This “passing away” does not conflict with “subsistence”; rather, the two coexist. The servant’s desire for anything besides Allah passes away, even while he remains aware of Allah and of other things. This is expressed by the declaration, “There is no god worthy of worship but Allah.” The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to say:

“There is no god worthy of worship but Allah, and we worship none but Him. His are all blessings and bounty, and to Him belongs all good praise.”

This, in broad terms, is the beginning and end of religion.

(The second): The heart’s losing awareness of everything besides the Lord. The former concerns the passing away of desire for anything else; this concerns the passing away of awareness of anything else. The former means ceasing to worship or rely upon another; this means ceasing to be conscious of another or to attend to it.

This kind of passing away involves a deficiency. For perceiving realities as they truly are—that is, perceiving the Lord as governing His servants and commanding His revealed laws—is more complete than perceiving His existence, one of His attributes, or one of His names, and thereby losing awareness of everything else. The Companions’ perception was therefore too complete for a general awareness of Allah to diminish their detailed awareness of Him. Nevertheless, much of this occurred among many later members of this community.

Likewise, when certain realities became manifest to them, they experienced death, fainting, cries, and agitation. This was because their hearts were too weak to perceive realities as they truly are, and to perceive distinction within unity and multiplicity within oneness. They even disagreed over whether this was possible. Many of them believe that no other state is possible, having found that remembering creation or the divine command distracts them from the Creator who issues the command. And when they are challenged with the example of the Prophet