Walking the stations.

The “Stations” are the waypoints along the path to Allah (swta). They outline the terrain the traveler will pass through. Each station gives way to the next as you move through the spiritual evolutionary process towards Unity. Each station has its own theme, gifts and obstacles to over come. With each station Sidi highlights the main challenges and obstacles and gives you the prescription in the form of a “quality” or phrase to work with, as well as other guidance to help you move forward. 

Most if not all new students begin their “walking” starting in the first station of the nafs “the commanding nafs”. Sidi explains all the stations in three of his books; “Music of the Soul”, “Path to Allah Most High” and “He who Knows Himself Knows His Lord”. Each of these books covers all the station but are slightly different. In “Music of the Soul” Sidi describes the path using four stations, stations of the nafs, the stations of the Heart, the stations of the Soul and the stations of the Secret. He further breaks up each of these four stations into seven sub stations. But in HHKHSKHL and PTAMH the stations are laid out differently, seven stations without the substations. In these two books Sidi names the seven stations as follows; “The commanding nafs”, ‘The Blaming self”, “the Inspired self”, “The Tranquil soul”, “The Satisfied or Contented Soul”, “The Pleased Soul” and “The Perfect Soul”. The stations in both these latter books are very similar but in HHKHSKHL Sidi offers more detail.  Each of the books covers the same Stations from start to finish. They are just broken up differently. In his final years Sidi would always guide new students to start with “HHKHSKHL”. Though all three of these books covers the stations in there own way, each book also has many other chapters devoted to completely different topics. Each is full of writings not found in any of Sidis other books.

As Sidi walks you through the Stations know that you are embarking on an evolutionary path. A path that starts exactly where you are now and is headed towards complete unity with the Divine. Where you are now may be filled with fear, hurt, anxiety, loneliness, despair, anger, confusion. Your final destination is a place of deep peace and intense love and annihilation of the small limited self into the vast limitless unity of the Divine. As you note the differences between these two poles you get a sense of the gradual continuation from where you are to where you are headed. You get a sense of what will need to fall away and what will need to be cultivated. The "Stations" Sidi walks us through in his books are that continuum. Each step through the stations begins with humility and ends with gratitude. 

Your Heart remembers what your mind cannot yet imagine. An arrogant mind will lead the heart astray. A humble mind will bow and allow the heart to guide you back to the Truth. Arrogance in all it's subtle forms will block your walking. Humility is the key ingredient to surrender. Remember when you took the "promise" and said "I promise Allah (swta) to be honest and sincere". Know what that means. This honesty is acknowledging the truth of where we are now. Honesty towards Allah and not hiding anything or pretending to be what you are not. This honesty requires humility. First you most be honest with yourself and acknowledge and accept your current station before you can begin the work of walking towards the next station. This honesty requires humility. So be humble. 

As you walk, keep in mind the necessity of transformation. Know that in order to reach your intended goal everything will need to pass through the sifter of the Truth and washed with the "clean water". Allow everything you think you are seeing, hearing, sensing to be open for transformation. Don't hold on to anything. As Sidi has said "be like the corpse in the hands of the washer" or "be like soft clay between the hand of Allah". Walking the stations of the way is to allow yourself to be gently pulled apart, washed clean and reassembled in a holy way. All of this requires humility, honesty and sincerity. As you walk, some of the teachings will flow in easily and will be meet with eager excitement, while other teachings may trigger you and incite balking refusal. Be grateful for the teachings that come with welcome ease and treat the triggers like gold because they hold the key to the door that has closed you off from Divine revelation and real healing.

Humility is about letting go, honesty is about accepting and owning where you are at now, sincerity is about your willingness to travel and be transformed as you allow yourself to be drawn closer towards the Divine.

In order to walk you need to follow your Guide and do the practices as he has taught us. The practices of writing his books (especially the stations), Salat (prayer), the “after prayer practices”, Remembrance, al-Wird, dhkir, reciting the “Wazifa” and sura “Ya Seen” (chapter 36 of the Qur’an), “Tawba” (repentance), fasting, and other practices are the means by which the student travels through the Stations of the Way.