In the language of Sufism, yaqada (wakefulness) means that an initiate must be aware, careful and sensitive with respect to God’s commandments at the beginning of the journey, and without failing into any confusion, must be straightforward in thought, preserve spiritual balance, and act with insight in the face of the gifts that come as a result of advancing to the final point.

There have been somewhat different approaches to wakefulness. Some scholars have interpreted wakefulness as being where initiates perceive the Divine purpose in His prohibitions, especially at the beginning of the journey. When they have reached the final point where they are on the journey “toward God and with God and in God,” which denotes “subsistence” or “maintenance by God,” they should act with self-possession as if seeing God or as if being in His Presence. In the consciousness and knowledge of God that is required by the rank where they are, and thinking of themselves as humble servants of God, Whom they need at every breath and of Whom they should not be heedless even for a moment, they should always fix their eyes in humility and awareness on the door of God in expectation of His favors and in fear of any reproach from Him. They should be in constant wakefulness, thinking as Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum did:

Does sleeping in heedlessness behoove a humble servant, while the All-Merciful calls (His servants) with affection at nights?

Wakeful travelers to God act with insight at every step of the spiritual journey and represent the truth expressed in Say (O Messenger!): “This is my way: I call to God based on conscious insight and sure knowledge—I and those who follow me” (12:108). They receive beneficial advice from whatever they hear, and see every thing and event as being a different tablet of instruction, and continuously travel on the horizon of thinking, reflecting, and pondering. There is wisdom in their speeches, and a lesson in their silence, and their manners inspire awe. They remember God in the face of what they encounter, and their own faces reveal Him.

Such a degree of wakefulness can be also viewed as the deepening of insight and the horizon of the revival of an initiate with respect to “the reason occupied with and skilled in the matters of the Hereafter.” Some have considered it as an aspect or dimension of the heart. One of the important means of reaching this point is frequently reciting O the All-Living, O the Self-Subsisting, there is no deity but You. Frequent repetition of There is no deity but You, I appeal to Your help for the sake of Your Mercy, is another means. In attainment of this rank, it is also important to have adequate knowledge of the “days of God.” That is, we should never forget why and how God favored His obedient servants in the past and why and how He punished the rebellious.

Having a sound and sincere intention and viewpoint and being free from prejudices are among the important conditions needed to preserve wakefulness. Those whose minds are under the influence of their carnal impulses, whose eyes are closed to the lesson given by the “days of God,” and whose viewpoint is wrong, can have no insight, nor can they be wakeful. If wakefulness is seeing deeply and becoming acutely aware of being observed, then this can only be possible by having deep insight, by observing God’s rights, and by acting in awareness of always being seen by God. Those who cannot keep their eyes away from the “pictures” of others and their hearts from memories shared with others cannot be wakeful ones, nor can they be safe from falling, no matter what rank they have achieved. Safety is a special gift of God given to those who have spent their lives in quest of it. This is why those who regard themselves as safe are by no means safe.

Having a wakeful heart and eyes is dependent on the awareness of the fact that the Ultimate Truth always sees and knows us in the state in which we are and always knows with what we are occupied, and on turning to Him with all our being, and spending our lives in consciousness that we are always in His presence. The author of Nazmu’l-Maqamat, observes:

Always turn to that Most Exalted Being in humility, and with utmost poverty and helplessness;
to the extent that even if yourself were to give it up,
your heart should never falter and should remain fast in its place.
This is what people of truth call “presence,” And this is the reason why we always mention Him.

Wakeful travelers are deeply conscious that the Ultimate Truth always sees them, and think that, since He always sees them, they must therefore remain alert and self-possessed—that is, wakefulness has a connection with “excellence” or “perfect goodness” (the awareness of always being seen by God and acting as if seeing Him). Like hunters who keep a close, even secret watch on their prey, the travelers journeying to God are in constant expectation of the gifts that will come from Him, all but never blinking. In perfect reliance on the truth that there is no power and strength save with God, they never appeal to anyone other than Him in order to meet their needs, and always petition Him and find ways that lead to Him. God never leaves them by themselves, helpless.

The greatest hero of wakefulness, upon him be peace and blessings, says, “My eyes sleep but my heart does not,”[1] indicating constant wakefulness. To warn those who live unaware of this truth, ‘Ali, the Fourth Caliph, who was one of the most distinguished students of his school of light, declares: “People are asleep; they wake up when they die” [2].

O God! I ask You for Your forgiveness, health, and Your approval, regard, breezes of favor, friendship, and nearness to You. And bestow blessings and peace on our master Muhammad, the master of those near-stationed to You, and Your beloved and Messenger, and on his Family and Companions, who had great yearning to meet with You.

Subsistence by God denotes that the servant of God regards all existence, including him or herself, as being non-existent in and of itself, and discovers in his or her consciousness that every being, living and non-living, is a manifestation or shadow of the light of the Divine Knowledge and Existence. Initiates who experience destruction and effacement with respect to their corporeal self and gain a new existence by God’s permanence or subsistence exist by His Existence, subsist by His Subsistence, live by His Life, know by His Knowledge, will by His Will, and hear and see by His Hearing and Seeing. They see and hear what other (normal) people cannot see or hear, and receive favors that come as a result of such hearing and seeing. Initiates who have reached this rank, which marks the near completion of the journey, and where they feel themselves to be in the most pleasurable state of being freed of their name and existence, are in relative terms qualified and mentioned with any of God’s Attributes in the heavens and earth. Those who have contact with the spiritual realms can feel in their consciousness a reflection of this favor. This state is also regarded as persons of heart being called according to their own perception of themselves. Only those with purified souls who see and think of nothing but the Truly Beloved One, and whose hearts always beat by His Existence and Subsistence, and whose spirits are continuously reanimated with a new flash of His manifestation, can experience this state. So long as they can keep their relation with the Ultimate Truth at the level which has carried them to this summit, and the Ultimate Truth continues to treat them in this way, do they perceive even the slightest falling under the influence of others in knowledge, perception, feelings, and consciousness as a spiritual eclipse, which may end in their spiritual spark being extinguished. If they feel they have suffered such a falling-off, they will, in order to save themselves from it, be on the lookout for the All-Beloved’s opening a window in their spirits from His special consideration.

From another perspective, subsistence is, after the total disappearance of things that are transient and visible in the sight of an initiate, either a temporary permanence dependent on its own conditions, or an uninterrupted continuity due to the extraordinary confirmation of Divine grace. That is, while a traveler continues his or her journey in the light of the signposts or traffic lights along the way, after a certain point, which is determined by the impressions and discernment of the traveler, the signposts will no longer be needed and are no longer visible. This stage, where the One Who is indicated by the signs and proofs shows Himself with the lights of His Existence, making signs and proofs no longer visible, and where His witnesses are the only instruments for His praise and exaltation, is a different point of breathing and turning to a different angle. If the initiate has the ability and resolution to continue journeying toward further goals, the breezes of annihilation will begin to blow in both the person’s inner and outer world. When the journey is almost exceeding time and space, the initiate feels in the consciousness complete annihilation ready to turn into subsistence. One cannot say anything, nor think of anything, nor attempt to perceive anything. Despite the brilliance of the witnesses that point to Him throughout the universe, they disappear when faced by the lights of His Existence, like stars sinking when the sun rises. As stated in (55:27), There remains forever the “Face” of your Lord, the One of Majesty and Munificence, only the Divine Being continues to exist beyond the scope of human perception, understanding and feeling.

Initiates can view His subsistence or permanence in three stages: the first is based on knowledge, the second on vision, and the third on the pleasure of experiencing His Existence. While traveling through these stages, any information that has been acquired by the known means of acquiring knowledge loses its significance and utterly disappears into what is known. All instances of seeing and feeling vanish while the meaning and content based on or reached through seeing, feeling and knowing remain intact. While all relative truths no longer exist, the absolute truth prevails and the natures of existents, each differ­ent from the other, are surrounded by the lights that emanate from their annihilation in the True Existence. In all of these stag­es, annihilation provides a way to subsistence and wherever an initiate attains subsistence, it can address itself to different levels of feeling and perception, producing relative effects of its own on things. For this reason, this rank has usually been called “subsistence by God with or in the company of God,” and not only “subsistence by God.”

We can view this stage from two angles:

• Travelers find and feel things and events annihilated with respect to their own selves and existence. Nothing exists any longer with respect to its own being. When the travel­ers are surrounded by the atmosphere produced by this, they no longer feel the existence of anything except Him and find everything annihilated in Him.
• A wakeful initiate can always distinguish between the essential, absolutely true Self-Existence and relative instances of existence. So, all things have relative exis­tence dependent on the unique Self-Existence in the initi­ate’s sight. Concerning these two kinds of feeling, percep­tion, and experience, the leading Sufi scholars comment that for a traveler who feels all things annihilated in Him everything ceases to exist, while for one who has the abili­ty to distinguish between the Absolute Existence and the relative existence all things continue to exist.

If we deal with the matter from the approach of the Com­panions, nothing exists by itself nor does it have any essential existence. Everything has relative, insubstantial and accidental existence as a manifestation of the Existence of the Eternal Truth, according to its receptivity. Things, as dependent on the Absolute Truth, have a constant but relative truth. In the begin­ning, this consideration is doctrinal belief based on acceptance, and in the end it is based on the certainty that comes from knowledge and vision.

In the spiritual journey, the whole of existence no longer has any value or significance in the heart of an initiate and vanishes in the infinite light of the True Existence in the same way that the light of a firefly fades when the sun rises. The initiate gives no place to anything else but God in his or her heart, and leaves him or herself in the cataracts of his or her spiritual pleasures immersed in the ownership and guidance of His Will and the lights of His Existence. The utterance always on the initiate’s lips is “He.”

Travelers who feel themselves in a state of pleasure when they find themselves annihilated with respect to their own acts, advance toward the attainment of a new existence and perma­nence in the Acts of the Ultimate Truth. By feeling transience in their own attributes, they taste the pleasure of permanence in the Attributes of God. By forgetting their own selves—though for­getting has been interpreted in different ways—they attain a new existence by the lights of the Ultimate Truth’s Existence. While they sometimes refer to the relative, existential truth of things and emphasize its difference from the absolute, True Existence, they sometimes can find everything annihilated in the absolute, True Existence. There is left only one rank to be reached by the travelers who have arrived at this point, namely God’s company. Every initiate who has attained subsistence by God can attain this rank according to the individual’s capacity. Attainment of this rank sometimes brings with it a feeling of wonder and sometimes an intoxication and sometimes astonishment. Mawla­na Jami expresses this feeling of wonder beautifully as follows:

Love is not without the flute-player, and we are not without Him.
He without us and we without Him, this cannot be.
The flute always beautifies its tunes, but in fact
the beauty of the tune comes from the breathing of the flute-player.
The following verses, belonging to another hero of subsistence by and with God, are concerned with a feeling of wonder and astonishment:
The lights of my eyes are He, and the direction for my reason is He;
my tongue always utters He, and I sigh and groan with He.
My heart goes on an excursion in He; the love of my soul is He.
My greatest secret is He, and my brightest sun is He.
Those who are lovers and intoxicated are always with He.
Their fasting is He, their festive day is He, and their rituals are He.
My soul has sacrificed itself in the way of its Beloved;
its union is with He, its parting is with He,
and its cure, as well as its afflictions, is He.

Those who have attained subsistence by and with God always feel and think of Him alone, they are always with Him alone, and they begin with Him alone. Attracted by Him, they leave themselves in the overflowing pleasures that come from experiencing Him throughout the universe, and always act according to His good pleasure and approval. In the face of the rays of His Knowledge and Existence, which totally eliminate all others save Him and His friends from their hearts and sight, they cannot help but utter “O the All-Living!” and feel as if they are talking about themselves. They utter “O the Ultimate Truth!” and melt away in the light of His Existence.

O God, O the All-Living and the Self-Subsisting! O the One with Majesty and Munificence! Pour unto us knowledge of You and give us from the drink of Paradise, and enable us to be steadfast on the Prophet’s way and true guidance. And bestow blessings and peace on our master Muhammad, who teaches the true way, and on his Companions, the noble, hon­orable and godly ones.

The heart is the home of God, clean it of others than Him,
So that the All-Merciful may descend into His home at night.

The couplet above, recorded by Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum in his Ma’rifetname (Book of Knowledge), expresses the intention of obtaining true love and His pleasure, and tells how to realize it. It concisely describes the way between decision and resolution and from resolution to destination. The only way to obtain peace of mind and be at rest without going to extremes and being exposed to spiritual trouble and pain is to seek the love and pleasure of God, and then order one’s life around this aim. Rumi says:

A heart devoid of the Friend and seeking Him cannot be freed from trouble and pain. [As for] a head in which there is no love of the Friend, do not attempt to find any meaning and value in it, for it consists of bones and skin.

Those who have set their hearts on Him and have decided to reach Him never neglect to follow a way toward Him and to meet the necessities of traveling on it. [1] Even if they turn their eyes from Him for a single moment to look to others, they sigh for a whole lifetime. How unfortunate is the one who lives unaware of a way leading to Him. What a great loss, impossible to compensate, it is to fall and get stuck on the way after taking it.

Decision first appears and develops in the heart, grows firmer and stronger as a feeling, and then becomes a very powerful drive directing one toward his or her destination. In this context, decision signifies an intention and resembles a seed sown in the heart’s soil. If the one who has this intention or seed in his or her heart receives help from God Almighty, the seed germinates and grows into an elaborate, fruitful tree. After a few steps traveled in decision, one finds resolution, which is defined as being determined to do something, steadfast in one’s pursuit, and consciously fulfilling all responsibilities undertaken. Resolution is the first step toward the “heavens” of reliance and surrender. The Qur’an describes this step and the final point to be reached: When you are resolved, rely on (or put your trust in) God (3:159). If this first step can be taken through reliance on and submission to God, then the road becomes level and easy to walk on, and one travels it as if flying through the air.

Decision and resolution are two important dimensions or functions of willpower. Every traveler who intends to make a long journey must stop at the station of decision and resolution to receive the permit or visa, given by God, in order to progress to higher stations. Only after this does the journey truly begin. One who has taken the wings of decision and resolution feels attracted toward the goal and, no longer advancing by his or her own power, is taken to it. A friend of God says: Whoever overflows with the desire to meet with God, despite his inability to fulfill the requirements of the way leading to his goal, God Himself comes to him. God then becomes his or her eyes with which to see, ears with which to hear, and tongue with which to speak.

For the traveler who flies along on the wings of decision and resolution, meeting with God means finding subsistence in or through annihilation. For those with whom God wills and desires to meet, it means subsistence within subsistence, [2] and they suffer no trouble or pain in the “virtuous circle,” [3] where they encounter good after good. In this circle pain changes into pleasure, and wrath or chastisement are manifested as favors. One who has reached this point always utters in pleasure: Whatever comes from You, whether it be a favor or punishment, is good. With a cup of resignation in one’s hand, he or she sips whatever comes from God, the Truth, as if it were the water of Paradise.

Notes

1. There is more than one way to God. It is said that there are as many ways or paths to God as there are breaths of people. Such a statement is said to express the differences in people’s temperaments and moods. In addition, spiritual orders use different rituals to help their initiates make progress on the spiritual path.
2. This phrase denotes the concept of compound subsistence, defined as a “firmer subsistence” and as “being well-versed or grounded in subsistence.”
3. This is the opposite of the “vicious circle” that so many people encounter in their daily lives.