EXPANDING AND BEING JOYFUL (BAST AND INBISAT)

 ‘Bast’ literally means to spread, expand, to spread over and cover something. The word “Bisat” derived from same root means exhibition, floor, carpet, upholstery.

 “And Allah has made the earth for you as a carpet (spread out)” “That ye may go about therein in spacious roads.'” (1)

 According to Sufis the word “inbisat” is to expand, spread, to become deep and to go beyond one’s own nature. This attitude is, in accordance with the commands of Allah to open one’s heart to everybody, to please everyone who becomes happy with soft words and smiling face.... and concerning the relations with Allah, commanding of a state formed by the mixture of fear and hopeful expectation to the person’s self.; the hearts which reach up to this degree hold their breaths with the awe of being before Allah and they also feel relieved with the joy and pleasure of the breeze of peace.

 In this respect we may examine “inbisat” in two groups as the relations with the crowd and connection with Allah:

 “inbisat” in our relations with public:

 With the condition to protect and look after our connection with Allah, it is, among people being one of them, to accept everybody and treat them according to their understanding and perception. Hadrat Prophet , in his relations with people acted gently and comfortably in a way that sometimes changing into a joke, without formality; he talked by estimating the comprehension and perception level of others and smiled to those people of contemplation and cause them to smile and relieved them. It is said that: “Heart is just like a mirror. Sometimes being too serious may mist over this mirror and it’s not possible to clear and polish it with anything other than polite jokes. “

 “Inbisat in our relations with Allah”

 It consists of living fear and hope together in the soul in a mental state that is beyond other states and to breathe the mixture of “inbisat”. Fear and hopeful expectation-havf and reca- is one of the states of spirit, this is a title for the ones who are at the beginning of a mystic way; however “inbisat” is completely a quality of sagacious people and it is another dimension in the life of heart , a situation which is peculiar to sensible people. The states that seems like “inbisat” of those who can not attain the degree of “inbisat”, usually seen on them with a knowledge of familiarity, may lead them to some unseriousness which may be regarded as impolite attitude toward Lord by destroying their control.
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(1) Chapter Noah, /19-20.

 “inbisat” appears in the degree of being a glittering mirror to the names and attributes of Allah while slipping off from material desires and freeing from the influence of bodily passions, whether this degree is named as “jem”-ecstatic state of mind in perceiving the unity of Allah- or “mahv” -annihilation- the result doesn’t change. That is a secret point that the person is shaped by the breezes that comes from Allah and that he wrap himself up in color that is beyond all colors. It’s impossible for the ones who attain that point to hide “inbisat”, and it is an insolence to talk about it pretentiously for the beginners and the ones who haven’t reached it yet.

 “If an intimate friend of Shah feigns reluctance and acts playfully do not pretend it. Because you do not have that reliance! O the person who can not free from the limits of this passing world, how can you know about “mahv”, -annihilation- “sekr” - being happily unconscious-and “inbisat”-going beyond nature-.

 May your soul be rejoiced Mevlana! How can the servants of body and corp know the soul! What do the prisoners of body know about the spiritual matters and mysteries of Divine nature! It’s better to ask inkibaz -being grasped and held- and inbisat embellished by their piety, and the pain of their moaning breaths, to the hearts which were burned for fifty times and are torn with the love of Allah (1)
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(1) M.F.Gulen, On the Emerald Hills of the Heart.