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| Seven Levels of Being Shaikh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi Adapted from the ‘Marifetname’ of Hd.
Ibrahim Hakki Erzurumi (1703-1780)
Nafs al Ammara is a manifestation of the
animal soul in man, while the six steps above the evil commanding ego are
the development of the human soul, which is also called the Nafs an
Natiqah, the being who can communicate with speech, or the Rational
Being. The next six levels are:
Nafs al Ammarah In this first level of the development of man, the rational self and human conscience have been defeated by lust and carnal desires. At this stage, our self does not recognize any rational or moral barriers to get what it wants. It expresses itself in selfishness, arrogance, ambition, stinginess, envy, anger, cynicism, laziness and stupidity. Originally, nafs, one's self, identity, ones own personality and reality, is one of the Creator's gifts to man. But because we allow it to lean towards material values, to take pleasure only in worldly life, and because we succumb to fleshly lusts, it has turned ugly and become almost animal-like, while its shape remains that of a human being. It is a fauve camouflaged in the appearance of man, a mad wild animal which bites and claws itself as well as others. This ego is our private devil, our worst enemy, who is living inside us, dominating and tyrannizing us and keeping our human soul imprisoned and forgotten in the depths of our subconscious. If we are fortunate enough to be led by a guide to seek a better state, then the devil whispers in our ear: "What business do you have to be on this path? Don't you see that everyone who was on this Path sooner or later died? All that remains of them is a few words. I know that you want the Truth, but where are the wise ones who would be able to teach you anything? Show me a single saintly man who receives revelations, who can show miracles! They belonged to another time. Now is the time of facts, of science, of prosperity, and the good life. If you want to be religious - all right! Go to the mosque, pray, fast, and pray that the spirits of these holy men of the past help you, for there is no teacher alive worth your while!" Thus the devil hides the truth. Kufr,
infidelity, means covering, hiding in Arabic. Kafir, the infidel,
means the one who hides something. The devil conceals the fact that at all
times there are perfect men in the world and worthy teachers who can lead
one to salvation. But if the seeker pays any attention to the
insinuations of the devil, he suffers doubt about his teacher, he is
called away from the Path, his efforts are slowed down, and he will lend
his ear to the whispers of the accursed devil again. This time he will
say, "Allah is forgiving, count on His Mercy; He does not dislike
people who do things which He permits. Be kind to yourself and don't
tyrannize yourself. If you are kind towards your ego and give it things it
wants, then it will obey you!" If the seeker is fooled by these
temptations, he will start having doubts; he will then be unclear as to
whether things are lawful or unlawful, whether they are right or wrong.
When that happens, he is more likely to opt for the unlawful, since it is
usually more pleasing to the senses. And the more his senses are
satisfied, the more his heart will be blinded and hardened, and the more
he will be led towards evil. On the level of the evil commanding ego,
all these influences are very heavy. To get out from under them, someone
strong has to hold you by your hand and extricate you. It is very
difficult if not impossible to do it by yourself. But through Allah's help, you may hear the
voice of reason which says, "To do what Allah permits one to do out
of His Mercy, instead of doing that which He orders us to do, is the
profession of creatures who are lazy." For the true servants of
Allah, it is an obligation to live according to the rules of Shariat and
the ideals of the Tariqat. And if we either follow this rational decision, which is an undeserved gift of Allah Most High, or we are rescued from our misery by a strong teacher, then we may rise to the second level of Nafs al Lawwamah. Thus the soul is pulled out from the dark dungeon of the ego to the light of conscience, and we will see our arrogance being transformed into humility, vengefulness and hate into love, anger into kindness, lust into chastity. . . If Allah so wills. Nafs al Lawwamah This is the second step in the development
of man, when man becomes aware of his actions, is able to differentiate
right from wrong, and regrets his wrong doings. Yet he is not able to
totally stop doing wrong because it is very difficult to break the habits
of his previous state. He tries to follow the obligations of his religion
and he prays, fasts, pays alms and tries to behave properly. But he wants
to be known as a reformed person. He publicizes his piety, his good deeds,
and expects appreciation from people. This makes his behavior
hypocritical. Sometimes he realizes this, regrets it, and tries to change.
Hypocrisy, a major sin, is the principal danger in
this state. There are two other grave dangers as well: arrogance
and anger. Every little attempt to be good, compared to the
previous state, seems like a major achievement. So we think we are the
best, and get angry with others who do not seem to respect us. Arrogance,
lying to ourselves, hypocrisy, anger, and intolerance are the soldiers of
the devil. At the level of Nafs al Lawwamah we are not safe from the
devil, who injects his character of arrogance into our veins and whispers
into our ear: "You are as good as your teachers now; not only do you
know as much as they do, the way you behave is better. If they were able
to apply what they teach in their own lives they wouldn't be half what you
are. You don't need their preaching or their advice. Now let people see
your wisdom and your deeds so that you will be an example to them."
Not only the whisperings of the devil, but all worldly life, is against
the seeker at this stage. Certainly the world cannot lose its
attractiveness for him; it calls to and tempts him. If the resolve of the seeker is weak, he will be afflicted with arrogance, not listen to good advice, and in fact, fight with the ones who wish for his well being, thinking they are belittling him and behaving in a superior manner. In anger, he may attempt to do much greater deeds than he is incapable of, and fail. Failure will further anger him. His mood will become dark, disappointed; he will think he took the wrong way, that he was better off before, and he may blame the ones who led him to this Path, falling back to his previous condition of being an animal in human shape. If he is warned at the beginning of the
second step of Nafs al Lawwamah of these dangers, and if he is intelligent
enough not to release the hand that leads him, and if he follows the
advice on how to fight the three enemies of hypocrisy, anger, and
arrogance, he will pass this stage quickly. The longer one lingers in this
transitory stage, the worse will be the trials. The cure for
hypocrisy is to realize how the value of everything in the world,
including the opinions of others, is temporal, inconstant and subjective,
changing from minute to minute, from place to place, from person to
person, and finally disappearing. Therefore, one should opt for that which
is permanent, eternal, and powerful instead of something which may be here
now and gone tomorrow. What fool lights a candle when the sun is out? Do
not count on the respect and the praise of others, and do not fear them.
For it is said, "Whoever praises you is your enemy because he is the
ally of your enemy, and whoever points out what is wrong with you is the
enemy of your enemy." The cure for
arrogance is to remember that your beginning came from a drop of
semen from your father and an ovum in your mother's belly, and that your
end will be as a rotten corpse in the ground. Beauty, strength,
intelligence, will soon dwindle and disappear. All your fortune,
properties, reputation, and friends will be excluded when you are lowered
alone into your tomb. Your prayers, piety and good deeds, if performed to
impress others, will evaporate, and worse still, may turn against you. Realize that all you have, including your
body and your very life, is not yours, but lent to you and entrusted to
you by your Creator. Your actions are also His if they are good, and when
they are bad, it is you who are tyrannizing yourself. Offer thanks for
everything, and feel shame your wrongdoings; then you will be humble. The
fall of the one who stands low is much less painful than the one who falls
from high. The cure for anger
is basically accomplished if you can cure your arrogance. It is the
arrogant one who becomes angered by adversity, or even by lack of
sufficient rewards which he thinks he is owed. The negative emotion of
anger, when it flares up, is faster than the rational effort to suppress
it. Once anger has caught fire it is difficult to extinguish. Like fire,
it burns all that is human in us; compassion, love, gentleness,
generosity, the ability to communicate, to think of consequences, and
intelligence are all reduced to ashes. All that remains is a dangerous
wounded wild animal. As a remedy to recall and remember our
humanity, The Messenger of Allah (saws) suggests that when anger strikes,
immediately you should change your posture. If you were standing, you
should sit. If you were sitting you should fall to your knees. It is
difficult to shout and curse in the most humble position of kneeling. Or you should lie on your back and pray: "Oh Lord, enrich me with knowledge, beautify me with kindness, give me the gift of piety and the fear and love of You and sanity and health, Amin" Or you should go and take ablution with
cold water. If we could avoid these dangers, with Allah's will and the guidance of our religion, and the help of our teacher, and our wish to advance, we might rise to the third level of Nafs al Mulhimah, the level where we receives the Lord's inspirations.
Nafs al Mulhimah This is a stage when the seeker is rewarded
for his efforts, persistence, and obedience to his teacher. Now he
occasionally receives messages from inside of him: soundless wordless
inspirations that give him direction, encouragement, and the strength to
continue in his advancement. Yet there are still
grave dangers, the worst of which is that the devil is capable of
imitating divine inspirations, and the seeker may not be able to
differentiate between them. That is why at this stage the guidance
of a master is so necessary, one who will be able to distinguish the true
inspirations from the false imaginations inspired by the devil. It is during this period that the relation
between the seeker and his master has to be the closest. The seeker should
not hide anything from his teacher: he should reveal all his hopes, his
fears, his faults; even if he feels resentment or opposition to his
teacher, he has to confess these to him. They are like the symptoms of a
disease that a sick person must reveal to the doctor in whom he has
confidence. Just as he heeds the advice given or the diet prescribed, or
diligently takes the medicine given, if he obeys the counsel of his
master, he will be able to advance. The voice of the ego
could easily be mistaken for inspiration, especially when the ego changes
its vocabulary from material to spiritual. Its aim is to isolate
the seeker from his fellow seekers and from their teacher. His brothers on
the Path may appear to him as obsequious slaves of the master, and the
master as a self-centered tyrant taking advantage of his followers;
actually, his brothers and his masters are the mirrors in whom he sees his
own ugliness. When this happens, the accursed devil
speaks to him, pretending to be an inspiration, and says; "Now you
have seen and understood everything. Now you know it all. You are a wise
man, a teacher yourself. Why do you have to obey, and do all these
unnecessary things that your teacher imposes on you. He is trying to
pretend that he is still above you. Let him and his followers who have not
penetrated to the inner meaning of things keep doing the exterior work of
praying and serving. You are now at a level where your Lord talks to you
directly. So do the inner work: meditate, try to listen to the secret
messages coming to you..." In this storm, the only life preserver that
will save him from drowning will be the rules of his religion. He should
pray, fast, and give alms with more fervor and attention than he ever did.
Above all he should try to revive the feelings of love in him that he once
felt for the shaikh and his brothers on the Path. For love cures all ills
and the lover is able to follow all the wishes of the beloved. Another affliction during this period is a change in understanding and sensibility. It is as if he forgets all that he knew, even his idea of himself. New impressions do not correspond to the old ones. He is apt to see things differently, to misunderstand them, to make mistakes. He feels as if he does not exist. He may imagine that he has reached the final level of Fana Fillah - to lose oneself in Allah. But this feeling has nothing to do with that high state. He should realize that it is a state of helplessness, of emptiness, a state of desperate need, the state of Fakr, the state which is praised by our Prophet (saws), who said, "I am proud of my fakr." But, if the seeker has tired of waging
battle against his ego and has become reluctant in the performance of his
religious duties, then he hears the voice of the devil again, "Your
Lord is your secret and you are the secret of your Lord. You have reached
the final goal of losing yourself in God, the Eternal One. All that was
forbidden or were obligations for his other servants do not apply to you.
Whatever comes to your mind, do, for all you do is from Him and is right.
You have no accountability." May Allah protect us from such an eventuality, for failing in this state is like falling down from a high rooftop. It is deadly. It kills the heart. The one without a heart has no conscience or fear of God; he becomes a toy of the devil. He steals, kills, drinks, debauches; there is no limit to the sins he commits. He is also blinded when he is about to fall into the pit of hell; when his shaikh and his brothers on the Path try to hold him, he kicks and tears at them, and there is danger that he may pull them down to hell with him. But Allah, the All-Powerful, will save the ones who are heedful to the warnings, and who hold on to their religion and to the hand of their teacher, and who nourish the love which they feel for their shaikh and their brothers on the Path for Allah's sake. And surely he will be pulled to the level of peace and harmony in the realms of Nafs al Mutmainnah. Nafs al Mutmainnah This stage is the safe place reached by the seeker after a long and difficult struggle with his private devil, his ego, and the army of devils tempting him in his worldly life. To be able to reach this level, he must have subdued both of them. Thus he is comparatively free of dangers. Now he is under the command of his human soul, which takes pleasure in following the rules of the religion and the example of the Prophet (saws). He possesses the qualities which Allah praises: he is kind, generous, patient, forgiving, sincere, thankful, content, and at peace. He has heard Allah say: "O the one who has found peace He finds his peace, his happiness, his
delight, in his Lord. He has been given heaven on earth. He enters
Paradise in this very life. Every word that comes from his lips is either from the Holy Qur'an, or from the tradition of the Prophet (saws), or from the teaching of the saints. His worship and devotions are nourishment for the growth of his soul. He is a teacher not only through words, but by example. Miracles that transpire through him, he attributes to other causes, never claiming them, disowning them to the point of denying them. His every action corresponds to the rules of the religion. He has regained his name of Insan, a true human being; the name is derived from the word uns, being close, intimate with ones Lord. Thus his Lord will take him by the hand, and lead him forward without much difficulty from now on. Nafs ar Radiyyah Alas! Very few men can aspire to reach this high state. Up to and including this level, the seeker is taught by words and/or examples of others than himself, through Ilm al Yaqin, acquired knowledge. Now he has approached the level of knowledge through personal experience and revelations: Ayn al Yaqin, Certitude. Up until now, everything was relative. Now he is offered the Truth. The manifestation of this state is love, all-enveloping love. He sees all and everything as Allah's perfect acts, thus loving them as the actions, fil, of the Beloved. He achieves perfect submission to everything that happens. That is the "Truth of Islam". There is perfect harmony, of which he is aware. There are no possibilities of error as he is the master of his ego, and the ego itself has become a Muslim, submitting to its Lord. He does not want anything other that what he has. Therefore he does not ask for anything for himself from Allah. But when he prays for someone else, his prayers are immediately gratified. He is seated on the throne in the spiritual realm, while the exterior world is in attendance to serve. His acceptance, submission, pleasure, thankfulness, and love of his Lord are so perfect that the Lord responds with His pleasure for His servant in return. Nafs al Mardiyyah 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 that 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 Adam, become manifest in the seeker. Thus the
perfect man who has attained the level where he deserves Allah's pleasure
has lost all of his physical animal characteristics as well as his
imperfect human aspects under the command of his ego. Now Allah's
Divine Attributes are manifest in him, and he sees the Real Reality, the
Truth, because he is blessed with Ayn al Yaqin, Certitude. 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 egos and the darkness of their
worldliness. All this he does for Allah's sake and in His name. It is difficult to recognize these beings. Their state cannot be described in words. They cannot be compared to concepts one ordinarily knows. One identifiable characteristic particular to them 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. Allah asks us to, the Prophet (saws) advises us to, everyone wishes to, but no one succeeds in achieving this goal of balance except these perfect ones. Nafs al Safiyyah In the middle of everything, having found
the center, the soul finds its proper place. It is a point, without length
or width, not covering any area or space. Thus it is pure. There is no
wish, no claim. It is the beginning and the end. As it is with the
dot under the Ba and the dot over the Nun, all knowledge is
contained within it. When the being that possesses this pure soul
moves, his movement is beneficent power; when he talks it is wisdom and
music to the ears; when he appears it is beauty and joy to the beholder.
His whole being is worship; every cell in his body is in continuous praise
of his Lord. He is humble. Although he is sinless, he sheds tears of
repentance. His joy is to see man reach for his Lord; his pain is to see
him go astray. He loves the ones who serve Allah more than anything.
He is angered at the ones who revolt. All he wants for mankind is
what Allah wants, and he fears for the fate of the faithless. He is just,
more than just! He is the one who will intercede for the sinners. Allah knows best. May He guide us to the Straight Path and lead us to levels that meet His approval and give us patience, perseverance, strength and wisdom to succeed in the Path. Amin. with permission from Shaikh Tosun Bayrak
al-Jerrahi |
