Some have explained ecstasy as the spirit’s being unable to bear the turmoil caused by love during reflection on God, invocations to Him, and recitations of His Names. It has also been interpreted as being the amazement, excitement, and trembling that the heart undergoes when it receives special favors from God that originate in His Grace and Majesty.

Although derived from the same root word, wajd (ecstasy) and wujud (finding) are different from one another. While finding, as will be explained later, means passing beyond the sphere of the influence of the carnal soul and the limits of corporeality and finding the Desired One as He is, free from all qualitative and quantitative considerations and restrictions, ecstasy is the overflowing of the heart with feelings of love, yearning, zeal, respect, and exaltation. Ecstasy is a surprising and unexpected emotion. The next step is the state of being in constant ecstasy as the fruit of a continuous recitation of God’s Names and His praise, glorification, and exaltation.

Ecstasy generally manifests itself in two ways:

• Some Divine gifts and manifestations of His Glory emerge in the heart, without the person’s willing or intending it. We also call this “disclosure” or “unveiling” (mukashafa), which cannot be related to any cause originating in human beings themselves.
• Ecstasy manifests itself also in the form of spiritual pleasures and zeal, or amazement and These feelings pervade the whole being and arouse in the person feelings of awe, tearfulness, and crying. This kind of ecstasy is mainly witnessed in circles where people recite God’s Names or study Divine truths together. These feelings arise unintentionally in the hearts of people. Enraptured by the sounds of the hammer used by Zarkubi in Konya, Mawlana Jalalu’d-Din Rumi^[2] said:

The souls that have clung to water and clay,

are pleased on being freed from them,

and begin to dance in the air and breezes of love,

becoming perfected like the full moon.

If ecstasy appears as the result of willful concentration and by being forced, it is called willful rapture (tawajud). This can be seen in initiates, especially at the beginning of the way. Our master, upon him be peace and blessings, advises: “Weep when you are reciting the Qur’an. If you cannot, force yourself to.”^[3]

If we add willful rapture and the finding (wujud) to the two kinds of ecstasy mentioned above, we can divide the subject into four titles:

1. Willful rapture resembles ecstasy, the difference being that it emerges as a result of forcing the self and spiritual concentration. It is witnessed in initiates who are still on the way and is the lowest degree of the actions of the
2. Ecstasy is the unexpected overflowing of a heart which has been equipped with belief, knowledge and love of God, and with spiritual pleasures, with yearning, zeal, spiritual joy and the Divine gifts. It is the main topic being dis-cussed here, and is the state which is based on the hadith: “There are three things which show that one who has them has tasted the pleasure of belief: loving God and His Messenger more than anything else, loving for God’s sake whatever or whomever one loves, and being careful with the things that lead to Paradise and ”^[4]
3. Constant ecstasy is the state in which the heart is favored with a continuous spiritual tension, with spiritual experi-ences, and varying, uninterrupted Divine gifts by virtue of the depth of its relationship with the Necessarily Existent Being and the Giver of Life, and the heart’s committed search for the ways of nearness to Him. The verse (18:14), We made firm their hearts and they rose, proclaiming: “Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We will never call anyone apart from Him God!” expresses this sort of love and excitement.
4. Finding is the highest point of excellence; it is mentioned in a Prophetic Tradition as worshipping God as if one were seeing Him,^[5] and the effusive feelings of excitement and astonishment result from being favored with the burning manifestations of Divine Existence.

In itself, ecstasy has also degrees:

• The lowest degree is that which arises from reflection on God’s signs and using the other senses and faculties to have a sound and deep relationship with God. A heart with this degree of ecstasy experiences the pleasure of belief in and knowledge of God, closing itself to all others than the Almighty.
• The second degree is that, in proportion to the profundity of the heart, and owing to the gifts that stream into it, the conscience or conscious human nature is awakened to the illumination and inspirations far beyond the receptive capacity of the ears, eyes, and mind.
• The highest degree is the inconceivable state of seeing, knowing, and thinking of Him alone in everything and always feeling His company without considering any other being, by virtue of the fact that all human faculties having taken on His color (with which He has colored the whole universe). One who has attained this degree can achieve amazement (dahsha) if able to take half a step further, and will fall into a stupor (hayman) if proceeding the full step. It is difficult to understand and interpret these two states with our normal human capacity of perception and reason.

O God! Your light has been completed and You have guided us to the truth, so all praise be to You; Your Clemency has overwhelmed and forgiven us, so all praise be to You. And bestow blessings and peace on the one, and on his Family and Companions, all of them.

[1] The Attributes of God can be understood as, broadly, of two kinds, with two kinds of manifestations. One kind are the Attributes of Grace—such as Mercy, Compassion, Love, Forgiving, etc. The other kind are Attributes of Majesty— such as being overwhelming, compelling, punishing, etc. (Tr.)

[2] Jalalu’d-Din Rumi (1207–1273): One of the most famous Sufi masters of the Islamic history; founder of the Mawlawi (Mevlevi) Order of the whirling dervishes, famous for his Mathnawi, an epic of the religious life in six volumes. (Tr.)

[3] Ibn Maja, Sunan, “‘Iqama as-Salah,” 9.

[4] al-Bukhari, “Iman,” 9; Muslim, al-Jami’us-Sahih, “Iman,” 67.

[5] The hadith is: “Ihsan (Perfect goodness or excellence) is that you worship as if seeing God. Even if you do not see Him, He certainly sees you.” The hadith mentions two degrees of excellence: worshipping God as if seeing Him, which is the greater one, and worshipping Him in the consciousness that God sees His servants. al-Bukhari, “Iman,” 37; Muslim, “Iman,” 1. (Tr.)

If attraction means that one is drawn by a sacred power linked with his or her essence toward the purpose of his or her creation and to the point indicated by his or her true, primordial nature, injidhab means the willing acceptance of this invitation to the spirit.

Attraction is so great a Divine favor that it cannot be obtained through ordinary means or causes. It is God Himself Who grants to His pure-hearted servants both the attraction and the ability to receive it: That is the grace of God: He bestows it on whom He wills (57:21). This bestowal includes, in a single, passing moment, many portions of time filled with events, and it equips a single step toward Him with the potential to reach the gardens of Paradise, and a single glance with the capacity to turn a piece of coal into a diamond. Great distances that seem impossible to cover with one’s own will and power are covered in a moment by God’s attraction, and high summits are reached by His uplifting, as stated in: A single instance of the All-Merciful’s attraction equals to the nearness to God acquired through the good actions of both humanity and jinn.

Those whose spirits feel the mysteries of faith, who practice Islam and perfect goodness and devotion through God’s attraction are called “those who follow the way of Uways,” for they are guided directly by God or the Prophet and they feel continuously attracted toward God by God Himself, living in incessant ecstasy and amazement at what they observe of the Divine truths and manifestations.

At times, there is a virtuous circle between attraction and regular worship and austerity. A traveler on the way to God is favored with attraction in proportion to the degree of his or her worship and austerity, and is devoted to worship and austerity to the extent of the attraction felt toward God. So long as such people act in accordance with the Shari’a, this virtuous circle continues. If they break away from the light of Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, displays of free and easy behavior in their relationship with God begin to appear, and religious obligations might begin to be neglected.

Attraction is, first of all, a capability and a Divine gift given in advance. Without this gift, a traveler on the way cannot feel attracted through austerity, worship, and self-purification; nor can he or she discern the waves of attraction and being attracted on the face of the universe produced by the light coming from the Divine Name the All-Loving. Such an undiscerning person has no knowledge of true spirituality:

Why should my guide be concerned with me
unless I have the attraction of love?
Why should he be concerned with me
Unless I receive inspiration from God?

It sometimes happens that a believer attracted in this way is overwhelmed by the gifts coming from God, so that whatever is other than His manifestations disappears, and all cares with the world or the Hereafter are forgotten. In a mood expressed by the following couplet by Muallim Naci:

I am, by nature, so attracted to the roaring rise of the sea
that I feel as if engulfed in the bounteous gifts of God,

one’s self and all other parts of creation are seen as being intoxicated with the attraction of the All-Holy, Attractive Being:

Everything is intoxicated with the wine of love of God and the attraction of this love. Celestial objects and angels are intoxicated; the heavens and the earth are intoxicated; elements and plants are intoxicated; and animals, human beings, and all other beings (are intoxicated).

There are two kinds of attraction. One is felt inwardly and is not manifested outwardly by its possessor. Such a person loves God, feels great contentment with and pleasure in fulfilling His commandments, and feels incessantly attracted to the source of a deeper delight. The second kind of attraction is that which is manifested. One who feels such attraction cannot help but manifest it as ecstasy. Feeling attracted by God with a continuously increasing force, he or she lives as an ecstatic, in excessive joy and with great happiness.

Those who are unaware of such degrees of spiritual elevation think such a person is crazy. The following couplet of ‘Abdu’l-‘Aziz Majdi Efendi expresses this degree of ecstasy quite meaningfully:

There is a kind of madness called attraction, which is a secure triumph.
By means of it mysteries of madness reach higher and higher.

Attraction may look like madness in some respects; in reality, it is quite different. For example, an ecstatic who revolves in waves of attraction may lose some perception and show signs of madness by behaving in ways incompatible with sound reasoning and the Shari’a. In most cases, an ecstatic exceeds normal human standards in all senses or powers of perception to the extent that, in the light of Sunna, he or she travels in realms that cannot be reached by the reason, other intellectual faculties and senses of ordinary people. Therefore, those who see such a person think that he or she is crazy.

However, traveling (in spiritual realms) beyond the reach and power of normal standards of intellect or reason, by using that power and other senses along with the help of God, is completely different from the type of madness resulting from mental illness, which is characterized by less-than-normal standards of intellect or reason.

O God! We ask You for the means which will attract Your mercy and forgiveness, protection from all sins, acquisition of all virtues and godliness, the reward of Paradise, and salvation from the Fire. And bestow blessing and peace on our master Muhammad, the master of the godly and virtuous.