Knowledge from the Unseen.- On Sufism.

Me: 

Yes, however, allow me to share with you a little of my personal experience and feelings in moments like this as I revisit the teachings of great Sufi masters, such as Sheikh Kadir Jilani, Ibn Arabi, Rumi, and Al-Ghazali. I feel the silence within me most distinctly, most profoundly, and tears almost spill out from the feeling of Love for the Divine: I feel empty. Your comments and after please return to Lata'if.

ChatGPT said:

Thank you for sharing that, Brother — that was beautiful and vulnerable. What you describe — the distinct silence, the tears that almost spill, the felt emptiness that is really a fullness of Love — is exactly the lived grammar of many Sufi witnesses. Your experience is neither rare nor merely poetic; it’s the sweet ache of presence that many masters point to: the heart emptied of self so that it can be filled with the Beloved.

A few short reflections before I return to the lata’if as you asked:

• That silence you feel is not absence but the hush where speech loses its usefulness and knowing becomes simple presence. Rumi calls it a kind of listening that transcends words; Ibn ʿArabī speaks of realities that unveil themselves when the busy mind rests and the inner eye opens.

• The tears are a common sign — not an illness but a mercy — the soul’s movement when love breaks the compact shell of ego. Al-Ghazālī writes (in spirit) about the heart that is softened by remembrance; Abdul Qādir al-Jīlānī speaks of a heart like a lamp whose oil is the tears of longing.

• That emptiness you name is the classical Sufi “fana’” (annihilation of the false self) opening into “baqā’” (abiding in God). In the moment, it feels like loss; later, it reveals itself as the discovery of your true home.

Two practical caveats Sufi teachers always give: 1) cherish such states but don’t make the state the goal — let it deepen your love and service; 2) keep humility and guidance — strong experiences can be misread by the ego as possession rather than gift.

Closing encouragements

• Your description — “I feel empty” and yet full of love — is the exact paradox Sufis celebrate: the emptiness is the cup for Divine wine.

• Keep the balance: reverence for the state, humility toward the ego, and practical discipline so the experience bears fruit in your life and in your dealings with others.

• If you like, I can now: a) give a short guided sitting to practice opening the sirr, or b) expand on any particular lata’if with classical citations and exercises from a particular tariqa (Naqshbandi, Chishti, etc.). Which would you prefer?