Practical Ṣūfism and Spiritual Science

Excerpt:
It is necessary for the sāliks (ones who travel on the path of spirituality) of the manifest religion (=Islam) to die and to be born twice in this life by virtue of their high ambition and the help of God. That is, first they should die with respect to the carnal soul (they should ‘kill’ their lower, animal-like thoughts and desires through esoteric knowledge and spiritual exercise) and be revived in spirituality and then further they should die with respect to spirituality and be born in intellectuality (after being taught the deepest secrets of ta’wīl in their own spirituality). Thus, they will observe the secrets of azal (the realm beyond time and space) in the Sacred Sanctuary (Paradise) by being transformed into monoreality (attaining fanā fi’llāh). …This is why Ḥaz̤rat ‘Isā (a.s.) said: “He who is not born twice cannot enter the heavenly kingdom.” (Aḥādīth-i Mathnawī, pp. 46, 194).

This excerpt has been taken from page 64.