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   Shaykhs Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah were both Sufis.  Ibn Taymiyyah talked about "annihilation," where one ceases to be aware of his own identity, and becomes immersed in The One.

   as-salaamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuhu, Musa.

   It's nice to see you posting again.  Minds at Liberty Forum have become more flexible since the last time I recall seeing you.  Interesting changes appear to be afoot, it seems to me for the better.  A lot of acrimony has dissipated and gone and Liberty Forum readers are finding ways to realize liberty that few here had ever considered.

   I think you mean "where one loses the illusions of identity" that evaporate when properly illuminated in the stark light of reality, which is commonly called "white" because it is so glaringly bright.  Human identity itself is not an illusion, illusion is what we attach to it narcissistically in our vain desires to be "like" Him, which by definition is impossibility itself, since "nothing made is a likeness of Him."  I believe, however, that at least Taqi'ud-Din ibn Taymiyyah rahmatullahi 'alaihi proceeded through the "black" and the "green" ~ he shows signs of both, as does Abu Hamid al-Ghazali ~ which have other implications and stations, and illuminated the "white" hazards of becoming veiled from the truth of certitude and law by light, by pursuing such misunderstandings as "immersion in The One" to explain and articulate what they experienced.

   Abu Hamid al-Ghazali rahmatullahi 'alaihi often said "but beyond this we cannot discuss this because it can lead to confusion and misguidance," which is often the better approach to discussing some of these things, and Taqi' was very adamant about what proceeded from ignoring that sound counsel ~ which of course he never needed to hear to know its merit.

   It is these condemnations of excess proceeding from ecstasy that attract the folk of the Island to Ibn Taymiyyah in light of the extremes of popular superstition that beset them some time ago, and perhaps some still.  I'm not aware of hostility in Makkah or Madinah to the ways of the Prophet sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam along these many pathways of tasawwuf, surely I found none whatever in the two mosques, but only the welcome accorded a long-absent lover.  But then my thought is shaped by the Law, not by imagination, so perhaps I merely didn't notice something by being so singularly attentive to what I was doing myself.

   He has said to us "Be!" and we are.  Our distinction from Him is so final, so clear, so indelible and inexorable, that the common cry of the people of love is of separation from the Beloved and a longing for union.  But this is the term of our existence, to be company for Him, someone apart from Himself that He has created apart and maintains by His Mercy apart as discrete and aware to know Him and love Him as He created us capable.

   There is no such thing as "immersion" in Him, as one would swim in the waters of passion, we subsist awash in His Love and Mercy and this is sufficient to take the rational consciousness of any man and strip it away completely.  It is misperception to imagine His Favor, which He creates and directs as He will, to be the dissolution in Him that ecstasy makes it seem.  We merely forget ourselves for a moment, completely ~ as in death, which is why these are called "extinctions" of which some have said "Die before you die."  It is indeed very much like death because whoever we were before is gone, and at the time we are there only as aware, veils of self-delusion stripped away and perceiving only His Light.  Our awareness remains singular and localized and it is our real identity as His created companions.

   And this is why al-Ghazali said "don't explain it" ~ the very words might more often mislead.

   Please be content to be the diamond brilliance you already are.  We, after all, long for someone to love we can see looking back at us with molten hearts pouring through our eyes, just as He finds pleasure in those who look upon Him with love without ever seeing Him.

   Let's keep in mind when we see each other as blinding light awash in His Mercy that it is not Him we are seeing, but what He created in Adam.  And perhaps with that in view it will be easier to realize that He has breathed of His Spirit into everyone, and all can know Him directly as He has allowed us to do.

   Thank you for inspiring this.  I cannot function here without an occasion upon which to express my affection by writing.