In Attar's 'The Tale of the Dervish Who Wished for a Storm', the narrative serves as an allegory for the Sufi concept of Fana (annihilation of the self). The dervish desires a catastrophic storm to wipe out humanity because he perceives the physical world as a source of illusion (Pendar) and false attachments or polytheism (Shirk). When warned that he too would become annihilated (Fani) in the storm, the dervish welcomes his own destruction as his primary and ultimate goal. This illustrates the mystical principle that true spiritual realization requires the complete eradication of the ego and worldly existence in order to remove all barriers between the seeker and the Divine.