Question?
May you entangled this for me, the book from ibnu ataillah.
There are four times in which the slave will find himself, of which there is no fifth: blessing, affliction, obedience, and disobedience.
In each of these times, there is an aspect of slave-hood which the Truth requires of you by virtue of His Lordship. If it is a time of obedience, your path is to bear witness to God’s grace, since it is He who has guided you into this obedience and has made it possible for you.
If it is a time of disobedience, your path is to seek God’s forgiveness and repent. If it is a time of blessing, your path is to give thanks, which means for your heart to rejoice in God.
If it is a time of affliction, you path is to be content with God’s decree and to endure patiently.27 These four epistemic states delimit the possible states of the contingently existent with regard to Allah.
1. Let us entangle this slowly and cleanly, without rushing—using Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh’s inner grammar, and anchoring it to the Ghazalian map of the soul you are already familiar with.
1. Why Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh says “there is no fifth”
This statement is radical in its simplicity.
“There are four times in which the slave will find himself, of which there is no fifth.”
He is not describing events, but epistemic states—how existence is known and tasted by a contingent being (mumkin al-wujūd) in relation to Allah.
Everything you experience collapses into one of four relations:
Blessing (ni‘mah)
Affliction (balā’)
Obedience (ṭā‘ah)
Disobedience (ma‘ṣiyah)
There is no neutral ground. There is no “pause mode.” There is no spiritually empty moment.
This already echoes Imam al-Ghazali’s insistence:
The servant is never outside relationship with Allah—only unaware of the form of it.
2. The key move: each state demands a form of ʿubūdiyyah
Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh does not define slavehood as “doing religious acts.”
Instead:
Slavehood is responding correctly to the state Allah places you in.
So the question is never “What is happening to me?” The real question is:
What does Allah require of me now?
This is where many sincere people stumble—they apply the wrong spiritual response to the right situation.
3. The four states, untangled one by one
① Obedience → Witnessing Grace, not pride
“If it is a time of obedience, your path is to bear witness to God’s grace.”
This is subtle and dangerous.
The nafs says: “I prayed, I fasted, I obeyed.”
The qalb is trained to say: “Allah enabled me.”
The ruh witnesses: “There was never other than Him acting.”
For Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh:
Obedience is not proof of nearness
It is proof of divine enabling (tawfīq)
So the correct inner posture is:
Humility
Gratitude
Fear of being veiled by one’s own obedience
This aligns perfectly with al-Ghazali’s warning:
A sin that produces humility may save you, while an obedience that produces pride may destroy you.
② Disobedience → Repentance, not despair
“If it is a time of disobedience, your path is to seek God’s forgiveness and repent.”
Notice what is not said:
Not self-hatred
Not theological panic
Not over-analysis
Disobedience is not your identity. It is a moment requiring return (rujū‘).
Here:
Nafs experiences exposure
Qalb learns brokenness (inkisār)
Ruh tastes divine mercy more vividly than during obedience
In Ghazalian language:
Repentance polishes the heart more intensely than prolonged obedience.
So even sin is reabsorbed into servitude if handled correctly.
③ Blessing → Gratitude as joy in Allah, not possession
“If it is a time of blessing, your path is to give thanks, which means for your heart to rejoice in God.”
This is not transactional gratitude. Not: “Thank you for the gift.”
It is:
Rejoicing in the Giver more than the gift.
Signs you failed this station:
Anxiety over losing the blessing
Pride in having it
Forgetfulness of Allah during ease
True shukr (per Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh):
The heart expands toward Allah
The blessing becomes a mirror, not a distraction
AlM al-Ghazali says:
Blessings are either vehicles to Allah or veils from Him.
Gratitude determines which.
④ Affliction → Contentment (riḍā’) and patience (ṣabr)
“If it is a time of affliction, your path is to be content with God’s decree and endure patiently.”
Affliction strips illusion.
Here:
Nafs loses control
Qalb is tested for trust
Ruh is invited into surrender
Important distinction:
Ṣabr = not objecting
Riḍā’ = inward acceptance
Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh is training the servant to move from:
“Why is this happening to me?” to “What is Allah unveiling to me through this?”
This is where true ma‘rifah ripens.
4. Why he calls these “epistemic states”
The final sentence is crucial:
“These four epistemic states delimit the possible states of the contingently existent with regard to Allah.”
This means:
You do not exist independently
Your knowing, tasting, suffering, acting—all occur within divine relationship
Every moment is a form of knowledge of Allah, whether you recognize it or not
So Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh is saying:
Life is not about controlling states
It is about reading them correctly
5. One sentence synthesis (Ghazalian tone)
The perfected servant is not the one who avoids disobedience or affliction, but the one who never exits slavehood—whatever Allah unfolds.
If you want, next we can:
Map this into daily self-diagnosis
Or connect it directly to nafs ammārah → lawwāmah → muṭma’innah
Or anchor it explicitly to wahdat al-shuhūd (not wujūd) to keep the theology precise
You may choose the next door.
Question?
Not at the moment, as i felt it more intense already, and i also being reading al hikam by ibnu ataillah like more that 50 rounds for the past 4 years. I felt like existential crisis now.
2. Thank you for saying this honestly. What you’re describing is not a failure, nor confusion—it is a known station for those who stay long with al-Ḥikam and similar texts.
Let me speak to you quietly, not conceptually.
---
1. This is not an “existential crisis” in the modern sense
What you are feeling is not:
loss of meaning
doubt in Allah
philosophical collapse
It is closer to what Imam al-Ghazali experienced after certainty but before repose.
In today’s language it gets called existential crisis, but in the language of the path it is closer to:
> the exhaustion of the self that has been looking too long at Reality
Al-Ḥikam does not comfort the ego.
It dismantles orientation.
Reading it 50+ times over four years does something very specific:
it removes false footholds
it denies you spiritual shortcuts
it refuses to let the nafs settle anywhere
Eventually the mind says:
> “If everything is from Allah… then where exactly am I?”
That question feels like falling.
---
2. Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh expects this state — he does not warn against it
There is a reason al-Ḥikam is aphoristic, not systematic.
If it were systematic, the mind could rest. But aphorisms:
strike
withdraw
strike again
Over time, this creates what you are now tasting:
> a sense that all frames are insufficient
This is not nihilism. This is disorientation before reorientation.
In Ghazalian terms:
Old certainty has collapsed
New witnessing has not stabilized
The heart is suspended
This suspension feels unbearable only to the mind, not to the ruh.
---
3. Why it feels intense now, not earlier
Because earlier, you were still reading.
Now:
the text has moved inside you
the questions are no longer external
the “reader” is being read
Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh does this deliberately:
> He removes your ability to stand outside the text.
This is why repetition doesn’t calm anymore. It activates.
---
4. Very important: do NOT try to “solve” this state
This is where many sincere people suffer unnecessarily.
Do not:
analyze your faith
re-check your beliefs
label this as depression or doubt too quickly
force meaning back into place
That would be the nafs seeking ground.
Instead, understand this sentence deeply:
> Not every inner collapse is meant to be repaired.
Some are meant to be outlived.
---
5. What is required of you right now (very gently)
I will keep this grounded and practical.
a. Reduce interpretive pressure
Keep your practices simple
No need to “extract meaning”
Let the words pass without chewing them
This is not retreat—it is adab with intensity.
---
b. Anchor in the body more than the mind
Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh speaks to the heart, not the nervous system. But the nervous system still needs grounding.
Simple acts:
walking
warm food
routine prayer without commentary
breath awareness during dhikr (no analysis)
This stabilizes the container so the heart can settle.
---
c. Accept that “not knowing how to stand” is itself a station
There is a Hikmah that explains your exact state:
> “He may open a door of understanding for you,
yet close the door of expression.”
You may also say:
> He closed the door of orientation.
That closure is not abandonment.
It is a pause before taslīm becomes real, not theoretical.
---
6. One sentence to hold (do not analyze it)
Let this sit, not be understood:
> If you feel lost after long intimacy with the Truth,
it may be because you are no longer standing where you used to stand —
and not yet where you will stand.
Nothing is required of you except not to run.
---
I will not push you further. No new concepts. No next step.
Just know this, with certainty: This state passes — not by effort, but by quiet continuity.
When you are ready, you can return. Or you can remain silent. Both are acceptable here.
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