The Beginning, the Middle and the End of Dhikr

The spiritual masters describe dhikr as having a beginning, which is truthful application, tawajjuh ṣādiq; a middle, which is a striking light, nūr ṭāriq; and an end, which is a piercing difficulty, ḥāl khāriq. Truthfulness here, ṣidq, should not be confused with sincerity, ikhlāṣ — it is possible to act with sincerity and still fall short of truthfulness; the two are distinct. Imam al-Nawawī, explaining this in his commentary on the second of the Forty Hadith, relates that one of the righteous heard from his uncle that he had heard Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī say: "If, on a single occasion, I could utter with pure truthfulness the words lā ilāha illallāh, there is no god but Allah, I would not care what became of me after that" — for the Prophet (peace be upon him) said that whoever says lā ilāha illallāh with sincerity, purely from the heart, will certainly enter Paradise. Even reaching that pure truthfulness is a very great challenge.

Dhikr, further, has a principle, which is purity; a branch, which is loyalty; a condition, which is presence; a carpet, which is righteous action; and a distinguishing mark, which is a manifest opening. One of the righteous says that when Allah (swt) desires to take a servant as a friend, a walī, to Himself, He will under no circumstance choose one who is ignorant — knowledge is given first, and only then does Allah draw him closer, increasing his certainty, yaqīn, continually. When Allah desires to befriend a servant, He first opens for him the door of dhikr, and the servant begins to find dhikr's pleasure so completely that sleep will not come while he is engaged in it, his every particle, by Allah, seeming to move of itself — a gift no one experiences except the sincere, true Muslim. After the servant comes to take intense pleasure, istiladhdha, in dhikr, Allah opens for him the door of nearness, al-qurb; then raises him to the gatherings of intimacy, majālis al-uns; then seats him upon a throne of oneness, removing the veils, al-ḥujub, and bringing him into the abode of singleness, where majesty and sublimity, al-jalāl, are unveiled to him. Beholding that majesty and sublimity, the servant remains without reference to himself; his lower self, the nafs, is no longer there, extinguished and immune to its own pretensions, and is protected for the sake of Allah — for Allah protects such servants.