State-awareness (Sufism)

This state is defined as "the servant of God's constant awareness that the lord knows all his states". It is also said to be awareness of all one's states along with the awareness of God. The seeker is either in the hal of observing the action of God or the hal of being observed by God. The state of inner concentration is so great that external happenings are not responded to and the individual may not even breath perceptibly. The focus of this intent watching, concentration or self-observation is represented as being on the heart which, according to Rumi, is to be continually polished by the mind. It will become, he says, a mirror of the unseen, and images of angels and houris may dart in and out of its frame. It fully reflects the essence of the universe. Social and intellectual veils which diminish creative sensitivity are in this way removed.

The first 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. A preparation for this state is the actualization of faqr, divine poverty. According to Shaykh Abu Sa'id ibn Abi'l-Khayr, this is the sixth of 40 stations or maqamat the Sufi must possess for his journey on the path of Sufism to be acceptable.