Salik
The wayfarer: the one who actively travels the path, as opposed to the majdhub, the enraptured one God draws without effort.
Salik comes from the verb salaka, to take a road: the salik is the wayfarer, the one who advances step by step on the tariqa, through effort, discipline and regular practice. The term describes the ordinary condition of the murid: he crosses the stations one after another, state after maqam.
Al-Qushayri and the manual writers oppose the salik to the majdhub: the latter is ‘drawn’ (jadhaba, to pull towards oneself) towards God by a favour that dispenses with methodical journeying. The distinction is not a hierarchy of merit: the majdhub does not choose his state, and the path is made for saliks, that is for all who come to God by the door of effort.
The nuance has a pastoral bearing: the ordinary tariqa, that of sessions, the pact and gradual education, is a path of saliks. Rapture without Law or road is neither a goal nor a promotion, and the masters teach not to seek it.