Question: Has man to go through the stages wali, ghous, qutub, nabi, to reach his goal?
Answer: Not at all. These are not the stages of human perfection, they are the stages of the servers of humanity. For instance there may be a person who has reached the goal, yet who had never been a wali, ghous, or qutub. And yet he is further than any of them -- he has reached that perfection as Christ has said: 'Be ye perfect.' Any soul can reach that perfection without having been a ghous because there are only two things, the imperfection and perfection. One can rise from imperfection to perfection. If it had not been possible, it would not have been mentioned by Christ.