When the gnostic [' ārif ] comes to the end of the journey...

When the gnostic [' ārif ] comes to the end of the journey, and there remains no trace, at all, of the remnants of servitude, and he reaches the stage of the absolute personal annihilation [ fanā'-i dhātī ], there will remain no trace of the isti'ādhah , musta'ādhu minhu and musta'īdh , and in his heart there will be nothing except Allah and His Divine Sovereignty, and he will be unaware of himself and his heart, and “I take refuge in You from You”[^2] is also out of this state.

When there is a state of wakefulness [ sahw ], intimacy and return, there still is a trace of isti'ādhah , but not the isti'ādhah of a sālik. For this reason, the Final Messenger of Allah ( s ) is also ordered to do the isti'ādhah , as Allah, the Exalted, says: “ Say: I take refuge in the Lord of daybreak,” [^3] “ Say: I take refuge in the Lord of men,” [^4] And “ Say: My Lord!

I take refuge in you from the evil suggestions of the Satans, and I take refuge in You, O my Lord, from their presence.” [^5] So, man in two states is not musta'īdh : One is before starting the sulūk , which is the state of being completely veiled, at the Satan's disposal and under his control. The other is when the sulūk comes to the end, which is the absolute annihilation, in which there is no trace of the musta'īdh , musta'ādhu minhu , musta'ādhu lahu or isti'ādhah .

In two states he is a musta'īdh : One is in his sulūk to Allah, in which he takes refuge from the thorns of the road of attainment [ wusūl ] that are sitting on the straight path, as Satan says in the Qur'an: “ As you have led me astray, I shall lurk in ambush for them on your straight path.” [^6] The other is when he is wakeful and returning from the absolute annihilation, in which he does the isti'ādhah [taking refuge] from the coloring seclusions [ ihtijābāt ] and others.

The second pillar is concerning al-musta'ādhu minhu, which is the accursed Iblīs , the outcast Satan, who prevents man from attaining his goal and implementing his objective, by means of his diverse snares. Some great men of the people of knowledge say that Satan, in his reality, is the entire world in its aspect of being other than Allah.

The writer does not agree with this, because this aspect of being other than Allah, which is a fancied form that has no truth and is void of any sort of realization [ tahaqquq ] and reality, is but one of Iblīs ' snares in which he gets man engaged.