A servant likewise has qualities for which he is praised and even commanded—qualities that can never be ascribed to the Lord—such as servitude, dependence, need, humility, and supplication. In all of this his perfection lies in worshipping God alone. The summit of that perfection is that God becomes his sole object of devotion: nothing is dearer to him than God, nothing greater in his sight. God is the deity he worships and the Lord to whom he turns in petition, thereby fulfilling the words, “You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help” (Q 1:5).

The philosopher-Sufis follow Ibn Sīnā’s path concerning the “stations of the gnostics” that he set out at the end of al-Ishārāt. I have treated this in detail elsewhere and shown that—even with al-Rāzī’s praise—its utmost achievement is a deficient form of fanāʾ, marked by an equally deficient affirmation of Divine Lordship and of God’s attributes.

The fanāʾ taught by the messengers and revealed in the scriptures, by contrast, is to lose oneself in worshipping God alone, so that one’s love, fear, hope, and obedience are devoted exclusively to Him. Only then is the truth of “There is no god but God” fully realized.

It is authentically reported in the Ṣaḥīḥ, on the authority of ʿUthmān, that the Prophet—may God bless him and grant him peace—said: “Whoever dies knowing that there is no god but God shall enter Paradise.”