2.3.3 - The Seeker and the Sought

Therefore, in the Way to God, there is the Seeker and also the Sought. In contrast to latter, the first is the one who strives to obey and worship God, and to cleanse oneself and to adhere to all praised morals, in addition to freeing the heart from any attachment in the world so that one can receive the manifestation of the divine. During his answers to al-Tirmidhi’s questions, Shaykh Muhyiddin details the meaning of the seeker and the sought and the difference between them, saying:

If you ask what is meant by the seeker and what is meant by the sought? We say: The sought is someone who is attracted out of his own willing, while everything is prepared so that they override all formalities and stations without incurring them, and the seeker is the one who was released from his will (by submitting to the will of God), ... the one who walked through all the hardships and difficulties of the Way.

[Futuhat: II.134].

Then the Shaykh, may Allah be pleased with him, said in the in Chapter 277 of the Meccan Revelations, that according to the terminology of the people of Allah, the sought is the one who is attracted out of his own will with the preparation of things so that one can overrides the formalities and achieves the stations without hardships, but with delight and sweetness and goodness that ease all the difficulties and hardships to him. Then he added in poetry:

The sought is that whose state is achieved by attraction, in all states while coming and going.

He is walked through a clear road with ease, through all stations from one state to the other.

All this with a special care and the Eye of the Merciful is guarding him in plenitude and acceptance.

[Futuhat: II.523].

In contrast, he explained in chapter 28 that the word “seeker” is used among the realizing people of God to describe the one who devoted himself to God, by seeking what He likes and requires, or also that who have withdrawn his own will (in the Will of God) [Futuhat: II.525].