Different states have different outcomes.

This accounts for the variety of types of action.

Actions here mean to physical movements while outcomes ( waridat ) refer to the movement of the heart. The passing thought, the warid and the state have the same locus: the heart. As long as the heart has both dark and light thoughts occur in it, what occurs is called a passing thought ( khâtir ). When dark thoughts leave it, what occurs to it is called a wârid or a state. Their relation to something is rhetorical. They both can change. When that state continues and lasts, it is called a station ( maqam ).

Outward actions vary according to inward states, or you could say that the actions of the limbs follow the actions of the hearts. When contraction comes to the heart, its effect appears on the limbs as stillness. When expansion comes to it, its effect appears on the limbs as lightness and movement. When asceticism and scrupulousness come to the heart, their effect appears on the limbs, which is abandonment and abstention. If desire and greed come to the heart, then their affect appears on the limbs, which is fatigue and exhaustion. If love and yearning come to the heart, their effect appears on the limbs as ecstasy and dancing. If gnosis and witnessing come to the heart, the effect which appears on the limbs is rest and stillness. The same applies to other states and the actions which result from them.

These states vary in the same heart, and so the outward actions vary. A heart may be dominated by one state and only one effect results from it. Contraction may dominate a person and he will usually be dispirited. Or he may be dominated by expansion or another state. Allah knows best.

The hadith states, "There is lump of flesh in the body, the nature of which is that when it is sound, the entire body is sound, and when it is corrupt, the entire body is corrupt - it is the heart." It is because of this that the states of the Sufis vary. Some of them are worshippers, some are ascetics, some are scrupulous, and some are murids and gnostics.

Shaykh Zarruq said in his Qawa'id , "Rule: Piety ( nask ) is adopting every way of virtue without paying attention to other than it. If someone desires realisation of that ( nask ), he is a worshipper. If he inclines to taking states, he is scrupulous. If he prefers to abandon seeking so as to be safe, he is an ascetic. If he releases himself in what Allah desires, he is a gnostic. If he adopts character and attachment, he is a murid ."

He said in another rule: "Different paths do not remain different goals. In spite of the different methods, like worship, asceticism and gnosis, the unifier pursues the ways which lead to nearness to Allah on the Path of Nobility. All of them interpenetrate. So the gnostic must have worship or there is no point to his gnosis since he does not worship the One he recognises. He must have asceticism or there is no reality to him if he does not turn from what is other than Him. The worshipper must have both since there is no worship without recognition and there is no devotion to worship except with asceticism. The same is true for the ascetic, since there is no asceticism without recognition and no asceticism without worship. Otherwise the blessings are fruitless. The one who is dominated by action is a worshipper, the one dominated by abandonment is an ascetic, and the one dominated by looking at how Allah disposes of things is a gnostic. All is Sufism, and Allah knows best.