Fear distresses me; hope comforts me. Truth unites me with God, ritual separates me.
When God distresses me with fear, He annihilates my existence, so I no longer need to take care of myself. When God comforts me with hope, He returns my existence to me, and He commands me to take care of myself.
When God unites me to Himself with a vision of His truth, He brings me into His presence. When God separates me from Himself by means of ritual, He makes himself absent from me – and absent from myself.
It is God who causes me to move from one of these states to another; He does not allow me to remain still, and He makes my soul ill at ease with each of these states in turn. When I am in the presence of God, I want to be absent from Him. When I am absent from Him, I want to see Him. When He annihilates my existence, I want my existence returned. When my existence
is complete, I want to be obliterated.
If only God would annihilate me completely and permanently as a distinct individual, that I may live eternally in His presence.
(Junayd)