It was also said: “A traveller, who during two days goes on in the same manner, is in the way of detriment; he must be intent upon acquiring and preserving.”[253]
The greatest part of this sect maintain the same doctrine, but, by the benediction of my Shaikh, the crier for help in the quarters of heaven, the teacher of the people of God, the godly, the lord Mulána Shah (the peace and mercy of God be his!), upon me, an humble person, fell, as if it were the splendor of the sun, and made it clear to me that the Súfi has degrees and a limit of perfection, that, after having attained it, he remains at that height; because with me, an humble broken individual, to remain at a height attained, is proficiency, inasmuch as every state has its perfection, and the perfection of a progressing state annihilates the progress. This is also the meaning of the before-quoted saying of the prophet; because there is bondage with those who tend towards God, and absolute freedom with those only who are united with him, and the words “two days” refer to time. In the same manner my master (the mercy of God be upon him!) interpreted those words. The truth is, that they have not understood the saying, and have not penetrated into the interior sense of the figurative expression: because the latter refers in truth to the insufficiency of a contemplative man: And this sense agrees with that of the following authentic tradition of the prophet (the peace and blessing of the Highest be upon him):
“There are moments in which I am with God in such a manner that neither angel nor arch-angel, nor prophet, nor apostle, can attain to it.”
These words confirm his having once been in a lower station. It is said that the prophet (the peace and blessing of the most High be upon him!) was not always of the same disposition, the same state, and the same sort of constitution; but this is not so, but from the same approved tradition it is evident that the prophet (peace and blessing upon him!) was always in the same state, and no ascent nor descent was possible therein because he says: “Yon place was at once so contiguous to me, that no cherub or no divine missioned prophet ever found himself in such a situation.” The time of a prophet is a universal one, and is free from temporariness: this time has neither priority nor posteriority—
“With thy Lord there is neither morning nor evening.”
Except this, the noble tradition has no meaning, which is also evident from the obvious interpretation, and moreover included in the state of perfection and constitution of Muhammed (peace and blessing upon him!). But, in the sense which they attribute to the words, a deficiency is necessarily implied. The state of the lord of the world (Muhammed) is always in the perfection of unity; this is the best to adopt, at times in a particular, and at times in a general qualification. There is also another interpretation which the Shaikhs (the mercy of the most High be upon them) gave to these words: inasmuch as the gradations of these Saints are infinite. Thus in the work nefhát ul ins, “the fragrant gales of mankind,”[254] the opinion of the Shaikhs is stated to be, that some of the saints are without a mark and without an attribute, and the perfection of a state, and the utmost degree to which Saints may attain, is to be without an attribute and without a mark. It was said:
“He who has no mark, his mark are we.”
Besides, those who acknowledge an ascent without a limit, if in the pure being and true essence of the glorious and most high God, who is exempt and free from ascent and descent, color, odor, outwardness and inwardness, increase and decrease, they admit a progression, it must also be admissible in the existence of a Súfi professing the unity of God. And if they do not admit a gradation of progress in God, then they ought not to admit it in the professor of the divine unity, who in the exalted state of purity and holiness became united with him. When a devotee among men, having left the connexion with works of supererogation, arrives at that of divine precepts, he realises the words:
“When thou didst cast thy arrows against them, thou didst not cast them, but God slew them.”[255]
It may be said: Certainly, he who became one with God, and of whose being not an atom remained, he, from whose sight both worlds vanished, who in the steps of right faith arrived at the rank of perfect purity, and from truth to truth became God, what then higher than God can there ever be, to which the pious professor of unity may further tend to ascend? It is known: