The Self as the Ultimate Veil (Hijab)

In Sufi metaphysics, the ego or selfhood (nafs) is understood as the ultimate barrier between the seeker and the Divine. In Section 5 of Attar's Mosibat Nameh, this concept is dramatized through the figure of Ayaz.

When the Sultan clears the chamber of the crowd to hear Ayaz's secret, Ayaz reveals that the external crowd is no longer the barrier; rather, his own individual existence (hasti) is the veil:

Since I am my own veil in the world, the crowd was the veil then, and now I am the veil.

To achieve true union or proximity with the Divine, the mystic must transcend their own selfhood, dissolving the ego (fana) that separates them from the Beloved.