nguishes man from animals. These emotions proceed one from another;
just as knowledge is born of arguments, joy and sadness spring from the
perception of that which causes grief or pleasure. Similarly with the
disciple of the spiritual life in the warfare which he wages with
himself, and in his devotional exercises. Every struggle which he has
with his passions produces in him a state resulting from this struggle.
This state is either a disposition to piety which, strengthening by
repetition, becomes for him a "station" (_maqam_), or merely an emotion
which he undergoes, such as joy, merriment, &c.

The disciple of the spiritual life continues to rise from one station to
another, till he arrives at the knowledge of the Divine Unity and of
God, the necessary condition for obtaining felicity, conformably to the
saying of the Prophet: "Whosoever dies while confessing that there is no
god but God, shall enter Paradise."

Progress through these different stages is gradual. They have as their
common foundation obedience and sincerity of intention; faith precedes
and accompanies them, and from them proceed the emotions and qualities,
the transient and permanent modifications of the soul; these emotions
and qualities go on producing others in a perpetual progression which
finally arrives at the station of the knowledge of the Unity of God. The
disciple of the spiritual life needs to demand an account of his soul in
all its actions, and to keep an attentive eye on the most hidden
recesses of his heart; for actions must necessarily produce results, and
whatever evil is in results betokens a corresponding evil in actions.

There are but a few persons who imitate the Sufis in this practice of
self-examination, for negligence and indifference in this respect are
almost universal. Pious men who have not risen to this class (the
mystics) only aim at fulfilling the works commanded by the law in all
the completeness laid down by the science of jurisprudence. But the
mystics examine scrupulously the results of these works, the effects and
impressions which they produce upon the soul. For this purpose they use
whatever rays of divine illumination may have reached them while in a
state of ecstacy, with the object of assuring themselves whether their
actions are exempt or not from some defect. The essence of their system
is this practice of obliging the soul often to render an account of its
actions and of what it has left undone. It also