Self-Obliteration

Obliteration, the loss of one's personal or individual characteristics before God, is also the key to attaining that same state. It is both the method and the goal of the mystic's pursuit, as Ghazali (d. 1111 C.E.) explains in his great work of spiritual renewal, The Revivification of the Sciences of Religion.

Whoever looks upon the world only because it is God's work, and knows it because it is God's work, and loves it because it is God's work, does not look except to God and knows nothing except God, and loves naught except God—he is the true One-maker who does not see anything but God, indeed, he does not regard even himself for his own sake but because he is God's servant, and of such a person it is said that he is annihilated in Oneness and he is annihilated from himself. (Ghazali, Revivification 4.276)

According to Junayd, the first step on the path to self-annihilation consists in training the will.

The obliteration of attributes, characteristics and natural inclinations in your motives when you carry out your religious duties, making great efforts and doing the opposite of what you may desire, and compelling yourself to do the things which you do not wish to do.

Nor must asceticism be neglected.

The obliteration of your pursuit of pleasure and even the sensation of pleasure in obedience to God's commands; so that you are exclusively His, without intermediary means of contact.

Finally, the mystic achieves true obliteration, a complete loss of selfawareness, and with it, a higher level of existence.

The obliteration of the consciousness of having attained the vision of God at the final stage of ecstasy when God's victory over you is complete. At this stage you are obliterated and have eternal life with God, and you exist only in the existence of God because you have been obliterated. Your physical being continues but your individuality has departed. [JUNAYD 1962: 81]