is the Lord of everything, its Sovereign and Creator—especially when the gnostic becomes oblivious to his own existence in the presence of the One Who truly is, to his own witnessing before the One witnessed, and to his own knowledge before the One known, entering a state of fanāʾ (annihilation) in the oneness of lordship, so that all that never was is effaced and He Who has never ceased to be alone remains.

It is plain that this is the very degree of monotheism acknowledged by the idolaters; such an attainment neither makes a man a Muslim, much less raises him to the rank of Allah’s friends and the foremost of His creation.