The document describes 10 stages of love according to Sufi tradition, as experienced by Khwaja Nasiruddin Cheragh. Each stage represents a deeper level of attachment and devotion to the beloved. The stages progress from friendship and familiarity to passionate desire, exclusive attachment, enslavement, and finally bewilderment, where the lover loses their sense of self and reality in their love for the beloved. The highest stages involve losing one's reason and senses in the pursuit of pure, intense love and affection for the beloved.

1. Stages of Love The pen faces difficulties or even fails when trying to describe love. As you know steps can be seen leading up to the ocean, but what happens then? The well-known Chishti Sufi Khwaja Nasiruddin Cheragh (the “lamp”) of Delhi, who was the successor of Nizamuddin Awliya has described the indescribable. He not only described ten stages and fifty phases of love, but he also experienced them.Only the essence of 10 stages, each of which has 5 phases so to speak is given here. According to the Chishtiyya Sufis the first stage of love is olfat(friendship, attachment, familiarity, companionship, intimacy). It is another name for the inclination of the heart towards the object of loveThe second stage of love is sadaaqat (true friendship, sincerity, candour, loyalty, fidelity). In this stage the heart remains unaffected by the Beloved’s fidelity or infidelity, disregards and denials, and by bestowal of favours.The third stage of love is termed mavaddat (friendship, love, benevolence), which is marked by the excitation of the heart and passionate desire (hayajaan-e qalb o ettisaafe baa-l havaa) for the Beloved.The fourth stage of love is styled havaa (affection; favour; love; desire). In this stage the lover is always inclined towards the Beloved or longs for Him.The fifth stage of love is called shaghaf (violent affection, violent love; alacrity; love, longing, yearning; joy). The sixth stage of love is exclusive attachment to the Beloved. It means emptying the heart of all save the beloved.The seventh phase has been styled mahabbat (love, affection; friendship, esteem, benevolence). This is a sublime phase.Love is a gift. You cannot start to love somebody. The eight stage is ‘eshq’ (pure love), which is another name of excessive and intense affection. At this stage, one looses one’s reason and sensesThe ninth of the Chishti stages of love is called enslavement or becoming a servant. At this stage, the manacles of humiliation and submission are put around the neck of the lover whose feet are bound by the fetters of slavery.The tenth and final stage of the Chishti stages of love is valah orbewilderment (other translations are: being sad, afflicted, distracted or impatient from love or grief; perturbation of mind). This stage is beset with tremendous dangers, consequently it has been said:In distance there is tormentAnd in nearness bewilderment.This sense can be grasped in the following words uttered by a lover:If I see You I lose my life!If I do not see you, how can I live?Confusion has come to my affair:Should I offer my life or should I abstain from seeing You?The Chishti stages of love show that a true lover, due to the prompting of the feeling of love, merges totally in the Beloved, effaces her or his soul and body in this love and with all energy available wants the Beloved alone. For this very reason, all the eminent Sufis have regarded the path of love as the most effective approach to God. – Siraj. From “Inspirations & Creative Thoughts”. Trinity 3.10.09