First things first

The following is a poem by Abu Madyan (d. 1198), a North African Sufi.

Say ‘Allah!’ And Leave Creation

Say ‘Allah!’ and leave creation and all it contains,
If you desire to reach perfection.

For all besides Allah, if you reflect upon it,
Is nothing, both in detail and on the whole.

And know that you and all the worlds
- were it not for Him would be effaced and disappear.

For the one who has no existence in and of himself.
- were it not for Allah, his existence would be impossible.

The gnostics have been annihilated and see
Nothing besides the Mighty, the Exalted;

And they see everything but Him as perishing,
In the now, the past, and in the future.