The Language of the Future
Sufi Terminology
by Murshid F.A. Ali ElSenossi

(Shawq). Intense longing and yearning for the Beloved. Shawq is a yearning to behold the Beloved, and a longing for nearness to the Beloved, and a longing for union with the Beloved, and an intense longing for increase in perpetual longing. It is said that breath is a movement of yearning towards the Beloved and within the breathing enjoyment is experienced. The breathing of the ecstatic who is under the pull of the Divine Attraction bears witness to this. The Reality of shawq is that the luminous fire takes over the heart and there is no medicine for it except for meeting of the Beloved. The intense fire in the heart comes about because of the separation between the one who desires and the One who is desired. When the meeting takes place, the fire of longing will be extinguished. In the state of secretness, what increases is the witnessing of the Beloved, and shawq has no place there. One of the lovers of Allah said 'Do you desire Allah?' he answered 'No', because you only desire that which is absent from you and my Beloved is always present with me. The unification of this factor is in the unification of the spiritual resolve towards Allah and the continous journeying to Him - that is 'To worship Allah like you see Him, and if you do not see Him, be certain that He sees you'. He is with you in the present moment, for this reason, you do not desire Him, because you are with Him. Shawq is he need of the heart to meet the Beloved.

(Faqd). Losing. There is an agitation and bewilderment experienced by the lover when he 'loses' Allah after having 'found' Allah. During the 'spiritual audition' (sama') the lover of Allah may 'find' Allah when he is overwhelmed by ecstasy. After the sama', when his ecstasy has passed, he is filled with dread and bewilderment. He is no longer drowning in that Infinite Sweetness of the Beloved. He feels that he has 'lost' Allah.

(Muhibb) This Name may be applied to Allah Himself when considering His slave to be His beloved, or it may be applied to the slave himself whose Beloved is Allah. In reality there is only one Beloved of Allah and that is the Holy Prophet Muhammad (May the Salutations of Allah be upon him and Peace) and it is only through being annihilated in him that the lover of Allah may be transformed into the beloved of Allah. The lover (Muhibb) is the one who is enraptured by Allah's Beauty in contrast to the knower ('Arif) who remains in sobriety in the face of all of Allah's Self-disclosures (Tajalli). The knower who is also a lover is in a state of Perfection (Kamal) being inwardly intoxicated and outwardly sober. Such a friend (Wali) has attained perfect balance and harmony. He is the Perfect Man.

(Fasl) is a separation you do not hope for from your Beloved. It is a differentiation from Allah after a state of identification or unification with Allah. It is full of torment and anguish. However, for the People of Solitude, the great Sufis, who continually witness the true situation, (i.e. Reality Itself), there is no parting. Their union cannot turn into separation or parting just as knowledge cannot turn into ignorance.

('Ishq). Intense, overflowing and passionate love of Allah. Some say that 'ishq cannot arise without actual vision of the Beloved. 'Ishq is the highest stage before absorption in Allah. It is as rare as the red sulphur. It burns away everything of the lover ('Ashiq) transforming him into the beloved. After annihilation in Allah and absorption in Allah, where all is blindness and there is no longer any vision, the lover is separated from the Beloved and his 'ishq burns afresh. Passionate love of Allah is without limit.

(Hiss). The faculty of sensation or the domain of the senses. The senses act as a veil over Reality and it for this reason that the lover of Allah supplicates to have his senses removed! But, because man has been placed within the domain of the senses he has been given the means to purify his senses and draw closer to his Lord. Through the Remembrance of Allah the veil over his senses may be removed to reveal the Reality of those senses. When immersed in the dhikr his senses may be burned away and replaced by Allah. The Hadith Qudsi says, "... Then, when I love him, I am his hearing through which he hears, his sight through which he sees, his hand through which he grasps and his foot through which he walks".

(Sama'). The spiritual concert or 'audition' or 'listening'. This term refers specifically to the Sufi gatherings where music and song are employed as a means of opening the heart to inrushes of knowledge and awareness. During the spritual concert, the listener may experience ecstasy and find Allah, The Real within that ecstasy. However, before true ecstasy can be experienced the listener must be spiritually mature, having been prepared through discipline and perpetual Remembrance of Allah. Without this initial contraction of spiritual endeavour the expansion of ecstasy will not be real. The Spiritual Concert is not suitable for the novice. True Sama' is a bird which flies from Allah to Allah. Allah is the singer and Allah is the hearer. At this Divine Feast the singer and the hearer become One.