Something similar may happen to those who love another created being. They relate, for example, that a man loved another man. The beloved threw himself into the sea, and the lover threw himself in after him. The beloved asked him:

“I fell in; what made you fall in?”

He replied:

“Absorbed in you, I lost awareness of myself and thought that you were me.”

They also recite:

• The glass is thin, the wine is clear;
  So alike are they that the distinction is blurred.
  It is as though there were wine but no cup,
  And as though there were a cup but no wine.

This state occurs in many who follow the spiritual path, but it is neither inevitable for everyone on that path nor a praiseworthy ultimate goal. Rather, retaining reason, understanding, and knowledge, together with inward and outward affirmation of Allah’s oneness—as exemplified by our Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his Companions—is more perfect and complete.

What they call “self-effacement” takes three forms: ceasing to worship anything other than Allah; losing awareness of anything other than Allah; and the effacement of the existence of anything other than Allah.

The first is to become so absorbed in worshipping Allah that one ceases to worship anything else; through fearing Him, to cease fearing anything else; through hoping in Him, to cease hoping in anything else; through relying on Him, to cease relying on anything else; and through loving Him, to cease loving anything else. This is the essence of affirming Allah’s oneness and of sincere devotion to Him, with which Allah sent His messengers and revealed His Books. It is the realization of:

“There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.”

For all devotion to anything other than Allah vanishes from his heart, and no devotion to anything other than Allah remains there. The more perfectly a person realizes this affirmation of Allah’s oneness, the greater his merit before Allah.