M6:3212 — طالبست و غالبست آن کردگار / تا ز هستی‌ها بر آرد او دمار

Translation: The Creator is both the Seeker and the Dominant One; So that He may annihilate existences. Meaning: This verse conveys that God, through His seeking will and overwhelming dominance, obliterates all illusory, separate existences to manifest His absolute unity and sovereignty.

This verse boldly speaks of the dominion and omnipotence of God, indicating that the Creator is not merely a 'Seeker' (ṭālib) but also a 'Dominant One' (ghālib). This divine seeking arises not from need, but from a perfection that tolerates no existence alongside its own, desiring to melt all limited 'existences' into itself.

I have repeatedly emphasized that one of the loftiest mystical teachings in Mawlana's school is the concept of fanāʾ (annihilation). 'So that He may annihilate existences' points precisely to this: the dismantling of finite, conditioned, and supposedly independent existences before the absolute Existence of God. This fanāʾ is not absolute non-being, but a transformation, a transition from illusory being to true being. Recall Mawlana's unparalleled analogy: 'Dark firewood became the rival of fire; Darkness departed, and all became light.' Or the piece of iron that is so thoroughly heated in a furnace that it acquires all the attributes of fire; it is not that the iron ceases to be, but it so fully takes on the qualities of fire that, in effect, there is no difference: 'I am fire, if you have doubt or suspicion / Test it, place your hand on me.' (M2:980).

This is the same union alluded to in the Hadith Qudsi: 'My servant continues to draw nearer to Me until I become his hearing, his sight, his hand.' At this station, one can no longer distinguish between the actions of the servant and the actions of God, for the servant has become so annihilated in God that his actions have become God's actions. 'It was not you who threw when you threw; it was Aḥmad / To see him is to see the Creator.' (M1:1240).

The Creator's dominance means He is 'the Subduer' (qahhār) over independent existences. This is the very 'subduing love' (ʿishq-i qahhār) of which Mawlana says elsewhere: 'Love is a dominator, and I am subjugated by love / I became sweet as sugar from love's fervor.' Love shatters all perceived independence and melts the lover into itself. This dominance stems not from coercion but from God's grandeur and absolute power (jabbāriyya); a jabbāriyya that liberates His servants from the bonds of illusory 'I's and 'we's.

Mawlana offers a remarkable analogy in Book Six (in this very context) about a man named 'Omar' in the city of Kashan, where all its inhabitants are Shi'a and dislike the name Omar. When this man goes to a shop and states his name, no one sells him anything, directing him instead to another shop, without the man realizing that 'all shops are one in this sense.' This is an allegory for the dominance of unity over multiplicity, and the obliteration of the independence of apparent identities. These 'existences' (hastī-hā — illusory and separate beings) become so insignificant before God's dominance and unity that it is as if they never were. This is a crucial lesson of the Masnavi, which allows the 'metaphysics of union' to overcome the 'metaphysics of separation'; a union that necessitates the annihilation of conventional 'I's and 'you's, so that the Absolute One may manifest and 'annihilate existences.' This is the realization of the unity of divine actions in the realm of being.

Key takeaways

• God is both the Seeker of His own perfection and the Dominant One over all existences.
• The phrase 'annihilate existences' refers to the fanāʾ (annihilation) of limited, illusory beings within God's absolute Existence, not absolute non-being.
• This fanāʾ is an ontological transformation, elevating the seeker from human attributes to divine qualities (like iron in fire).
• Annihilation in God is the realization of perfect unity, where the servant relinquishes independent identity, and their actions become God's actions.
• God's dominance and omnipotence are manifestations of 'subduing love' (ʿishq-i qahhār), which breaks down all false independence.
• The analogy of Kashan demonstrates how a unified will and identity can effectively nullify and invalidate the existence of an incongruous identity.