Spiritual development does not mean the termination of personality. It may mean the sublimation of ego-personality, it may be the awakening and establishment of the divine life within. This is called baka by the Sufis.

There are many forms of meditation and they generally produce the self-surrender or fana. Where Sufis differ from some other schools is that self-surrender is not for the sake of self-surrender as such, but for the expression of God through man (this is inclusive of woman of course, man is used in the sense of mankind) which is called baka. Baka is the existence, the reality, and then the Grace, Glory, Wisdom, Joy and Peace of Allah manifest in man (woman). Whenever one or more of these manifest in man, man becomes the channel for the Divine Essence (Zat) and this is the fulfillment not only of the body being the temple of the Holy Spirit, but of the mind also. Spiritual purification, Mental purification, means that the whole of personality is surrendered to God, so that through man God works out His intended purpose in His creation. It is not the becoming to nothingness, it is that the realization of the illusion of ego brings about the full expression of divinity in man. Exaltation is the expression of the divinity in us and through us.