The Places of the Soul within the Body

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The place of the human soul, the soul of life, within the body is. the breast. That place is connected to the senses. Its business is religion; its work is to follow Allah's precepts. With these precepts Allah keeps the visible world in harmony and order. That soul, acting upon the obligations set by Allah, does not claim its actions as its own, for it is not separate from Allah. Its actions are from Allah: there is no separation between (I) and Allah in its actions anddevotions.
To meet his Lord let him work righteousness and in the worship of his Lord admit no one as partner. (Sura Kahf, no,110)
Allah is One and He loves that which is united and one. He wants all worship and all righteous acts, which He considers as devotion, to belong to Himself alone. Therefore a man should not take other people's approval or rejection into consideration in his actions; neither should his actions be for worldly benefit. They should be solely for Allah's sake. Inspired states such as seeing in this visible world the proof of Allah's existence — manifestation of His attributes, the unity within the multipli-city, the truth behind appearances — and closeness to one's Creator, are the rewards for these selfless righteous acts and devotions. Yet all these still belong to this world of matter, from the ground under one's feet up to the heavens. So also to this world belong the miracles that may appear through one:walkig on water, flying in the air, travelling great distances in a very shor time, hearing sounds, seeing images from faraway places, knowing hidden thoughts. As a reward for righteous action, one may also hope to find rewards in the hereafter —places of Paradise, young manservants, eternal virgins as companions, milk, honey, wine and all the other benefits of Paradise. Yet all these are bounties of the first level of Paradise, the earthly paradise.
The place of the 'moving soul' is in the heart; its business is the knowledge of the spiritual path. Its work deals with the four of the Beautiful Names of the Essence of Allah. As in rest of the twelve Names of the Essence, these four Names have neither sound nor letters —thus they cannot be pronounced, Allah Most High indicates this:
Say: Call on Allah or call on the Beneficent. By whatever (name) you call on Him, He has the Most Beautiful Names. (Sura Ban! Isra'il, 110)
And Allah's are the Most Beautiful Names, so call on Him thereby . .. (Sura A'raf, 180)
Allah's very words point to what should be man's principal ocupation: to know the divine Names. This is the knowledge of one's inner being. If one obtained that knowledge, one would reach the level of divine wisdom. That is where the knowledge of the Name of Unity is complete. 
Our Master the Prophet (saw)says of the divine Names, 'Allah High has ninety-nine Names. Whoever learns them enters Paradise. He also says, 'Knowledge is one. Then men of knowledge-made it a thousand.' This means that the Name which belongs to the Essence is only one; it is reflected as a thousand attributes in those who receive it.
The twelve divine Names are within the origin of the confession of Unity, La ilaha illa Llah, 'There is no god but Allah'. Each of them is in one of the twelve letters in this phrase.
Allah Most High has given an individual Name to each letter in the development of the heart. Each of the four realms through which the soul passes also has three different Names. Allah Most High in this way holds the hearts of the lovers firmly in love. He says:
Allah will establish in strength (the hearts) of 
those who believe with the word that stands firm in this world and in the Hereafter. (Sura Ibrahim, 27)
Then He gives them the gift of His intimacy. He sets the tree of unity in their hearts, that tree whose roots descend to the seventh level beneath us and whose branches spread to the seven heavens above us up to the divine Throne and perhaps still higher. Allah says:
Seest thou not how Allah sets forth a parable of a good word as a good tree, whose root is firm and whose branches are high? (Sura Ibrahim, 24)
The place of the 'moving soul' is within the life of the heart. The angelic realm is constantly within its view. It can see the paradises of that realm, its inhabitants, its light, and all the angels within it. The speech of the 'moving soul' is the speech of the inner world, without words, without sound. Its thoughts constantly concern the secrets of the hidden meanings. Its place in the Hereafter, upon its return, is the paradise of Na'im, the garden of the delights of Allah's grace.
The place of the sultan-soul, where it reigns, is the centre of the heart, the heart of the heart. The business of this soul -divine wisdom. Its work is to know all of divine knowledge, which is the medium of true devotion recited in the language of the heart. The Prophet (saw) explains this: 'Knowledge is in two sections. One is in man's tongue, which is the confirmation of Allah's existence. The other is in man's heart. That is the one necessary for the realization of man's goal.' The truly beneficial knowledge is only within the framework of the heart's activity As the Prophet (saw) says, 'The Holy Qur'an has an outer meaning and an inner meaning.' Allah Most High revealed the Holy Qur'an in ten layers of hidden meaning. Each successive meaning is more beneficial than the one before, because it is closer to the source of truth. The twelve divine Names belonging to the Essence of Allah are like the twelve fountains which gushed forth from the stone when the prophet Moses (peace be upon him) hit it with his staff, and when Moses prayed for water for his people. We said: Strike it with thy staff. So there flowed from it twelve springs. Each tribe knew its drinking place . . . (Sura Baqara, 60)
The outer knowledge of appearances is like rainwater, which comes and goes, while the inner knowledge is like a fountain -hose source never dries up. Allah says:
And a sign to them is the dead earth: We give life to it and bring forth from it grain so they eat of it. (Sura Ya Sin, 33)
Allah has created a grain, a seed in the* skies. That seed became the strength of the animal in man. And He has created a seed in the realm of the souls ('alam al-anfus): that is the source strength, the food of the soul. That grain is watered by the source of wisdom. As the Prophet (saw) says, 'If someone spends forty days in sincerity and purity, the source of wisdom will gush from heart to his tongue.' 
The benefit of the sultan-soul is the rapture and love that it watching the manifestation of Allah's beauty, grace, and perfection. As Allah confirms: One Mighty in Power has taught him. The Lord of Strength. So he attained perfection1, . And he is in the highest part of the horizon. Then he drew near, drew yet nearer, So that he was the measure of two bows or closer still So He revealed to His servant what He revealed. The heart was not untrue in seeing what he saw. (Sura Najm, 5-11)

The Prophet (saw) describes this state in another way: 'The faithful is the mirror of the faithful'. In this phrase, the first 'faithful' is the heart of the perfect believer, and the second 'faithful', which is reflected upon the heart of the believer, is Allah Most High Himself. Allah gives Himself the Name of 'Faithful' in His Qur'an: He is Allah besides whom there is no god. . . The Faithful, [Guardian of the Faith], the Guardian over all. (Sura Hashr,23)
The home of the sultan-soul in the hereafter is Firdaws—the heavenly paradise.

The station where the holy spirit reigns is the secret place that Allah made for Himself in the centre of the heart where He deposited His Secret (sirr) for safekeeping. The state of this soul is described by Allah speaking through His Prophet (saw): 'Man is My secret and I am the secret of man.' Its business is the truth which is obtained by achieving unity; that is its work. It brings multiplicity into unity by continuously reciting the names of unity in the language of the divine secret. This is not an audible exterior language,and if you utter the saying aloud, surely He knows the secret and what is yet more hidden. (Sura Ta Ha, 7)
Only Allah hears the language of the holy spirit, only Allah knows its state.
The benefit of this soul is the vision of the first-created creation. What it sees is Allah's beauty. To it belongs the secret vision. Seeing and hearing become one. There is no compari¬son, there is no resemblance to anything in what it sees. It sees Allah's attributes of might and wrath as one with His attributes of beauty, grace and mercy.
When man finds his goal, his home, as he finds the causal intelligence, his worldly mind that led him until then comes under its command: his heart is in awe, his tongue is tied. He has no power to give the news of these states because Allah is exempt from any resemblance to anything conceivable.
When what is said here reaches the ears of the ones who know, let them first try to understand the level of their knowledge. Let them bring all their attention to the true reality of the things they know before they raise their eyes to the further horizons, before they seek to reach new heights, that they may reach the level of the knowledge of divine providence. May they not deny what has been said, but seek the wisdom to find unity, oneness That is essential.

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