This note is extends from Certainty (yaqin).
Ibn Ajiba's The Book of Ascension to the Essential Truths of Sufism
The knowledge of certainty arises from rational proof (burhăn), the eye of certainty from unveiling (kashf) and experiential evidence (bayan), and the truth of certainty from consciousness and vision (al-shuhud wa-l-iyăn).
The first is the certainty of those of the faithful in whom the mental or rational element prevails; the second, of the ecstatics in whom the intuitive element prevails; and the third, of those who attain depth and stability in the station of excellence (maqam al-ihsan).
To illustrate this: someone who has heard of Mecca but has never seen it possesses the knowledge of certainty; someone who travels there and sees it from a distance but does not enter it possesses the eye of certainty; and someone who enters the city and becomes acquainted with its streets and locales possesses the truth of certainty.
Thus it is with people in their knowledge of God. Those who are veiled search for rational proofs and through these they gain certain knowledge of God’s existence. Aspirants in the way seeking effacement in the divine essence are granted the eye of certainty when the lights of the spiritual world (anwar al-ma’ani) dawn for them and the darkness of the formal world recedes, except that they remain in the bewilderment of effacement and are not yet established in a permanent consciousness of the divine. Once they reach this, however, and find deep-rooted equilibrium in gnosis, they are granted the truth of certainty, and this is the supreme benefaction and summit of blessedness. May God, in His generosity and grace, make us among those who receive it! Amen!
Appendix 2 of Ibn Ajiba's The Book of Ascension to the Essential Truths of Sufism - The Degrees of Certainty
Commenting on Q. 2:260-And remember when Abraham said (to his Lord): My Lord! Show me how You give life to the dead, He said: Do you not believe? Abraham said: I do, but (I ask) in order that my heart may be at ease. (His Lord) said: Take four of the birds and cause them to incline to you, then place a part of them on each hill, then call them, they will come to you in haste. And know that God is Mighty, Wise-he wrote:
God, the Truth, says, ‘And remember, O Muhammad, or any who may be listening, when Abraham said, My Lord! Show me hon You give life to the dead, that is, ‘Let me see with my own eyes the way in which You revive the dead? Here, his wish was to be taken from the knowledge of certainty to the eye of certainty…
And God answers him with a question, Do you not believe that I have the power to revive the dead and restore life and order? It has been said that God asked Abraham this not because He did not know the surety of his faith, but rather in order that Abraham would answer Him as He answered him and that those who were listening would know why. And Abraham answers: Indeed I do believe that You have power over all things, but (I ask in order that my heart may be at ease, for one who knows by having heard cannot compare to one who knows by having seen (laysa l-khabir ka-l-iyyan); that is, the knowledge of certainty cannot compare to the eye of certainty. Abraham wished to add vision and perception to revelation and logical proof.
Then God says to him: Take four of the birds, and it has been related that these were the peacock, the rooster, the crow, and the pigeon, though some say the fourth was the eagle. And cause them to incline to you, that is, hold each in your hands that you might look upon it carefully and know its characteristics and not be confused concerning them after they are revived. Then place a part of them on each hill. … It has been said that he was ordered to slaughter the birds, pluck their bodies, cut them into pieces, and intermingle the pieces of flesh. Then he was to distribute the pieces upon the mountains but to keep the heads with him, and then call them.
When he did this, each piece flew to one like it and they bound themselves together and reformed the birds’ bodies. These then flew to Abraham and to each he gave its head, and the birds flew off into the air. So glory be to the One who is not incapable of anything and from whose knowledge nothing is hidden!
If we wish for our spirits to be revived with infinite life and to travel from the knowledge of certainty to the eye of certainty, our egos must die four deaths: they must die to the objects of their desires and love for the ornaments of this world, such being the attribute of the peacock; they must die to their lust for control and egoistic power, such being the attribute of the rooster; they must die to their vileness, meanness, and lack of hope, such being the attribute of the crow; and they must die to their desire for height and speed in the air, such being attribute of the pigeon.
When we slay these attributes of the ego, our spirit is given life and our ego becomes tame and obedient. Whenever we call it, it hastens to us, even as Abu I-Hasan al-Shadhili says in the words in al-Hizb al-Kabir (Greater litany), “Make for us of our minds a helper, of our souls a guardian, and over our egos, control, That we might glorify You in abundance and invoke You in abundance. Truly You are ever seeing us (20:33-35).”
al-Bahr al-madid, vol. 1, p. 294.
The saying laysa l-khabir ka-l-iyyan is a version of the phrase laysa l-khabr ka-l-mu’ayana, “Word-of-mouth is in no wise like eye witnessing,” which has become an expression used by the Sufis and others and is said to have its origins in the hadith, “God most high told Moses that his people had fashioned the calf, but it was not until he saw this with his own eyes that he cast down the tablets.” Daylami, Firdaws, vol. 3 p. 399, Tabarani, al-Aswat, vol. 1, pp. 45-46, and elsewhere.