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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Salat (Prayer): The Mode of Divine Proximity and Recognition Meeting Allah in Human Mysticism In the school of sufism and human mysticism, to reach Allah and meet Him is the last and final of the stages that a mystic treads towards the arch of ascension. According to them, at this stage, the wanderer reaches to the level of self-annihilation, joins with the Absolute existence, i.e. the existence of the Truth and loses his own existence.

Now, for him, nothing remains except the existence of the Almighty. It is at this level that claims like ‘I am the Truth’ ( An al-Haqq) , ‘There is none in my robe except Allah’ (laisa fi jubbati siwallah) , etc. are achieved. Abdur Razzaq al Kashani says: “Unification (wasl) implies returning after going away and ascending after descent.

For each one amongst us has descended from the highest of stages and that is the position of ahadiyyah and unification with the Eternal since eternity to the lowest of positions and that is the world of elements and matter. Then, some of us have fallen to the lowest level and remain in the pits. While others, by treading towards Allah, and in Allah, by attachment to His attributes, and through annihilation in His Being, have returned to the state of unification.

Thereby, through this real unison, as it was in eternity, we shall continue to remain so in perpetuity.”[^1] Explaining the term ‘ sawad al-wajhi fi al-dharain ’, he says, “To annihilate ourselves in Allah with all our existence so much so that any form of existence, apparent or concealed, worldly or of the hereafter, does not remain for the mystic. This is true poverty and returning to real non-existence.

Thus, the sufis say, ‘When poverty reaches to perfection, it is Allah.”[^2] Sayyed Sharif Jurjaani elucidates the three levels of annihilation as follows: “ Mahq is the annihilation of the servant’s existence in the Truth. Mahv is the annihilation of his actions while Tams is the annihilation of his attributes in the Truth.”[^3] Jami, in Lawa’ih, seventh La’iha, p.