An Introduction to Irfan

Khwajah 'Abd Allah Ansari in his Manazil al-sa'irin defines iradah as follows: 

It is the voluntary answer (in actions) to the summons of the Real (Haqiqah). 

Here it is necessary to point out that the meaning of iradah being the first stage is that it is the first stage after a chain of other stages has been passed, stages that are called 'preparations' (bidayat), 'doors' (abwab), 'conduct' (mu'amalat). and 'manners' (akhlaq). Thus iradah is the first stage in the terminology of the 'urafa' in the sense that it signifies a genuine gnostic awakening. 

Rumi describes the principle that 'the end is the return to the beginning' as follows:

 The parts are faced towards the Whole, 
Nightingales are in love with the rose's face; 
Whatever comes from the sea to the sea returns, 
And everything goes back to its source; 
Like the streams rushing down from mountain tops, 
My soul, burning with love, longs to leave the body.

Rumi opens his Mathnawi by inviting the reader to listen to the plaintive cries of the reed, as it complains of its separation from the reed bed. Thus in the first lines of his Mathnawi Rumi is actually bringing up the first stage of the 'arif, that is iradah, a desire to return to one's origins that is accompanied with the feeling of separation and loneliness. Rumi says: 

Listen to the reed as its story it relates 
And of its separation it complains.
Since the time that from the reed bed was I taken, 
At my strains have lamented man and woman.
O, a heart I seek that is torn with the pain of separation 
That it may hear the tale of my longing for return.
Whoever remains distant from his origins, 
Seeks again the life of reunion.

To sum up, Ibn Sina, in the above passage, means that iradah is a desire and longing that, after deep feelings of alienation, loneliness and estrangement, makes its appearance in the human being and motivates him to seek reunion with the Real, a union which puts an end to the feelings of alienation, loneliness, and helplessness.

Exercise and Self-Discipline: 

Then what is certainly required is exercise (riyadah), and it is directed towards three ends - the first is to clear the path of all but the Real; the second is to subjugate the 'commanding self' (al-nafs al-'ammarah) to the 'contented self' (al-nafs al-mutma'innah); the third is to render the heart subtle for awareness. 

After having commenced the journey at the stage of iradah, the next stage is that of exercise and preparedness. This preparedness is termed riyadah. Nowadays this term is generally misunderstood and it is taken to mean self-mortification. In some religions the principle of mortifying the self is hallowed. Perhaps the best examples of this are to be seen in the Yogis of India. In the terminology of Ibn Sina, however, the word is not used in this sense. The original meaning of this Arabic word is 'to exercise', or 'to break in a colt.' Thereafter the word was used for physical exercise, a sense which the word still bears today. The 'urafa' borrowed this word, and in their terminology it is used to mean exercising the soul and preparing it for the illumination of the light of knowledge (ma'rifah). It is in this sense that the word is used in the passage above.