The spiritual traveler watching his own lower self and the Divine Names and Attributes of Allah, gradually advances till ultimately he reaches the stage of total fanã (self-annihilation) that is passing away from his own perishable will and then the station of baqã (abiding in the everlasting Will of Allah). It is at this stage that the secret of eternal life is revealed to him.
We can infer this doctrine from the Holy Qur'an also if we ponder over certain verses of it.
Think not of those who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay, they are living. With their Lord they have provisions. (Surah Ãli Imran, 3: 169).
Everything will perish save His Countenance.1 (28:88)
That which you have is wasted away, and that which is with Allah remains. (Surah an Nahl, 6:96)
These verses put together show that the countenance of Allah are those "who are living and who have provisions with their Lord." According to the text of Qur'an they never perish.
From the above it is also clear what the Holy Imams meant when they said: "We are the Names of Allah." Obviously to be the head of a government or to be the highest religious and legal authority is not a position which could be described by these words. What actually these words denote is the state of passing away in Allah, abiding permanently with His countenance and being a manifestation of His glorious and beautiful Names and Attributes.
In connection with the spiritual journey another important and essential thing is meditation or contemplation (muraqabah). It is necessary for the spiritual traveler not to ignore meditation at any stage from the beginning to the end. It must be understood that meditation has many grades and is of many types. In the initial stages the spiritual traveler has to do one type of meditation and at later stages another type. As the spiritual traveler goes forward, his meditation becomes so strong that if ever it was undertaken by a beginner, he would either give it up for good or would be mad. But after successfully completing the preliminary stages, the gnostic becomes able to undertake the higher stages of meditation.
As a result of careful and diligent meditation a flame of love begins to kindle in the heart of the spiritual traveler, for it is an inborn instinct of man to love the Absolute Beauty and Perfection. But the love of material things overshadows this inherent love and does not allow it to grow and become visible.
Meditation weakens this veil till ultimately it is totally lifted. Then that innate love appears in its full splendor and leads man’s conscience towards Allah. The mystic poets often figuratively call this divine love "wine".
When the spiritual traveler has passed this stage and his meditation grows stronger, he sees as if the heaven and the earth were all illuminated from the East to the West. This light is called the light of self and is seen after the gnostic has passed the world of barzakh (material desires). When after coming out of the world of barzakh primary manifestations of self begin to occur, the spiritual traveler often feels that he is standing beside himself. This stage is the beginning of the stage of self stripping.
Sometimes it happens that the gnostic feels as if he did not exist at all. He tries to find himself but he does not succeed. These the observations of the early stages of self-stripping, but they are not free from the limitations of time and space. In the next stage, with Allah's help the spiritual traveler can rise above these limitations also and can view complete reality of his Self.
It may be mentioned here that to see the things existing in the world of barzakh is comparatively of small account. It is of greater significance to view one's own lower self (nafs) in an absolutely stripped state, for in this case self appears as a pure reality free from the limitations of time and space The viewing of the earlier stages was comparatively preliminary and partial and this viewing is so to say the perception of the whole.
Agha Sayyid Ahmad Karbalã’i, another well-known and prominent pupil of the late Akhund says: "One day I was sleeping somewhere when all of a sudden somebody awakened me and said to me: ‘Get up at once if you want to see the ‘eternal light.’ I opened my eyes and saw an immensely bright light shining everywhere and in all directions."
This is a stage of the enlightenment of Self. It appears in the shape of an Infinite Light...............................from mysticalprinciples.com
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