Allah, the Almighty, said:

{…And when he recovered, he said: Exalted are You!...}⁶³⁷ [al-A‘râf 7: 143]

Nafas (breath)⁶³⁸ is so called because the breather finds comfort in it.⁶³⁹ It is of three levels; they resemble the levels of waqt (timeliness).⁶⁴⁰ There are three breaths:

The first breath is a breath taken while being veiled.⁶⁴¹ It is full of turmoil and associated with knowledge.⁶⁴² When the seeker breathes, it is with sorrow, and when he speaks, it is with sadness. In my opinion, it emanates from the lonesomeness of being veiled. It is the darkness that they consider to be a station.⁶⁴³

The second breath is a breath taken while beholding the Divine appearance,⁶⁴⁴ and it is a breath that is:

1. in the station of bliss looking up towards the liberation of eye witnessing⁶⁴⁵


2. full of the light of wujood (actuality)⁶⁴⁶


3. and looking up towards the cessation of all signals⁶⁴⁷

The third breath is a breath that is:

1. purified by the water of holiness⁶⁴⁸


2. subsisting by the scheme of pre-eternity⁶⁴⁹


3. the breath that is referred to as the pure light

⁶³⁷ This station is about a breath/sigh the spirit takes on its way out from distress, in transit between two stations, or out of relief or joy. The verse talks about Prophet Moosâ’s relief after he fell unconscious in shock when God manifested Himself to the mountain.
⁶³⁸ May also be translated as sigh or respite.
⁶³⁹ The three lettered root (ن - ف - س) usually infers relief after distress.
⁶⁴⁰ The general resemblance between breath and waqt (timeliness/moment) is that our time is measured by our breaths. The specific resemblance is that both are contingent on transient ḥâls (inner states).
⁶⁴¹ The seekerwas in a ḥâl or maqâm that has been concealed from them, so now they suffer the distress of their loss.
⁶⁴² He or she has the knowledge which causes him/her to mourn the loss, but not the sweetness which would have given him/her contentment.
⁶⁴³ The sheikh does not seem to consider this deprivation a station. Those of the masters who did may have meant, as Ibn al-Qayyim elucidates in Madârij, that it comes with many benefits. Among them are: not taking His gifts for granted; making the servant reliant only on His Lord, not his ‘ilm or ḥâl; and tasting the sourness of deprivation to later appreciate the sweetness of His grace.
⁶⁴⁴ It is the appearance of the manifestations of the Divine attributes to the eyes of one’s heart.
⁶⁴⁵ This is still the witnessing of the Divine by the eyes of the heart. The tajalli of His attributes to the heart is not all equal. Eye witnessing is a phase when that tajalli becomes complete.
⁶⁴⁶ Wujood is Station 96 of this book.
⁶⁴⁷ To the sheikh, the cessation of all signals happens at the point of self-annihilation, where statements and even signals cannot describe one’s experience.
⁶⁴⁸ Purified from beholding the siwâ (other than God).
⁶⁴⁹ This heart had left behind everything muḥdath (originated) and clung only to the pre-eternal.