In Farid al-Din Attar's Asrar Nameh (Section 7), the tale of a fool holding a candle up to the sun serves as a powerful allegory for the Sufi concepts of spiritual annihilation (fana) and subsistence (baqa). The fool mistakenly believes his candle is necessary to see the sun, representing human ignorance and the illusion of the independent ego. Attar uses this to instruct the seeker to 'know Him through Him, and become annihilated.' Just as the candle's meager light is completely overwhelmed and rendered invisible by the boundless brilliance of the sun, the seeker's individual identity must undergo fana in the Divine presence. In achieving this profound self-effacement, the seeker paradoxically attains baqa (subsistence), enduring eternally as a pure essence sustained by the Divine.