Some who have discussed the defects of spiritual stations have classified love, contentment, fear, and hope as stations belonging to ordinary people. They base this on witnessing divine decree, holding that whoever witnesses divine decree and the oneness of divine action—until that which once was not vanishes and He who has never ceased to exist remains—passes beyond these things. This claim is flawed both in reality and according to revealed law.

As for reality, it is inconceivable that a living being should lack sensation, love for what suits it, or aversion to what is disagreeable to it. Anyone who says that a living being is equally indifferent to everything decreed is one of two people: either he does not understand what he is saying and is simply ignorant, or he stubbornly denies what is evident.

Even supposing that someone experiences a state that deprives him of his reason—whether called istilām, effacement, annihilation, fainting, or weakness—this does not eliminate his capacity for sensation altogether. He still senses what suits him and what is disagreeable to him. Even if his awareness of some things disappears, his awareness of everything has not disappeared.

Thus, whoever claims that someone witnessing Allah’s oneness in lordship enters the station of undifferentiated awareness and annihilation, and consequently perceives no distinctions, is mistaken. Distinction is inevitable, for it is a necessary feature of human existence. But if he abandons the distinctions prescribed by revealed law, he remains subject to those dictated by his natural inclinations. He is then following his desires rather than obeying his Lord.