An individual enters the final stages of the Way when the nafs begins to release its grip on the qalb, thus allowing the ruh--which is present in all humanity, but is cloaked in the veil of the self--to absorb the qalb as though it were a drop of dew plunged into a vast, endless sea. When this occurs, the individual achieves fana: ecstatic, intoxicating self-annihilation. This is the final station along the Sufi Way. It is here, at the end of the journey, when the individual has been stripped of his ego, that he becomes one with the Universal Spirit and achieves unity with the Divine. Although