Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Manipulation of Sufi Terms 115
hope for unification with God. In the previous stages of spiritual devel-
opment the itinerant was still preoccupied with the purification of his
heart. In the next step, his heart is filled with a hope that resembles a
strong feeling of longing, the desire for a prolonged nearness to God.
Still, al-Qāshānī argues, this type of hope has the deficiency of separ-
ateness and otherness than God. To ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī as well,
the privileged situated in the third and final degree of spiritual develop-
ment, do not share in any of those sentiments inspired by fear. These
mystics, he argues, can not be separated from God who is approaching
them of His own volition. They are however marked by a sentiment
of awe (hayba) for God’s magnitude. Hayba is a more noble alterna-
tive for fear. His sentiment of awe or reverence prevents the privileged
from mystic rapture in a moment of contemplative vision and prompts
him by consequence to self-control during his spiritual encounter with
God. Reverence also instils in him the desire for the direct sensation to
see God, comparable, al-Tilimsānī explains, to the state of Moses when
he begged God to make Himself manifest.^66
But Ibn al-Qayyim defends the contemplation of God’s beauty
in the preservation of subsistence of the lover of God, whose love is
intensified, which would not be the case if he was absent of his state.^67
In this balance fear and hope find their place and keep each other in
check. Again he underlines the coexistence of fear, hope and love. The
heart on its way to God is like a bird, thus Ibn al-Qayyim, his head is
love which is supported by the two wings of fear and hope. When head
and wing are intact no problem shall arise.^68
2.5. Constriction and ReleaseConstriction (qabḍ) and release (basṭ) are two alternating states that
constitute a higher development of fear and hope but that precede awe
(hayba) and intimacy (uns). Constriction and release are represented in
the Divine names of “restrictor” (al-qābiḍ) and “releaser” (al-bāsiṭ).^69
In Sufism some saints are said to live in a permanent state of qabḍ
66 Al-Tilimsānī, Sharḥ manāzil al-sāʾirīn, folio 19.
67 Ibn al-Qayyim, Madārij al-sālikīn, vol. 2, p. 56.
68 Ibid., vol. 1, p. 554.
69 On the qualities of qabḍ and basṭ in relation to the Divine names, see Gimaret,
Daniel: Les noms divins en Islam. Exégèse lexicographiqe et théologique, Paris
1988, pp. 333–335.
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