Lataif al-Sitta (Six Subtle Centers)

Qalb, the heart-latifa, located by Sirhindī two finger-widths beneath the left breast. It is the seat of īmān (faith) and the first of the lataif to be 'awakened' in the Naqshbandi sulūk. In Kubrā's visionary phenomenology its light is yellow, and it is associated with the prophet Adam. The qalb is not the muscle of the heart but the metaphysical heart that receives divine address — the locus of the famous ḥadīth qudsī, 'My earth and My heaven contain Me not, but the heart of My believing servant contains Me.'

Rūḥ, the spirit-latifa, two finger-widths beneath the right breast. Its light is red; it is associated with the prophets Noah and Abraham. Sirhindī treats it as the next station after qalb: where qalb yields love and faith, rūḥ yields ḥuḍūr — presence — and a steadier register of divine cognition. Classical theology distinguishes rūḥ (spirit, the divine breath of Q. 15:29) from nafs (the lower self). The latifa of rūḥ is the locus where this distinction becomes experientially obvious.

Sirr, the 'secret' — two finger-widths above the left breast. Its light is white. It is the latifa associated with Moses and with the kalāmullāh, the speaking of God to the servant. At this station the practitioner begins to perceive the difference between his own thoughts and the wārid, the in-coming address from beyond. Sufi pedagogy treats sirr as the latifa most easily counterfeited; without the discipline of the previous two it produces inflation rather than secrecy.

Khafī, the 'hidden' — two finger-widths above the right breast. Its light is black, in the sense of the 'luminous black' of via negativa: a darkness that conceals because it overflows perception. It is the latifa of Jesus in Sirhindī's prophetic correspondences. At this station the seeker passes through fanāʾ — annihilation of self in the divine — and the imagery of the Cross-as-extinction becomes intelligible.

Akhfā, the 'most hidden' — at the centre of the breastbone. Its light is green, the colour of Khiḍr and of the Prophetic Reality (al-haqīqa al-Muḥammadiyya). It is the seat of the divine secret of unity (sirr al-tawḥīd) and, in Sirhindī's reading, the latifa where baqāʾ — subsisting after annihilation — becomes possible. This is the latifa associated with the Prophet Muhammad himself and is regarded as the most central, properly speaking, of the chest-lataif.

Nafs, the lower self, located by the Mujaddidi schema between the eyebrows — at the forehead rather than the chest. It is the 'world of creation' latifa, distinct from the five 'world of command' chest-lataif. The Qurʾānic typology gives three grades: nafs ammārah (commanding to evil), nafs lawwāmah (self-reproaching), and nafs muṭmaʾinnah (at peace). In the Naqshbandi sulūk the nafs is engaged through dhikr, fasting, and the discipline of intention until it consents to its own pacification — at which point it ceases to oppose the lataif of the chest and becomes their ally.