Losing Oneself in the World of Annihilation
In Islam, the pinnacle of submission is when a servant relinquishes their limited free will, selfish desires, and the illusion of “I am doing it,” completely surrendering to Allah’s powerful hand in the flow of events. Abdülkadir Geylani (q.s.) explains the state of these perfect servants who have become non-existent through their own will with this shocking analogy: “Those you see, the travelers on the path of Allah… they found annihilation spiritually and were governed by destiny. The washer of fate turns them from right to left. Their scantiness waits at their feet.” Just as a corpse in the hands of the mortician (ghassal) is without objection, so too these servants are completely speechless, objecting nothing, and surrendered before fate and misfortune.
The Divine Secret in the Sleep of the Companions of the Cave
The washer of destiny turning the servants from right to left is a tremendous Sufi reference to the verse describing the situation of the Ashab al-Kahf (Companions of the Cave) in the Qur’an: “We turned them [right and] left, and their dogs stretched forth [their paws] towards them” (Cave, 18). Geylani (q.s.) states that for these servants who have detached themselves from will, “The wave of the sea of power sometimes hides man, sometimes reveals him… Some of them are like the Companions of the Cave,” thereby indicating that Divine protection comes into play in a state of complete surrender (as if remaining silently without objection as in a deep sleep).
Training of the Nafs (Soul)
At this elevated rank, the unruly nafs (soul) within the servant has ceased to rebel and is in a trained state, quietly waiting at their feet. Having distanced themselves from the noise of worldly ambitions and anxieties, the believer retreats into their cave (the solitude of their inner world), where they are nourished by Allah’s blessings. They are protected from worldly threats and the traps of Satan directly through the compassionate hands of Divine will, being turned from right to left (protected by fate).