Author: Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sa'di
Of all the faculties man has been endowed with, none excels the heart in importance and nobility. For the heart is both the seat of intelligence and understanding, and the locus of faith and spirituality; it is the quintessential faculty by which man may come to know his creator, and seek nearness and intimacy with Him. The heart's spiritual sustenance lie sin its being receptive to the effusions of divine grace and guidance, without which the veils that cover it will continue to corrupt its primordial purity, gradually rendering it dysfunctional! Each veil- a metaphor for heedlessness, sins and distraction- that is melted away by the rays of faith and spiritual endeavor, allows vital qualities such as love of Allah, as well as hope, fear, remembrance, and reliance upon Him, are referred to in the religious vocabulary as spiritual stations; only when the heart embraces these stations is it said to be truly sound. The Majestic Qur'an informs:
'The day when wealth and sons avail not, save him who brings to Allah a heart that is sound.'
This book explains some of the main spiritual stations that the heart is required to embrace as part of its worship of Allah and its journeying to Him. Each chapter commences with a line of poetry which highlights one of these spiritual stations; each stations is then explained in a clear, lucid style, seasoned with insights by some of the pietists and spiritual masters from the early Muslims. The nature and brevity of this book is such that it may be regarded as a primer to the science of suluk, or Muslim Spirituality.
