116 Gino Schallenbergh
or basṭ. Constriction is for the Gnostic what fear is for the ordinary
believer. When God constricts His worshipper, the latter will find it
hard and shameful to stand up, take food or speak. When God releases
His servant, however, He brings him back to his earthly environment
and sets him free to enjoy earthly pleasures. The result is that the wor-
shipper is in a state of elation and joy (mabsūṭ). Saints that are in a
permanent state of qabḍ, usually retreat from society. A Shaykh who
undergoes qabḍ, al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī explained, is not useful in teach-
ing, the one who lives in basṭ bears in him all the required qualifica-
tions for this task.^70 Constriction can be described as the sadness of the
soul, which is devastated by a particular spiritual sensation (wārid).
The spiritual wayfarer may already be subject to qabḍ in his awareness
that the wārid painfully underlines his separation from God. It disables
him to rejoice in his situation. As long as the spiritual states and Divine
manifestations are limited to the personal experience of the worship-
per, he is in a state of qabḍ. When he manages to transcend this state
he arrives to the abode of basṭ.^71 According to al-Qushayrī the station
of constriction is a follow-up of the station of khawf, while expansion
is a continuation of rajāʾ. The difference in the two sentiments lies in
the fact that fear and hope are determined by events to happen in the
future, while constriction and release are determined by the immediacy
and actuality of the events. They are states that alternate in succes-
sion and are usually equal in strength, thus al-Qushayrī, the stronger
the constriction is, the stronger also the release that will succeed it.
Constriction is a terrifying experience and the origins of the sentiment
can not easily be traced. Al-Qushayrī advises the itinerants to give in
to the state and surrender to its overpowering force. Than the effect
of the state will cease soon and make place for the more blissful state
of release.^72 The mystics who claim spiritual realisation (taḥqīq) how-
ever perceived a deficiency in those alternating states when it comes
to the position of the itinerants who attained the end of the journey.
The interchangeable nature of these modes prevents by their duality
the first steps to unification. Only once the mystic has overcome these
spiritual states, that were necessary for his spiritual ascension, he will
be enabled to franchise the last step and begin his journey to unifica-
tion.
70 Al-Jurjānī, Kitāb al-Taʿrīfāt, p. 178.
71 Al-Qāshānī, Laṭāʾif al-iʿlām, vol. 2, p. 227.
72 Al-Qushayrī, Risāla fī ʿIlm al-taṣawwuf, p. 121.
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