(Ishtibah) is the perplexity which is experienced when endeavouring to determine truth from falsehood.
Du'a - see 'Supplication'.
(Anqa/Simurgh). The mythical griffon or phoenix which dwells on Mount Qaf. It is the greatest of birds and lives at the world's end. It symbolizes the wind in and with which Allah spiritually opens the material bodies of the world. It is a symbol of ...
(Jism). Man consists of a body and a spirit which governs that body. In being referred to as 'the great man' the cosmos is also a body containing a spirit which governs it. The spirit of the cosmos is the Perfect Man. The bodies of the Prophets of A...
(Hajj). Pilgrimage to the Sacred Mosque, the House of Allah, at the Centre of Mecca. Hajj is the Ultimate Journey to Knowledge of Allah Who dwells in the secret centre of the human heart. Here the treasury of spiritual realities is to be discovered. ...
The Islamic pilgrimage is one of the ethics of the Sufis. It is the goal that they strive for. The pilgrimage of the Sufi is in a whole other category from that of the ordinary Muslim. As far as the pilgrimage to Mecca, most perform it once in a li...
(Awtad). Within the Sufi hierarchy there are Four True Men, al Awtad, the Pillars, whose stations are the four corners of the world - East, West, North, South.
(Al Murshi). The Pilot/Instructor. One of the beautiful Names of Allah.
(Makan). Elevation is of two kinds one is elevation in rank (makanah) and the other is elevation in place (makan) and mankind is described by both. Elevation in place pertains to works and worship, for it is through works and worship that man is elev...
(Mathar). The person who experiences unveiling sees the lights as places of disclosure (mathar) within the imaginal realm. These lights abound according to the purity of the 'secret' of the one with unveiling. The cosmos is the place of manifestatio...
(Ma'ad). The Place of Return, the future world, the destination, the Promised End. "Verily He Who has ordained the Qur'an for thee, will bring you back to the Place of Return" (The Qur'an 28:85). The Place of Return is the terminus of the ascent.
(Majla). Place or locus of Divine Self-disclosure and revelation. The cosmos was given existence purely and solely to be a place for the manifestation of the Divine Names. And man was given existence purely and solely to develop himself into the Per...
(Majlis). Allah says "I am sitting with the one who remembers Me". There is no 'place of sitting' more honourable or more perfect than sitting in the Remembrance of Allah
(Mashhad). The place or locus of witnessing. This place is the heart because the Divine Self-disclosure leaves a trace in the heart which bears witness to what has been seen.
(Mashahid). The places or loci of witnessing.
