Skip to content
Joyful Muslims
Store
Get the app
Glossary Entry

Wusul

Definition

Wusul — 'arrival' — is the Sufi technical term for the state of having reached the spiritual goal: the intimate nearness to God that the entire spiritual path is in service of. In the context of this book, wusul represents the completion of tawakkul — the point at which trust in God is no longer a practice maintained by effort but a permanent condition of the heart. Al-Ghazali describes it carefully: it is not a state of mystical dissolution or the loss of individual identity, but a state of such profound inward alignment with divine will that the distinction between what one wants and what God has decreed has effectively dissolved.

As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.

In the library's own words

How the scholars use Wusul.

  1. "mean reside or stay in Egypt securely among the people of the book it is believed that when Jacob reached the land of Goshen Joseph came out to greet him Jacob had sent his son Judah ahead to announce his arrival they also believed that the king granted them the land of Goshen to live in with their possessions and livestock several interpreters mentioned that when Jacob's arrival was near Joseph along with the king and his armies went out to greet him honoring the Prophet of God Israel it is said that Joseph prayed for the king and by the blessing of Jacob's arrival God lifted the remaining years of drought from Egypt God knows best according to Abu Ishaq al-Sabi quoting"

    — Ibn Kathir, Volume 1 — From Creation to Mūsā

  2. "The owner of the house, Kulthum ibn al-Hidm, did not remain long after the Prophet's arrival before he died, followed by Asad ibn Zuhrara. His death occurred in the year of the Prophet's arrival before the mosque's construction was completed. Kulthum ibn al-Hidm, from the Ansari of the Aus tribe, embraced Islam before the arrival of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, in Medina."

    — Ibn Kathir, Volume 3 — The Sīrah: From the First Revelation to Badr

  3. "peace between them. I wished to meet him, so I hired a guide and set out to see him. The aforementioned individuals informed him of my arrival, and he came to meet me riding a horse without a saddle, which is their custom. Instead of a saddle, he had placed a splendid red tapestry on the horse, and wore a wrap, pants, and a turban, all of which were blue. Accompanying him were his nephews, who are his heirs. We rose to greet him and shook hands. He inquired about my situation and arrival, and I was informed of that. He accommodated me in one of the houses of the Yanatibin, who are like the servants for us. He sent a roasted sheep's head on a spit, and a jug of cow's"

    — Ibn Battuta, Volume Two: From India to the Lands of the West

Appears in

1 book in the library

Hear the term in context.

Every book above uses Wusul the way the classical scholars meant it. Listen with the full Study Kit in the app.

Listen on the App Store
Open in App Store