Kemal wept. "But how do I help him, then?"
"Exactly," said Rumi. "Your father's soul is no longer a clay pot—a collection of sins and virtues. It has returned to the River of Oneness. When you recite tahlil thinking, 'I am a good son sending a package to a dead man,' you are throwing stones at the river. But when you recite La ilaha illallah as a state of your own annihilation—when you forget the sender, the sent, and the one you are sending to—that is not a stone. That is a raindrop returning to the ocean. And that raindrop becomes the ocean." tahlil arwah rumi
He told Kemal to do this: "Tonight, instead of reciting the tahlil for your father, sit in silence. Feel the presence of 'Allah' alone. Let every other name—including 'father' and 'Kemal'—dissolve. Then, whisper the tahlil as if God is reciting it to God. For in the end, there is no one to save and no one to be saved. There is only the One." Kemal wept
"Nothing," said Kemal. "The river absorbs it." It has returned to the River of Oneness