Lataif-e-sitta (Arabic: اللطائف الستة) are special organs of perception in Sufi spiritual psychology, subtle human capacities for experience or action. Depending on context, the lataif are also understood to be the qualities (or forms) of consciousness[1] corresponding to those experiences or actions.
The underlying Arabic word latifa (singular) means "subtlety" and the phrase Lataif-e-sitta means "six subtleties" (although the number of lataif can differ depending on the specific Sufi tradition).
When realized (or activated or awakened or illuminated (tajalli)),[2] the lataif are understood to be part of Man's spiritual "Organ of Evolution",[3] known as Qalb (Heart) (See Disambiguation: Qalb (Heart) or latifa).
This integration of the lataif into Qalb is considered by some Sufi orders to be a central part of the comprehensive spiritual development that produces the Sufi ideal of a Complete Man (Al-Insān al-Kāmil).
Not all Sufi orders teach about the lataif. Of those which do, descriptions and understandings can differ depending on the specific Sufi tradition and exponent representing it.
In addition, individual Sufi teachers (see Sheikh (Sufism)) sometimes understand aspects of lataif theory and practice according to how the lataif have been uniquely revealed to them.[4]
In general, there are at least three major historical understandings of the lataif:
According to the view of the Kubrawi order there are seven lataif. They are understood cosmologically as "descending" levels through which reality is created and structured.[5]
In the process of spiritual development, the individual Sufi is understood to "ascend" back through these levels progressively (see ontological Arcs of Descent and Ascent in Sufism).
The attainment of each level is a stage associated with the activation/realization of a corresponding spiritual organ/capacity, interpreted symbolically through Islamic cosmology and the prophets and messengers in Islam.[6]
In ascending order they are:
According to the view of the Mujaddidiyya branch of the Naqshbandi order there are five lataif.[7] The reception of each latifa's spiritual energy from its corresponding cosmic realm is interpreted symbolically through the prophets and messengers in Islam, similar to the interpretation of the Kubrawi order:
In this understanding, the lataif all have their physical association in the chest and so are said to be "of the Heart" (Qalb, the potential human "Organ of Evolution" (see: Disambiguation: Qalb (Heart) or latifa).
According to the Punjab tradition within the Naqshbandi order there are five lataif:[2]
In the view of Naqshbandi author Idries Shah (1924–1996), who emphasizes the modern-day psychological aspects of Sufism,[8] the lataif are understood to be spiritual organs/capacities that also underlie ordinary forms of human consciousness.[9]
As such, they are ordinarily only known indirectly through the equivalents (or their distortions) that they pattern on the conventional mental/emotional/somatic level of human experience.
Shah-inspired[10] spiritual teacher Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) (1944–) understands some of these equivalents and conditioned distortions as follows:[11]
| Latifa | Sufi Tradition | Color Association | Physical Association | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qalb | Kubrawi (1) | Red | (?) | ||
| Qalb | Naqshbandi (Mujaddidiyya) (1) | Yellow | below left breast | ||
| Qalb | Naqshbandi (Punjab) (1) | Yellow | left side of body | ||
| Qalb | Chisti (1) | Red | left breast | ||
| Qalb | Inayati (1) | Red | left breast | Inayati:[12] | |
| Qalb | Khwajagan (1) | Red | left breast | Khwajagan:[13] | |
| Ruh | Kubrawi (2) | Yellow | (?) | ||
| Ruh | Naqshbandi (Mujaddidiyya) (2) | Red | below right breast | ||
| Ruh | Naqshbandi (Punjab) (2) | Red | right side of body | ||
| Ruh | Chisti (2) | Green | center of chest | ||
| Ruh | Inayati (2) | White | right breast | ||
| Ruh | Khwajagan (2) | Yellow | right breast | ||
| Sirr | Kubrawi (3) | White | (?) | ||
| Sirr | Naqshbandi (Mujaddidiyya) (3) | White | above left breast | ||
| Sirr | Naqshbandi (Punjab) (3) | White | solar plexus | ||
| Sirr | Chisti (3) | White | right breast | ||
| Sirr | Inayati (3) | Green | center of chest | ||
| Sirr | Khwajagan (3) | White | left breast | ||
| Khafi | Kubrawi (4) | Black/Green | (?) | ||
| Khafi | Naqshbandi (Mujaddidiyya) (4) | Black | above right breast | ||
| Khafi | Naqshbandi (Punjab) (4) | Black | forehead | ||
| Khafi | Chisti (4) | Indigo | forehead | ||
| Khafi | Inayati (4) | Indigo | forehead | ||
| Khafi | Khwajagan (4) | Green | right breast | ||
| Ikhfa | Naqshbandi (Mujaddidiyya) (5) | Green | sternum | ||
| Ikhfa | Naqshbandi (Punjab) (5) | Green | center of chest | ||
| Ikhfa | Chisti (5) | Black | top of head | ||
| Ikhfa | Inayati (5) | Black | top of head | ||
| Ikhfa | Khwajagan (5) | White | center of chest | ||
| Qalab | Kubrawi (5) | Black | (?) | ||
| Qalab | Chisti (6) | Gray | floor of pelvis | ||
| Nafs | Kubrawi (6) | Blue | (?) | See Disambiguation: Nafs (Egoic Self) or Latifa | |
| Nafs | Chisti (7) | Yellow | below navel | " | |
| Nafs | Inayati (6) | Yellow | below navel | " | |
| Nafs | Khwajagan (6) | Blue | forehead | " | |
| Nafs | Naqshbandi (Mujaddidiyya) | " | |||
| Nafs | Naqshbandi (Punjab) | " | |||
| Haqq | Kubrawi (7) | Green | (?) | ||
With rare exceptions, lataif are only experienced directly (and unconditionedly) in human beings who have undergone a spiritual evolution. The spiritual process of their full opening/activation/awakening/illumination consists of various methods, singly or in combination, such as:
Just as interpretations of the lataif vary depending on different Sufi traditions and teachers, so does their opening/activation/awakening/illumination. For example:
In the Kubrawi tradition, Sufi Ala ud-Daula Simnani (1261–1336) described a dhikr type practice that involved certain postures, the rotation of attention and breath to different parts of the physical body, and the recitation of a Quranic credal formula.[16] [17]
In the Khwajagan tradition, Rif'at Bey described a practice in which the name of Allah is imagined "written in letters of light" at the physical location associated with a latifa and repeated silently until the color associated with it is seen surrounding the letters.[13]
In the Mujaddidiyya tradition, the lataif are opened through practice one-by-one in "ascending" order, beginning with Qalb. Viewed as a progressive activation, each latifa (or progressive combination of Lataif) is considered to be a level of spiritual realization.
The method of opening each latifa typically begins with a direct transmission of Barakah (spiritual Presence[18]) by teacher to student, and can also include physical touch (except for women) and the disclosure of the specific one of the Names of God in Islam that is associated with the latifa. The student then continues the practice by silent dhikr of the Divine Name, concentrating attention on the latifa's location; sometimes a visualization of the Name, the corresponding prophet, or the teacher is also added.
In the Punjab tradition, Idries Shah describes a type of muraqabah (meditation), in which the student concentrates awareness on the part of the body that is associated with a latifa. This tradition also employs various indirect methods, including psychological and somatic, which free the lataif by reducing the mental/emotive/somatic distortions that "veil" (see Hijab (Sufism)) their functioning.
Experiences of the lataif can be of (at least) two different types, singly or in combination:
In Persian Sufi Illuminationism (see: Najm al-Din Kubra), all creation is a successive outflow from the original Supreme Light of Lights (Nur al-Anwar) (see: Nūr (Islam)). The cosmology of this tradition is a kind of Emanationism in which immaterial Light descends from the Light of Lights in ever-diminishing intensity. In other words, Creation at all levels of its existence—including that of the lataif—is made up of varying degrees of Light.
Accordingly, the experiences of the lataif are both an external "visual" experience of photisms ("acts of light") and a tactile inner feeling (dhawq), as described by Henry Corbin.[19]
The lataif are experienced primarily as colors seen surrounding the name of Allah at the physical location associated with each latifa, as described by Rifa't Bey.[13]
The experiences of the lataif are primarily localized forms of an overall "tactile" spiritual Presence ("Hudur"[18]) in the body, as described (for example) by Hameed Ali.[20]
Different Sufi traditions often have different "maps" of reality, some of which include the lataif and some of which do not. In addition, these maps often include features or terminology, some of which are more directly related to the lataif and some of which are less directly related.
The English word lataif is the plural of the transliterated Arabic word latifa that stems from the trilateral verb la-ṭa-fa, which means "to be subtle".[21] It assumed a spiritual meaning in the Quran where Al-Latif is the 30th of the 99 names of God in Islam, reflecting His subtle nature.[21] [22]
And it was subsequently adopted by Sufism to refer to the five spiritual qualities of the World of God's Command (see Disambiguation: Ten, five, or six lataif) because they are not gross, material qualities of the physical world.[23]
English language authors use three methods when referring to the lataif:
Laleh Bahktiar uses both a transliteration and a translation:
Naqshbandi Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi[24] uses both a transliteration and a translation:
Idries Shah also[25] uses both a transliteration and a translation:
Hameed Ali[26] uses a transliteration and an interpretation:
In the version of Sufi cosmology proposed by Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624),[23] [27] God created the universe in three stages:
In this usage, then, there are ten lataif in two categories:
In contrast, in most Sufi usages outside this cosmological one (including most of this webpage), there are either:
The Nafs in Sufism is considered to be a person's egoic consciousness[28] or egoic "Self", the subtle (latifa) quality of God's Creation that becomes individual and can undergo a spiritual development. This makes it unlike the five lataif of God's Command, which are eternal, unchanging qualities.
This egoic consciousness is said (by Idries Shah, for example[29]) to have seven stages of development, the primitive stages of which are considered to be a "barrier" or "veil" to full realization of the lataif. In most Sufi traditions, accordingly, the progressive refinement of the Nafs through the seven stages is understood to facilitate the realization of the lataif.
In the Naqshbandi tradition, however, it is the reverse: the progressive realization of the lataif is used to facilitate the refinement of the Nafs. This is why the Naqshbandi teaching method is famously known as "where others end, there marks our beginning" (indiraj al-nihayat fi’l-bidayat).[30]
The word "Ruh" is used in Sufism in two different ways, on two different levels:
The word "Qalb", like "Ruh", is used in Sufism in two different ways, on two different levels:
The word "Sirr", like "Ruh" and "Qalb", is also used in Sufism in two different ways, on two different levels:
In addition to the lataif, some[34] [35] Sufi traditions also speak about two other categories of conscious experience that can arise during spiritual practice:
The number seven is used repeatedly in Islam and Sufism to enumerate concepts in various religious and spiritual categories. Sometimes the categories are legitimately inter-related, and sometimes they are not.
For example, Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1933-), an Iranian-American scholar of Sufism, characterizes the Prophets associated with Ala ud-Daula Simnani's seven ontological levels of Sufi cosmology as corresponding to "states" and virtues that a Sufi can achieve.[36] Since those seven levels are understood by Simnani to be lataif, that would imply that the lataif are "states". But there appears to be no consensus agreeing that the category lataif is related to either of the categories Hal ("State") or Maqam ("Station").
The Divine Names of God in Islam are understood by Sufism to refer (in the great majority of cases) to the relational action, functioning, or appearance of Divine Attributes/Qualities in immanent, manifest reality.[37]
The lataif, in contrast, while capable of being experienced indirectly through the somatic, emotional, and mental states they pattern in conventional experience, are primarily direct transcendental experiences of Divine Attributes themselves[38] and not of functional relationships between the transcendent and the immanent.
The spiritual experiences identified by Sufism as the lataif have their immediate historical antecedents in the Emanationism of Neoplatonism,[39] which is known to have influenced the development of Sufism (see: Platonism in Islamic philosophy). The Emanations of Neoplatonism, in turn, arose from the Theory of forms of Plato.
The general concept of spiritual "subtle centers" (usually three) originated within Persian Sufism: Junayd of Baghdad (835–910), Al-Ghazali (1058–1111), and Shahab al-Din Abu Hafs Umar Suhrawardi (1145–1234).[40]
Persian and Kubrawi Sufi Najm al-Din Razi (1177–1256) proposed five "inner means of perception" (Qalb, Ruh, Sirr, Khafi, and Ikhfa) that parallel the five outer senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. It's unclear to commentators whether these inner senses were already understood as lataif at that time.[41]
The earliest systematic formulations of the lataif specifically is thought to be that of Persian/ Kubrawi Sufi Ala ud-Daula Simnani (1261–1336), who proposed seven lataif, relating them to the seven ontological levels of Sufi cosmology.[42]
From the 17th to 19th centuries, the Indian Mujaddidis, beginning with Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624), returned to a standardized interpretation of five experiential lataif and associated their locations with parts of the physical body.[43]
The Punjab tradition within the Naqshbandi in the late 19th and 20th centuries continued with five lataif but identified the experience of their physical locations differently and viewed them as spiritual organs/capacities that also underlie ordinary forms of human consciousness.[9]
It is thought by some[44] that, just as with the nominal 99 Names of God in Islam and their underlying Divine Attributes,[45] the number of lataif and their potential realization by humanity might actually be unlimited.