The Language of the Future
Sufi Terminology
by Murshid F.A. Ali ElSenossi

walah
Passionate upheaval

(Walah). The passionate upheaval of extreme ecstasy. This upheaval occurs when the heart is utterly overwhelmed with love of Allah. Love such as this is pure, total and unconditional. This love does not differentiate between the Beloved's harshness and His Loving-kindness. Opposites are joined within the walah. The ecstatic does not even see the Beloved. He is blinded to everything because he has been joined to the Beloved.

See also: Bringing together Ecstasy He brings opposites together Lover-Passionate Passionate love of Allah Spiritual Concert Union

Bringing together ( jam' )

(Jam'). Bringing together or gathering or all-comprehensiveness or unification or unitive experience. A reference to Truth without creation.

Ecstasy ( wajd )

(Wajd). These are the states which come upon the heart unexpectedly. They annihilate it from witnessing itself and others. Ecstasy is the descent of immense spiritual energy upon the slave. It overwhelms the senses, causing extreme physical reactions. Ecstasy is true when body, mind and heart are overcome by this descent. Wajd may manifest as intense joy, when Allah's Beauty dominates, or as intense grief, when His Majesty dominates. It is during the spiritual concert that the lover may experience ecstasy and more ecstasy. Ecstasy is a gift of Allah's Grace upon His lover. Without these gifts of wajd the lover would be unable to bear the intensity of longing and love contained within his heart.

He brings opposites together ( jam'uhu al-diddayn )

(Jam'uhu al Diddayn). When asked, 'Through what do you know Allah?' one of the Masters answered, 'Through the fact that He brings opposites together'.

Passionate love of Allah ( 'ishq )

('Ishq). Intense, overflowing and passionate love of Allah. Some say that 'ishq cannot arise without actual vision of the Beloved. 'Ishq is the highest stage before absorption in Allah. It is as rare as the red sulphur. It burns away everything of the lover ('Ashiq) transforming him into the beloved. After annihilation in Allah and absorption in Allah, where all is blindness and there is no longer any vision, the lover is separated from the Beloved and his 'ishq burns afresh. Passionate love of Allah is without limit.

Spiritual Concert ( sama' )

(Sama'). The spiritual concert or 'audition' or 'listening'. This term refers specifically to the Sufi gatherings where music and song are employed as a means of opening the heart to inrushes of knowledge and awareness. During the spritual concert, the listener may experience ecstasy and find Allah, The Real within that ecstasy. However, before true ecstasy can be experienced the listener must be spiritually mature, having been prepared through discipline and perpetual Remembrance of Allah. Without this initial contraction of spiritual endeavour the expansion of ecstasy will not be real. The Spiritual Concert is not suitable for the novice. True Sama' is a bird which flies from Allah to Allah. Allah is the singer and Allah is the hearer. At this Divine Feast the singer and the hearer become One.

Union ( wasl )

(Wasl/Wusul). Union or joining. This term contains the idea of duality because of the joining, or union, between two. In complete union there is no duality whatsoever. Therefore, wasl is inferior to complete union. Through being the Divinity, Allah is perpetually in a state of wasl with engendered existence. "He is with you wherever you are" (The Qur'an 57:4).

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