If we liken God to the ocean and the human individual to a drop, we can say that the function of Sufism is to carry the drop to the ocean.

The master of the Path then is like a river linked to the ocean. The drop must commit itself to the river, so that it can be carried to the ocean.

Needless to say, for the drop to reach the ocean with the help of the river, it must first meet many difficult challenges. It must put up with a great deal of turbulence arising from its various encounters in the river, so that it may eventually merge with the ocean in serenity and stability.

In certain circumstances it is possible for the drop to merge directly with the ocean, a process referred to as 'attraction'. In this case, however, the drop does not have the advantage of being able to guide others, because it has not itself traveled the path of the river.

Given that the river and the ocean are fundamentally one, annihilation in the master is considered to be the same as annihilation in God. Submission to the master means that the master blinds one's self-seeing eyes, or the 'drop-consciousness' of the disciple, and brings sight to one's God-seeing eyes, or 'ocean-consciousness'.

Only when the drop has submitted to the river, and ultimately the ocean, can it forget its 'drop-ness'. When the drop finally merges with the ocean, it sees through the eye of the ocean that it is the ocean.

The drop, of course, must be in contact with the river and the ocean in order to be absorbed in them. The remembrance (dhikr) given to the Sufi by the master is the only means of bringing the disciple into such contact that he or she may be snatched up by their attraction. If the drop merely settles on the bank of the river or the shore of the ocean, it will lose nothing of its 'drop-ness'. It must throw itself into the water if it wishes to give up its self-existence. This is why Sufism is said to entail 'becoming', and not simply hearing or reading.