The transition from existence to non-existence or primordial existence is not a total annihilation, since the Sufi self is not reduced to pure nothingness. Junayd’s Three Stages of Fanā & Baqā1) Obliterate self-attributes, especially through opposing desires2) Obliterate the pleasure of obedience, you are exclusively His3) Obliterate self-consciousness, physical being continues but a person has no individuality cyclical, imperfect & painful It is in this losing the oneness of individuality that the true display of fanā is displayed. Junayd is quoted saying, “He (God) annihilates my construction just as he constructed me originally in the condition of my annihilation (Sells 260). Here, fanā was exemplified as obliterating self-consciousness, losing the “you” because all existence is God. For this reason, it is helpful to study Junayd to better understand the concept of fanā. The following Rumi poem provides a good analogy for this concept: “Let the servant be, in relation to God, like a marionette…let him return in finishing his life to his point of departure.”Example of Junayd: Junayd is often thought of in relation to fanā because it led to his execution. This non-existence, however, equals the state of original existence humanity possessed in the presence of God at the primordial covenant prior to creation.
Process: In realizing tawhid (affirmation of the oneness of God), the mystic has to pass away from any trace of individual self-consciousness so that his self is blotted out in actual non-existence and God alone exists and in truth subsists.
Of the two terms, fanā is the more significant concept in Sufi writings. Fanā (passing away) and baqa (subsisting) are a correlative pair of notions in which fanā logically precedes baqā. This is a step of dissolving or extinguishing the boundaries of the ego or self and merging and anchoring it with the Divine Self is called fanā. When one is working toward fanā, one becomes the locus for God’s attributes and in doing so involves a great deal of losing attributes of self-hood. Fanā revealedĮxplanation: Fanā can best be described as the stage when the Sufi passes away in mystical union with the divine, the standard grammatical distinction between the self and the other, human and divine, reflexive and non-reflexive, begins to break down (Sells 82). Fanā is, in the beginning, an ethical concept: man becomes annihilated and takes on God’s attributes – it is the place of the alleged hadith “qualify yourself with the qualities of God” or in other words through constant mental struggle exchange your own base qualities for the praiseworthy qualities by which God has described Himself in the Koranic revelation. Fanã is not the experience of being freed from a painful circle of existence, since Islam lacks the idea of karma and accepts the reality of the individual soul. įanā is not a mere cessation of individual life, but the development of a more ample and perfect selfhood, thanks to the utter change of attributes wrung by the influence of God. Although it has some similarities to the concept of nirvāna, fanā does not denote the extinction of individual life. įanā is sometimes associated with the Hindu or Buddhist notion of nirvāna. The Tariqa’s focus and praxis became known as tasawwuf, or Sufism in English. The exoteric crystallization within Islam became popularly known as the Sharia, Divine Law or Canon, and the esoteric crystallization as the Tariqa, the Way. Ĭonnection to Sufism: After the death of its founder, Islam (like other religions) crystallized into differentiated exoteric and esoteric institutional forms: the exoteric “religious” or “outer” practice and the esoteric “spiritual” or “inner” practice. Since this is an experiential concept, there is no one perfect definition of fanā.Two allied definition have been offered of fanā (1) the passing away from the consciousness of the mystic of all things, including himself, and even the absence of the consciousness of this passing away and its replacement by a pure consciousness of God, and (2) the annihilation of the imperfect attributes (as distinguished from the substance) of the creature and their replacement by the perfect attributes bestowed by God. ĭefinition: Fanā is a Sufi term meaning passing away that refers to a stage of mystical development in the path of gnosis. The terms fanā and baqa are drawn from the Koranic passage (55:26-27): “All that dwells upon the earth is perishing (faāen), yet still abides (yabqā) the Face of thy Lord, majestic, splendid”.
Fanā comes from a doctrine that has been developed since the execution of Mansur Al-Hallaj in 922 A.D. Fanaa (فناء) Context, origin: The concept of fanā was originally coined by the Sufi Abū Sa’id Karrāz, and is often attributed to Abū L-Qāsim al-Junayd.
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