XIV / (ii) 

Complete Absorption

The next essential in this connection is complete absorption. While offering prayer we must forget everything else, including our body and our bodily relations. Singleness of purpose is a sine qua non for hitting the target. It is common knowledge that one cannot serve two Masters at one time. We have to choose between God and Mammon and then forget the other. One by one we have to slip through the various sheaths enveloping the soul like funeral shrouds in their folds. The spirit is a living entity and cannot move ahead unless it discards the material appendages in which it is wrapped up – physical, mental and causal. By complete absorption these drop off one by one of their own accord, leaving the spirit free for flights in the spiritual regions. Mohammedans call this absorption Fana-fil-Sheikh, which ultimately leads to Fana-fil-Allah, thus completing the journey from Fana to Baqa (from death to immortality).