Sufi Reverberations - Stages of Love

Some Sufi masters contend that the experience of love can be partitioned according to a number of stages that, God willing, take place over a period of time during a spiritual journey through the byways of life. One version of the aforementioned parsing process includes the following way stations – namely, (1) compatibility, (2) inclination, (3) fellowship, (4) passion, (5) friendship, (6) exclusive friendship, (7) ardent affection, (8) enslavement, and (9) bewilderment -- which is sometimes