Human Development

Nearness-awareness

Description:
This state is characterized as an awareness of one's nearness to God wherever one may be. It may arise in the traveller on the path: through devoted behaviour to God; through awareness of God's closeness to him; through closeness in which God does not make him aware of the attachment. Perfection is realized in affinity with God. The closeness results in [khawf] (fear) and [raja] (hope) and brings the seeker nearer to God, to fulfilment, to passage to unity. It is the key to transformation of the soul.
Realization of identity with God arises from following the path of love, either love of the pure, divine essence of God received as a gift of grace, or a love of God's attributes acquired through mystical efforts or purification of the soul when there is complete freedom from desires of the lower soul.
Context:
The eighth stage in a systematic account of various stations of the Sufi spiritual path. Also the second psychic state listed by A Reza Aresteh as progress on the inner self through divine attraction, [kedesh-jazba], the outer self already having been purified through conscious effort, [kushesh]. According to Shaykh Abu Sa'id ibn Abi'l-Khayr, this is the 30th of 40 stations or maqamat the Sufi must possess for his journey on the path of Sufism to be acceptable.<
Narrower:
Raja
Khawf
Related:
Recollection