"They call it 'fana' (annihilation), just as melodies fade away in the lute, we return to it." They call for the annihilation of the individual in the all-encompassing divine essence, and neither space nor time can find this infinite essence. The seeker has degrees of annihilation to ascend to gradually, and the means for this is deep contemplation, or in other words, meticulous observation of the states of the soul. This leads him to a goal where the contemplator and the contemplated become one, and this is true monotheism. This tendency and others like it are some of the tendencies of Sufism. Some see that these do not conflict, but rather must exist alongside the observance of outward rituals such as prayer, zakat, fasting, and pilgrimage. Some groups believe that these outward rituals are merely means to an end, and if the end is achieved, they are no longer necessary, and that it is the right of the Sufi to transcend all natural laws and to deviate from social customs. In any case, some of these teachings infiltrated both the Shi'a and the Sufis, and they met in some of these manifestations. Just as the Mahdi believed in the Mahdi, his disappearance, and his reappearance to fill the earth with justice, the Sufis believed that there is an organized spiritual kingdom that governs them and is beyond.