Unless he is cleaned from evil filths...

Unless he is cleaned from evil filths, purification from impurities [ ahdāth ] cannot take place, as purifying the exterior is a preliminary step to the purification of the interior. Unless a complete, mundane and visible taqwā according to the instructions of the pure sharī'ah happens, no cordial taqwā will take place; and unless the cordial taqwā is brought about by the already named affairs, no real, secret and spiritual taqwā can happen.

All the stages of taqwā are preliminaries to this stage, which is neglecting everything other than Allah. As long as there are in the sālik remnants of selfishness, his heart will not discern Allah's manifestation. It is, however, possible that sometimes, owing to the precedence of (Allah's) mercy and the prevalence of the “near-to-Allah” [ yalillāhī ] aspect, invisible help is extended to the sālik such that the remnants of his I-ness are burnt out by the Divine firebrand [ jadhwah ].

It is probable that in the way Allah manifested His glory to the mountain, crushing it to pieces and in the falling down of Moses senseless, there are references to what has been said; and there is a similar difference between the sālik-i majdhūb (the sālik attracted by Divine Grace), and the majdhūb - i sālik (the attracted one who is traveling to Allah).

The people of truth understand from this an important point worthy of knowing, since knowing nothing about it would be the cause of many errors, goings astray and deviations from the right path. No one of those who are in quest of truth is to ignore it or be unaware of it. It is this: The sālik who is in quest of truth must declare himself innocent from the extremities of some ignorant Sūfis and some negligent phenomenalists, so that it may become possible for him to travel to Allah.

As a matter of fact, some sects of the first group believe that the external knowledge and act are formal, and stuffed moulds, intended for the ignorant and the common people, and that those who are the people of the secret, heart and truth, and are of good background, need not practice such acts, and that the external acts are required for the purpose of acquiring cordial truths and attaining the looked-for destination, and so, when the sālik reaches his destination, practicing those preliminaries will be departing, and engaging in the multiplicities will be a veil.