Note 205 — Chapter XII

Two technical words occur (among many others) of the Súfis حال hal, and مقام makám, which require a particular explanation. Hál signifies a feeling of joy or of affliction—of compression or dilatation—or of any other condition, which takes hold of the heart without any effort being made to produce or to provoke it, and which ceases when the soul reverts to the consideration of its own qualities. It is so called whether the same state be repeated or not. I generally render it by “state,” above by “transitory state.” If it persists and is changed into an habitual faculty, it is then called makám; I render it by “station.” The hals are pure gifts of God; the makáms are fruits of labor. The first proceed from God’s pure bounty; the second are obtained by dint of efforts. Both words may sometimes be rendered by extasy, or extatic, supernatural condition, in which the soul loses sight of itself to see God only, and which ceases, as soon as its looks are directed towards itself.—(See Ext. et Not. des MSS., vol. XII. p. 317.)