TASAWWUR -تصور
A taking shape and form. An idea taking form in the mind. Picturing itself in one's fancy. A picturing to one's self. Forming an idea. Hence, A conception. An idea. In logic, that represents an idea.
اِنَّ كَيْدَ الشَّيْطَانِ كَانَ ضَعِيفًا 1
O my nafs which despairs at the evil of the waswasa! The association of imaginings and suppositions that occurs to one’s mind are a sort of involuntary depiction. If the depiction arises from khayr and luminosity, the decree of the haqiqah passes to an extent to its form and image. Like the sun's light and heat pass to its image in a mirror. If it is of something sharr and dense, the qualities and decree of the original cannot pass to its form and spread to its image. For example, the reflected form in a mirror of something unclean and corrupt is neither unclean nor corrupt. Nor can a snake's image bite.
As a consequence of this mystery, to tasawwur kufr is not kufr, and to imagine shatm2 is not shatm. Particularly if it is involuntary and is a hypothetical assumption that occurs to one, it is altogether harmless. Also, in the madhab of Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jamâ'ah, who are the people of haqq, the cause of ugliness or dirtiness of a thing in the Sharî'ah is the prohibition of Allah. Since such things are an involuntary association of imaginings and suppositions that occurs to one’s mind without one's consent, prohibitions do not concern them. However ugly and unclean a form they take, they are not ugly and unclean.
The Eleventh Letter
1(Indeed the wiles of Shaytan are weak.)
2 Literally: A reviling. Scurrility. Invective. To revile, vituperate.
Note from compilers: Every word has a meaning. The essence and reality of a word which is spread from the mouth and exits in the form of a sound is its meaning. The word is used to carry the meaning from a thought. That is, our speech is the consequence of our thoughts and derives from them. When a word is used, the meaning of it exists in the thoughts of a person who spoke them.
To further define of shatm is that the thoughts which are contrary to adab, morality and respect that cause a person who thinks of them to feel ashamed even though they are not said nor embodied by the sound of words, are existent by their meanings in the mind and imagination. These thoughts may come willingly or unwillingly. There is no responsibility if they come unwillingly. However, if they come in the mind willingly even though they are not said, there is a responsibility for the misusage in the faculty of imagination. They have an existence in the imagination in a different form and became an action which is negatively performed by the faculty of imagination. By willingly thinking of them which is the use of the faculty of imagination is for the sake of the nafs and becomes an obstacle to ma’nawî attainments and perfection.