In Attar's 'Mokhtar Nameh' (Chapter 34, Poem 34), the seeker pleads for deliverance from the self, saying, 'Deliver me from myself, O You who are All!' The Beloved responds with a rebuke: 'Who are you? Are you not ashamed of yourself?'

This dialogue illustrates a central paradox in Sufi mysticism regarding 'fana' (annihilation of the self). The seeker's request for annihilation or deliverance still presupposes the existence of an 'I' who desires and asks. As long as there remains an individual identity that says 'Deliver me,' true unity is impossible because duality persists. The Beloved's rhetorical question, 'Who are you?' points out that in the presence of the ultimate reality ('O You who are All'), any claim to separate existence, even for the purpose of seeking spiritual liberation, is an illusion and a spiritual deficiency (shame).