The Spiritual Stations of the Souls and Their Functions
Gohar Shahi Marhaba
Muhammad Ehsan Butt from Dubai asks:
'Greetings. What are the spiritual stations of all the souls?'
'What are the functions of the souls at their respective stations?'
'If you would be so kind to explain this, it would make it very easy for people like me to understand.'
There are five subtleties in our chest.
On the very left is the Qalb (Spiritual Heart).
On the very right is the Rouh (Main Human Soul).
Next to the Rouh is the Khafi (The Arcane).
Next to the Qalb is the Sirri (The Secret).
In the middle is the Akhfah (The Obscure).
So there are five subtleties in the chest.
One soul, the Ana, relates to the Station of Ahdiyat (Divine Oneness).
This is a creature from the place where God resides.
There is another soul, the Nafs (Lower Self) which relates to this phenomenal world.
So there are seven souls.
Due to the Lower Self, your heart is drawn to the world.
When the Lower Self is purified, the heart becomes alienated from the world.
When the heart is alienated from the world, there is a Prophetic Tradition of Prophet Mohammad: The world is a prison for a True Believer.
It doesn't mean [the world] is literally a prison.
It seems like a prison because the heart becomes alienated from the world after the purification of the Lower Self.
This is why Prophet Mohammad said it for the True Believers, not the Muslims because Muslims are living luxuriously.
Go and see the palaces of the Muslims in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and the homes of the Prime Ministers in Pakistan.
It was said for the True Believers that [the world] is a prison.
The Lower Self inclines the heart towards the world.
If you obtain divine energy, it will incline the heart towards God.
The job of the Lower Self is to keep your heart inclined towards the world.
Once it becomes purified - this is why God said that if you want to be successful in the path of God
'One who purifies the Lower Self will be successful' - because it drags you towards the world.
When the thing that drags you towards the world is purified and you embark upon the path to God, you will not be hindered.
The Spiritual Heart is the most important Subtlety in Sufism.
You can understand it with the analogy that if the inner faculty of a human being is a room, the Spiritual Heart is the door to the room.
In other words, the Spiritual Heart is the gateway to your inner being.
The Spiritual Heart is the gateway to your inner being.
The very first thing you must do is revive the Spiritual Heart, then you will progress.
This is the reason why the first Prophethood was the Prophethood of the Spiritual Heart.
The religion starts [with the Spiritual Heart].
Now, what is the function of the Spiritual Heart?
All worship and whether or not they are accepted relate to the Spiritual Heart.
Like Salat.
A Prophetic Tradition states, 'Salat is invalid without the presence of the Spiritual Heart.'
Meaning that if the Spiritual Heart is not present in Salat, there is no Salat.
Then there are supplications.
The thing that takes your [prayers] to God is your Spiritual Heart.
Secondly, His Divine Eminence Imam Mehdi Gohar Shahi said:
'The Spiritual Heart is like a telephone.'
If your Spiritual Heart is revived, then it will take your worship, recitation of the holy text and devotional songs to the Higher Realms.
And if God wants to send a message to you, he will send it to your Spiritual Heart.
If you are a True Believer, then that message from God will be known as Ilqa. If you are a saint, it is known as Ilhaam and if you are a messenger, it is known as Wahi.
If you are a messenger, it is known as Wahi and if you are a prophet, it is known as Sahifa.
The heart is like a telephone operator. It operates the conversation between man and God.
The Main Human Soul is your reality.
The Khafi relates to the veil of the Realm of Ahdiyat (Divine Oneness).
The Sirri helps you discover the secrets of God.
The Akhfah also relates to the Throne of God.
The physical function of the Akhfah is that it makes the tongue speak.
The Akhfah also has a spiritual function - it can speak without the use of your physical tongue.
And those whose Akhfahs are revived and enlightened can hear its voice.
Do you understand?
Then there is on more soul, the soul in the forehead: the Ana.
It's only function is to see God.
You have to revive it. There are three veils upon it.
With me so far?
There are three veils.
One veil is of Zulmat (The Veil of Negative Energy).
One veil is of Shaitan (The Satanic Veil).
'Zulmat' means darkness, that there is negative energy upon the Ana.
So that's one veil.
So there is The Veil of Negative Energy and then after the Ana is revived with divine energy,
then there is only divine energy surrounding it.
It cannot see anything but the divine energy.
Those who reach this stage say, 'God is light.'
However, if one manages to find a Perfect Spiritual Guide and that Spiritual Guide takes them further,
then through the Ana, one can witness the divine splendour.
What are the sub-spirits?
The sub-spirits are the children of your souls.
Do you understand?
The Spiritual Heart has sub-spirits.
The Lower Self has four sub-spirits.
The Spiritual Heart has three sub-spirits.
The soul has two sub-spirits.
This is how, in total, there are nine sub-spirits and seven souls.
So sixteen creatures are enclosed within your body.
If you revive them and nurture them,
Then you can be in sixteen places at once - in fact, including your body, you can be in seventeen places at once.
Do you understand?
This is the explanation [of the souls and their sub-spirits].
And Tifl-e-Noorie -
- When God saw his beauty and moved in ecstasy seven times,
with every movement, divine energy came out from him.
When that divine energy was collected, it formed a soul which is known as Tifl-e-Noorie (Body of God's Light).
So that's the Tifl-e-Noorie.
If there are any more questions, you may ask.
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