It is not the absence of meaning despite the presence of the instrument (i.e., the complete elimination of the inner forces that give rise to bad traits; if these forces are not eliminated, the state of fanāʾ does not occur). (Hujwīrī, 37
fanāʾ-baḳāʾ 247
According to the language of knowledge and lexicon, baqāʾ (subsistence in God) has three meanings: First, that which has its beginning and end in fanāʾ. For example, something that did not exist before, will not exist later, but exists now, like this dunyā (the world). Second, beings that were certainly non-existent at first, then came into existence, and will never cease to exist. Examples include paradise, hell, the hereafter, and those therein. Third, that which has always existed, has never ceased to exist, and will never cease to exist. The example of this is the Exalted God and His attributes. Allah is pre-eternal and everlasting. He is ancient together with His attributes. What is meant by His baqāʾ is the continuity of His existence. Allah is exalted above what the wrongdoers say. No being shares in His attributes. (Hujwīrī, 290
Fanāʾ occurs when the servant becomes annihilated from his wujūd (own existence), beholds the majesty of the Real (God), and discovers His greatness. As a result of this state, he forgets both the world and the hereafter in the majesty of the Real, states and stations appear insignificant next to his spiritual aspiration, the karāmas (saintly wonders) in his state vanish, and he becomes annihilated from his intellect and nafs (lower self). In the state of fanāʾ, he even becomes annihilated from fanāʾ itself (he is not aware of being in fanāʾ). Then his tongue speaks of the Real, his body is in a state of reverence and humility. As in the covenant of ʿubūdiyya (servitude) given in the primordial gathering (alast), when the progeny of Adam was brought forth from his loins and was protected from calamities, the state was the same. (Hujwīrī, 295
Allah the Exalted has said: "Everyone upon it will perish, and there will remain the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor." (al-Rahman 55:26) In this context, fanāʾ is the annihilation of everything other than the Real, first in knowledge (to know it as non-existent), then in striving, and finally in reality.
There are three degrees of this: The first degree is the annihilation of maʿrifa (gnosis) in the Maʿrūf (the Known, i.e., God). This is first fanāʾ in knowledge (the disappearance of knowledge), then fanāʾ in witnessing (when witnessing, only the Real is seen and the existence of everything else is denied). Finally, there is the annihilation of the wujūd (existence) of the seeker, which is the true fanāʾ.
The second degree of fanāʾ is the disappearance first of the seeker, then of gnosis, and finally of witnessing itself. The third degree of fanāʾ is fanāʾ from seeing fanāʾ itself. This is the true fanāʾ that is realized by being freed from the captivity of vision, plunging into the ocean of union (jamʿ), and traversing the path of baqāʾ. (Manāzil, 44
Allah the Exalted has said: "Allah is better and more lasting." (al-Qasas 28:60) Baqāʾ is the name of the state of being enduring that remains after the annihilation and disappearance of the witnesses. This also has three degrees: The first degree is that after the disappearance of knowledge not only in knowledge but in reality, the known (i.e., Allah) remains.
The second degree of baqāʾ is that after the disappearance of witnessing not only as an attribute but as existence, the witnessed (Allah) remains.
The third degree of baqāʾ is that, with the disappearance of that which is annihilated (the servant) in terms of obliteration, that which will never truly cease to exist (the Real) remains. (Manāzil, 44
The beloved said to the lover: Come, make yourself me. If I make myself you, then the beloved would be in need; but if you become me, then the increase is in the beloved. Thus, everything becomes the beloved, not the lover; everything is pride, not supplication; everything is present and existent, not need; all is wealth, not poverty; everything is a solution, not helplessness. (Sawāniḥ, 39
The process of the lover losing himself in the beloved reaches such a point that the lover becomes jealous even of himself and his own gaze.
I love you because of you, my beloved
Out of jealousy, I am not even friends with my own eyes
My sorrow is not from not being with you
My pain is not being in the same body as you
This subtlety sometimes reaches such a point that if one day the beloved becomes even more beautiful, the lover is hurt and angered. This state cannot be understood by those who have not tasted this pleasure. (Sawāniḥ, 40
To be a lover is to be entirely Him, and to be the beloved is to be entirely You. For being yourself does not befit you; what befits you is to belong to the beloved. What befits the lover is never to belong to himself or to remain alone.
As long as you are attached to desire, your path is either gold or woman
To be a lover is to be saved from these; therein lies your salvation
Is it fitting for a lover to have two qiblas on the path of tawhid (the oneness of God)?
Either follow your own desire or win the contentment of your friend
Kings have no value at our door
No one but the humble lover befits our honor
As long as you say "I, I," you cannot reach the secret of our master
For our crown only suits those who are headless
Love is a mysterious mirror for both lover and beloved: a mirror that shows oneself, the beloved, and the stranger (everything else). If the jealousy of fanāʾ-baḳāʾ dominates the state of love, the lover cannot look at another; the perfection of the beloved's beauty can never be seen outside the mirror of love. (Sawāniḥ, 109
Sometimes the beloved's affliction and torment, with full care and the grace of love, become a seed cast into the soil of the lover's desire, from which the rose of apology grows, buds, and leads to union.
And if fortune is favorable, this union turns into oneness. As long as lightning flashes, thunder does not strike, and no obstacles appear on your path; may fortune be favorable. For this reason, the lover realizes that the path of love is not safe. Thus it is said:
If you think I have given you my heart, know this
Hundreds of caravans have passed this way before
Even if I see my heart joyful from union with you
I also see the share of separation at times
Just as union is not hidden in separation
So too is separation evident in union for me
Fanāʾ is the boundary where munā, mubtaghā, and muntahā—the ends of the paths of the awliyāʾ (friends of God)—are reached. It is the direction in which the awliyāʾ and abdāl (substitutes) seek to have the will of the Real established in place of their own will by becoming annihilated from their own will. They continuously seek the will of the Real until their death. For this reason, may Allah be pleased with them, they are called abdāl. The sins of these great ones occur by mistakenly, forgetfully, or through the dominance of state and dahsha (awe) and ghalaba (overpowering), associating the will of the Real with their own will. When this error occurs, Allah reaches them with His mercy through reminders and wakefulness, and thus they return from this state and seek forgiveness from their Lord. For no one is infallible from will except the angels; the prophets are infallible from desire. The rest of creation—responsible humans and jinn—are not infallible from these. However, some awliyāʾ are infallible from desire, and the abdāl from will. At times, it is possible for them to incline toward desire and will, meaning they are not infallible from these. In such cases, Allah grants them wakefulness and His mercy reaches them. (Futūḥ, 15
Because he is occupied with My remembrance, I give to the one who refrains from asking Me the best of what I give to those who ask. (A verse close in meaning is: "But whoever turns away from My remembrance—indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind." (Tāhā 20:124)) The outcome of turning away is contrary to what is stated in the text. This is the state of fanāʾ, which is the goal of the states of the awliyāʾ and abdāl. Then comes creation (takwīn), and thus, by Allah's permission, all that is needed comes into being. (Futūḥ, 109
To reach the threshold of fanāʾ is to attain nearness to the Real, to know Him, to reach secrets and the sciences of religion, and to plunge into the ocean of lights in such a way that the nature of darkness and lights does not harm. Nature remains until the time when the soul will be separated from the body for the completion of destinies. For if nature (or disposition) were to be separated from man, he would join the angels, and then wisdom would cease. Therefore, nature remains not as essence but as function, to complete destinies and pleasures. (Futūḥ, 134
Fanāʾ is to negate creation and for one's nature to become like that of the angels, then to become annihilated even from the nature of the angels, and then to enter the initial degrees. At that time, your Lord will water you with what He will water you and will produce the harvest He will take from you. If you desire this, you must first have Islam, then submission, then knowledge of Allah, then maʿrifa, and then existence. If your existence is for Him, then everything you have is for Him. Zuhd (asceticism) is the work of an hour, warāʿ (scrupulousness) of two hours, but maʿrifa is the work of eternity. (Futūḥ, 162
To abandon choice (which means preference) and remain with the act of Allah is called fanāʾ. By this, they mean fanāʾ from will and desire. Will is the subtlest of the types of desire. This is the apparent fanāʾ. The inner fanāʾ is when, in the manifestation of the Essence, the light of witnessing flashes and the traces of existence are obliterated. This is the most perfect type of certainty in this world. As for the manifestation of the ruling of the Essence, that occurs only in the hereafter. It is the station at which Moses was prevented by "You will never see Me" (lan tarānī), but which the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) attained on the night of the Miʿrāj. (ʿAwārif, 93
It has been said: Fanāʾ is to be stripped of all pleasures, to feel no pleasure for anything. Such a person, being annihilated from himself and occupied with the Exalted God, cuts off all connection with things.
ʿĀmir ʿAbdullah said: Whether I see a woman or a wall, I do not care. Such a person is protected in every act he does for Allah and is kept away from all opposition to His command. Baqāʾ follows fanāʾ. It is to be annihilated from what belongs to oneself and to subsist in what belongs to Allah.
It has been said: The one who is enduring (possessor of baqāʾ) is the one for whom everything becomes as a single thing. Thus, his actions are in complete harmony with the Real, without any opposition. In this ḥāl (spiritual state), this person is annihilated from opposition to the Real and subsists in conformity with the Real. In my view, what this person mentions is not being annihilated or subsisting in a particular thing, but rather the soundness of the station of sincere repentance (tawba-i nasūḥ).
The following incident narrated from ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar points to fanāʾ: While he was performing ṭawāf, someone greeted him, but he did not respond. That person then complained about ʿAbdullah to one of his companions. When ʿAbdullah heard this, he said: In that place, we had given ourselves completely to Allah.
fanāʾ-baḳāʾ: It has been said: Fanāʾ is to be annihilated from things as Moses was when the Exalted God manifested to the mountain. Ḥarrāz said: Fanāʾ is to be annihilated by the Real (through the Real), and baqāʾ is to be with the Real. Junayd explained fanāʾ as follows: Fanāʾ is to be alien to all human and nafsānī (egotistical) qualities and to be occupied with the Exalted God with all one's being.
Ibrāhīm Shaybān said: The knowledge of fanāʾ and baqāʾ revolves around the sincerity of tawḥīd (the oneness of God) and the soundness of ʿubūdiyya (servitude). Anything else is delusion and heresy (i.e., if there is no sincerity in tawḥīd and servitude, nothing is gained but delusion and heresy instead of fanāʾ).
When Ḥarrāz was asked, "What is the sign of the one in the state of fanāʾ?" he replied: The sign of the one who claims fanāʾ is that all pleasures related to the world and the hereafter disappear except for Allah the Exalted. Again, Abū Saʿīd Ḥarrāz said: The soundness of the fanāʾ of those who are annihilated in fanāʾ is that they possess knowledge of baqāʾ; the soundness of the baqāʾ of those who subsist in baqāʾ is that they do not possess knowledge of fanāʾ. (ʿAwārif, 305-306
The world of intellect is divided into two: veiled and unveiled. Those with attributes are the veiled ones. These are the world of malakūt (the spiritual realm), the possessors of stations. The Exalted Allah has said: "Each of us has a known station." The unveiled are those hidden in the treasures of the unseen, the people of negation, the grooms of Allah (those who have attained union). Allah has hidden them out of jealousy so that others do not know them, and they know only Him. They are in the station that the verifiers call fanāʾ. (Tadbīrāt, 154
Fanāʾ is when the servant sees his actions as established by Allah. (Iṣṭilāḥ, 532
If you ask, "What is fanāʾ?" we say: Fanāʾ is when the servant, in this state (of presence), sees his actions as established by the Real. This resembles baqāʾ. If you ask, "What is baqāʾ?" we say: It is when the servant sees, through the mirror of distinction, that Allah sustains everything. (Futūḥāt, II, 129
According to the community of Sufis, it is said that fanāʾ is the result of certain actions. Some say: Fanāʾ is the annihilation of sinners. Others say: Fanāʾ is when the servant sees his actions as established by Allah. Others have said: Fanāʾ is to be annihilated from creation. According to them, this type of fanāʾ is also divided into levels. Fanāʾ from fanāʾ is one of them. Some have extended fanāʾ to seven levels. Know that—may Allah support us and you with the spirit of holiness—fanāʾ only occurs from this, and baqāʾ only with this and with that (fanāʾ). Fanāʾ is absolutely necessary. On this path, fanāʾ only occurs by being annihilated from the lowest for the sake of the highest. To be annihilated from the highest, even if correct in the lexical sense, is not...