Akhfa or the most arcane/the innermost consciousness represents immersion in God's Essence of the Unmanifest Absolute. In Ruzbekhan Shirazi's words, "..The innermost consciousness/akhfa is equivalent to the Ultimate Unseen

The unfathomable God's Essence; Abyss of the Unmanifest Absolute. The Sufi technical tems are: Ghayb ul-Ghaib ( Mystery of Mysteries ), Amma ( Darkess ), Dhat/Zat ( Essence ).
The corresponding spiritual stage is called Ahadiyyat- Oneness.


Although there are always five levels, there is some difference in detail between the different interpretations, and the levels are usually given different names as well; so in fact more than five are referred to [see e.g. Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, pp.225, 360-61]. These are:

Hadrat al-Dhat - Presence of the Essence, the Absolute Reality; or Hadrat ahadiya, Presence of Absolute Unity..

Hadrat al-Sifat w'al-Asma - Presence of the Divine Names, or Hadrat-al-Uluhiya - Presence of the Godhead; or Hadrat wahidiya, Presence of plural Unity.

Hadrat al-ghayb al-Mutlaq, the Presence of Absolute Mystery, or the eternal prototypes (al-a'yan ath-thabitah), which are the epiphanies of the Divine Names.

Hadrat al-Af`al - Presence of the Divine Acts, operataions, or "Energies", or Hadrat al-Rubuyiya - Presence of the Suzurainty; equivalent to 'alam al-Jabarut - the world of the all powerful (spirits), or 'alam al-arwah - the world of the pure spirits (arwah jabarutiya). This the world closest to the absolute Mystery.

'alam al-Malakut or Arwah malakutiya - the world of im-material souls. The above and the present plane together make up the Presence of relative Mystery (Hadrat al-ghayb al-mudaf) or the Presence or Plane of Spirits (Hadrat al-arwah).

'alam al-mithal - the world of Idea-Images (intermediate between matter and spirit) or simulitudes; or 'alam al-khayal - the world of active imagination; and Hadrat-al-mithal wa'l- Khayal - Presence of the Image and the active imagination.

'alam al-shadadal - the visible world, or 'alam al-Mulkl - the human world; and Hadrat al-Hiss - Presence of the sensible and visible.

The heart of the Perfect Man (as a muslim who becomes logos) is the centre for the manifestation of all of these planes. So the Adept, by concentrating on the form of anything in one of these planes by means of the himmah, the spiritual will or aspiration towards God or creativity of the heart (qalb), aquires perfect control (and preservation) over that thing, which lasts as an image of the active Imagination for as long as the himmah is maintained. This is what Ibn Arabi means by the creative activity of the mystic [Affifi, Mystical Philosophy pp.134-5, and Corbin, Creative Imagination, p.226]. Here we have a precise analogy with the visualisation of and meditation upon archetypal deities in Tibetan Buddhism, and with the hermetic magic of modern (nineteenth and twentieth century) Qabalah.

(excellent understanding of psychokinesis and reality warping, from the Sufi perspective)


cial people in Islamic Faith: The Awliya
One of the beduin Arabs who came from among the most isolated of people twisted his hand at the Prophet and said: "O Messenger of Allah! People from humankind who are neither Prophets nor martyrs and yet the Prophets and the martyrs yearn to be like them due to their seat and proximity in relation to Allah?! Describe them for us!"
The Prophet's face showed delight at the Beduin's question and he said:
"They are of the strangers from this and that place. They frequent this or that tribe without belonging to them. They do not have family connections among themselves. They love one another for Allah's sake. They are of pure intent towards one another. On the Day of Resurrection Allah will place for them pedestals of light upon which He will make them sit, and He will turn their faces and clothes into light. On the Day of Resurrection the people will be terrified but not those. They are Allah's Friends upon whom fear comes not, nor do they grieve."
Another famous description of the characteristics of awliya was given by Sayyidina `Ali, as related by Ibn al-Jawzi in the chapter devoted to him in Sifat al-safwa:
They are the fewest in number, but the greatest in rank before Allah. Through them Allah preserves His proofs until they bequeath it to those like them (before passing on) and plant it firmly in their hearts. By them knowledge has taken by assault the reality of things, so that they found easy what those given to comfort found hard, and found intimacy in what the ignorant found desolate. They accompanied the world with bodies whose spirits were attached to the highest regard (al-mahall al-a`la). Ah, ah! how one yearns to see them!
The knowledge of the awliya' may attain higher levels than that of any other knowledge of humankind and jinn including in certain cases even the knowledge of Prophets. The preternatural knowledge or powers which Allah bestows on some of His friends (awliya') who are not Prophets have a firm basis in the Qur'an: for example, the wali who was with Prophet Sulayman and brought him the throne of Balqis faster than the blink of an eye. He was characterized as "one who had knowledge of the Book" as Allah stated:
One with whom was knowledge of the Scripture said: I will bring it thee (O Sulayman) before thy gaze returneth unto thee... (27:40)
and this is Prophet Sulayman's scribe Asif ibn Barkhya according to the Tafsir Ibn `Abbas and the majority of the scholars, i.e. a non-Prophet human being:
supernatural feats (karamat) – miracles ? Siddhi ? psychic powers ?
Wonders (karamat) of the awliya'
A karamah is an extraordinary event occuring at the hands of a pious person. Not every waliyy need necessarily have a karamah. The best honor or wonder is to
remain on the straight path.


[2.120] And the Jews will not be pleased with you, nor the Christians until you follow their religion. Say: Surely Allah's guidance, that is the (true) guidance. And if you follow their desires after the knowledge that has come to you, you shall have no guardian from Allah, nor any helper.