…and My servant continues to draw near to Me through voluntary works until I love him. When I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks; through Me he hears, through Me he sees, through Me he strikes, and through Me he walks. If he asks of Me, I will surely give him; if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him. There is nothing about which I hesitate to do, though I am its doer, more than My hesitation to take the soul of My believing servant: he dislikes death and I dislike causing him distress, yet death is inevitable for him.’
Thus, the one who fixes his gaze solely on the Divine decree makes no distinction between what is commanded and what is forbidden, whether obligatory or supererogatory. Nevertheless, his own soul cannot help but incline to something and recoil from something, for it is impossible for a living being to be utterly devoid of will. If, then, he does not love what Allah loves and hate what Allah hates, he will love what his own self loves and hate what his own self hates, thereby abandoning the divine, prophetic differentiation—which is the true meaning of la ilaha illa Allah and the very essence of the religion of Islam—for a merely ego-driven, satanic differentiation.
These people have, in turn, splintered into various sects. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and those like him among the unbelievers promote this view alongside their other heresies: denying the divine attributes, asserting the eternity of the celestial spheres, rejecting the resurrection of bodies, and claiming that prophethood can be acquired through human effort—such as intelligence and asceticism—and that it is nothing more than an emanation from the Active Intellect. By such claims they depart from the religion of the Muslims, the Jews, and the Christians alike.
Rather, the praiseworthy annihilation, according to the gnostics, is to realize the testimony of la ilaha illa Allah: to ascribe no share of divinity to any creature, to witness that there is no creator besides Him and that none but He deserves worship. One thus embodies the reality of His words:
“You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help,”
and His words, “So worship Him and rely…"