Maqaam
Not to be confused with Maqam.
Maqaam (also known as maqām) or maqaamat (plural), translating to “stations” in Arabic, is the various stages a Sufi‘s soul must attain in its search for God. The stations are derived from the most routine considerations a Sufi must deal with on a day-to-day basis and is essentially an embodiment of both mystical knowledge and Islamic law (Sharia). Although the number and order of maqaamat are not universal the majority agree on the following seven: Tawba, Wara’, Zuhd, Faqr, Ṣabr, Tawakkul, and Riḍā. Sufis believe that these stations are the grounds of the spiritual life, and they are viewed as a mode through which the most elemental aspects of daily life begin to play a vital role in the overall attainment of oneness with God.
It is within the power of a Sufi to fulfill the obligations pertaining to the specific station, and keeping it until its full precision is comprehended. That is to say, it is only when one stage has been reached that the next stage may be attained. In order to reach a higher maqaam, one must continue to possess the maqaam below it and not become deprived of it. Each of the stations stand related to each other in a hierarchical order, so that even when they are transcended they remain a permanent possession of the one who attained them. Possession of a certain station means not only to experience it outworldly, but to be internally transformed by it and, in a sense, to embody the stage itself.
Tawba (Repentance)
Wara’ (Watchfulness)
Zuhd (Renunciation)
Faqr (Poverty)
Ṣabr (Patience)
Tawakkul (Trust)
Riḍā (Satisfaction)
Comparison to Ḥāl (Spiritual State)
Hāl (pl. ahwāl), or Haal, translated “spiritual state“, appears many times within Sufi texts as the opposite and complement to maqaam. As an early authority on Sufism, Ali bin Usman Al-Hujwiri in his book Kashf ul Mahjoob: a Persian Treatise on Sufism, defines Hal as “something that descends from God into a man’s heart, without his being able to repel it when it comes, or to attract it as it goes, by his own effort.” The maqaamat and the ahwal are clearly presented as two series of spiritual states, the first being something one must acquire and the second being something that must be received. To reach a new maqaam does not destroy the preceding maqaam. Hāl, on the contrary, is by its very nature “instantaneous”, though not necessarily passive. The most prominent distinction made between the two spiritual states is that the ahwāl are essentially gifts from God, while the maqaamat are acquired through the exertion of effort. In the Ihya Ulum al-din (Revivification of the religious science) al-Ghazali defines Hāl in conjunction and in contrast with maqaam. He says:
Qualifications (wasf) is called “station” (maqaam) if it is stable and endures and it is called “state of soul” (hāl) if it passes away and disappears without delay…What is not stable is called “state of soul” because it disappears to give its place to another state rapidly. This is true of all the qualifications of the heart.
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