8.) What
is the difference between hal (state) and maqam (station)?
Although
there are different ways of addressing this question, generally speaking, a state is
considered to be more ephemeral or transitory than is a station. Furthermore, there tends
to be more effort and struggle associated with the stations than with states.
States
often come as a pure expression of Divine barakah which may be largely, or entirely,
independent of considerations of having been preceded by spiritual effort and striving on
the part of the individual who is the beneficiary of such a state. At the same time, these
states tend not to constitute permanent spiritual conditions, and may leave as quickly as
they arrive.
On
occasion, a hal or state may last a relatively long time. This tends to give rise to a
question of whether to continue to treat the condition as a state, or whether, in fact, it
is more of a station.
Stations
usually are acquired, if at all, only after many years of spiritual struggle and traveling
on the mystical path. Nonetheless, one cannot say that such stations are caused by the
individual's struggles, however necessary such struggles may be as a prerequisite to the
advent of these sorts of spiritual station.
Unlike
states, which tend to replace one another in serial fashion, stations, once established,
continue to exercise their influence even as other stations are being experienced and
traversed. As such, stations tend to complement each other as well as enter into a
synergistic dynamic with one another.
When these
Divine Realities descend upon the ‘space' which has been prepared in accordance with
our spiritual capacity and station, then our false, illusory consciousness of what we
believed to be a realm of multiplicity recedes, and the experience of the attributive
unity of the Divine Presence comes into ascendency within our awareness. This condition is
known as fana.
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