Ight­ir­ab (dou­bled sep­a­ra­tion) is a feel­ing re­sem­bling that which aris­es from fall­ing in­to er­ror aft­er reform or night follow­ing day or the dark­ness of dis­tress that sur­rounds the heart aft­er ex­hil­a­ra­tion. Those whom the Mes­sen­ger praised in His say­ing. Glad tid­ings to the out­sid­ers have al­ways had a dread of such a feel­ing.

Re­sem­bling the sep­a­ra­tion de­scribed above in many ways dou­bled sep­a­ra­tion may arise ei­ther from a phys­i­cal con­di­tion or from on­e’s spir­it­u­al state or from on­e’s spir­it­u­al pro­fun­di­ty and knowl­edge of God. In the third case it is felt more deep­ly.

Dou­bled sep­a­ra­tion which aris­es from a phys­i­cal con­di­tion is home­sick­ness sep­a­ra­tion from on­e’s fam­i­ly rel­a­tives and friends. Par­tic­u­lar­ly when all the means for re­un­ion no longer re­main the spir­it sinks in­to an un­bear­a­ble feel­ing of sep­a­ra­tion. If such a sep­a­ra­tion is not bal­anced with a be­lief in God and the Res­ur­rec­tion it be­comes very dif­fi­cult to en­dure. If one bears it with be­lief one will die a mar­tyr as stat­ed in the Pro­phet­ic Tra­di­tion. The death of one away from his home is mar­tyr­dom. If it is not ac­com­pa­nied by her­e­sy and un­be­lief ac­cord­ing to Ev­ery mis­for­tune brings a re­ward then it is a gift from God that is ben­e­fi­cial as it leads to God. Ac­cord­ing to some such se­pa-ra­tion the pain of which has been sof­ten­ed by be­lief is such a sweet suf­fer­ing that it brings as great a re­ward as one has the strength to bear. Even though a per­son may sigh and moan when faced with this pain the hu­man con­science wel­comes it. The fol­low­ing coup­lets of a po­et ex­press this well:

The feel­ing of sep­a­ra­tion aris­ing from on­e’s spir­it­u­al state is ap­pre­ci­at­ed and hon­ored in the Pro­phet­ic say­ing. Glad tid­ings to the out­sid­ers. Such peo­ple are right­eous peo­ple strug­gling with what a cor­rupt age brings; a schol­ar de­vot­ed to truth lost in a com-mu­ni­ty drowned in ig­no­rance; a faith­ful one dedicat­ed to truth in a world per­me­at­ed by hy­poc­ri­sy¾all those suf­fer sep­a­ra­tion with­in sep­a­ra­tion. When such peo­ple wit­ness the great waves of cor­rup­tion spread­ing over the land the ru­in­a­tion of the ignorant mas­ses and the re­gard paid to hy­poc­ri­sy and hyp­o­crites they find them­selves in in­creas­ing loneliness and be­come pos­sessed of a great de­sire to tell the truth to oth­ers in or­der to guide them.

As for the sep­a­ra­tion that aris­es from spir­it­u­al pro­fun­di­ty and a knowl­edge of God those suf­fer­ing from this feel and ex­pect that which ex­ists in the pure­ly Di­vine Realm and find them­selves in the depths of spir­it­u­al pleas­ures. Nev­er­the­less un­til they meet with the Al­mighty they feel in their souls the sep­a­ra­tion of those who are closed to the Truth around them nev­er be­ing able to free them­selves from feel­ings of sep­a­ra­tion that arise while jour­ney­ing to­ward God. Al­though they al­ways yearn for near­ness to God and to meet with Him in the warmth of His friend­ship they are some­times un­der the in­flu­ence of the fear wor­ry and sen­si­tiv­i­ty that they feel dur­ing the jour­ney; some­times the eyes of their hearts are veiled by some evil thoughts and im­ag­i­na­tions oc­cur­ring to them un­in­ten­tion­al­ly. Such peo­ple suf­fer sep­a­ra­tion each ac­cord­ing to their par­tic­u­lar de­gree. Though the sep­a­ra­tion of some may be sub­stan­tial the sep­a­ra­tion that most suf­fer is on­ly im­ag­ined or of the kind that aris­es from wor­ry and ex­ces­sive sen­si­tiv­i­ty. They trem­ble with the fear that this sep­a­ra­tion which aris­es dur­ing their rela­tions with the Al­mighty in dif­fer­ent wave­lengths may af­fect their faith­ful­ness loy­al­ty and near­ness to God and wound them spir­it­u­al­ly. Since in­i­ti­ates view such sep­a­ra­tion as a sign of loss while they are striv­ing and ad­vanc­ing to­ward gain they feel help­less. In the wor­ries or thought of be­ing aban­doned or left alone they sigh in great pain and may cry out: “I wish my moth­er had not giv­en birth to me.”

While those who suf­fer sep­a­ra­tion from home con­sole them­selves with the thought of the eter­nal union in the here­aft­er and those whose sep­a­ra­tion aris­es from their spir­it­u­al states can find com­fort in their re­newed pur­suit and in glimps­es of knowl­edge and love of God the sep­a­ra­tion felt by those who have reached con­tent­ment in the knowl­edge of God is ab­so­lute­ly un­bear­a­ble. The world­ly peo­ple who nei­ther see nor know what is be­yond the ma­te­ri­al world are un­a­ware of what state such peo­ple are in. Nor can those known for their reg­u­lar wor­ship of God or those re­nowned for their as­cet­i­cism recognize them or un­der­stand their con­di­tion be­cause they can­not get be­yond their wor­ship and as­cet­i­cism. But the ho­ri­zons and aims of those en­dowed with the knowl­edge of God and the ef­forts that such make to reach their ho­ri­zons and re­al­ize their aims are as deep and high as the great­ness of their re­la­tion­ship with the One Whom they adore.