation and emanation, while the imam ensures their continuity, guaranteeing their persistence through infallible knowledge and action.

If divine will and decree favor an individual with special grace, impurity and defilement are removed from them. Through His natural system, God honors their material particles for centuries, culminating in a moment of conception where the miracle of a true, intrinsic beloved is formed, just as a she-camel emerges from a mountain in an instant. This power is the essence, condensation, and culmination of divine grace, will, and belovedness.