The Stations Of The Religion: A description of the steps of SPiritual Wayfaring (Suluk)

A concise explanation of the Hadith of the Angel Jibril. This explanation was sent as a letter to one of the students of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, after requesting that the Shaykh explain it to him. A description of the steps of Spiritual Wayfaring (Suluk).

From The Back Cover

"There is nothing worthy of worship but Allah (la ilaha ill-Allah). The stations of the religion are three: submission (Islam), faith (Iman), and excellence (Ihsan). Islam is the pronouncement of 'There is nothing worthy of worship but Allah.' Iman is to have knowledge of 'There is nothing worthy of worship but Allah.' Ihsan is the course in accordance with 'There is nothing worthy of worship but Allah.' This means that you pronounce the words of a spiritual state, the speech of Allah, the noble word; which is the word of repentance, the word of God-consciousness, the word of sincerity, the word of divine Unity, the good word. This (statement) has three degrees. The first degree is the station of Islam, which is undertaking the emulation of the wise statement on this lowest plane of material existence (hadra al-nasut). The second degree, Iman, is the knowledge of this statement, and the third degree, I (being) the speech of Allah. Thus the three stations can be explained as all revolving around the statement, 'There is nothing worthy of worship but Allah.' la ilaha ill-Allah"

- Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse