Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Richard P. Mitchell, The Society 

of the Muslim Brothers (London: Oxford University 

Press, 1969); M. N. Shaikh, trans., Memoirs of Hasan 

Al Banna Shaheed (Karachi: International Islamic Pub-

lishers, 1981); Charles Wendell, trans., Five Tracts of 

Hasan al-Banna’ (Berkeley: University of California 

Press, 1978).

baqa and fana

 

(Arabic: abiding and 

annihilation)

Baqa and fana are key concepts in s

UFism

. They 

are employed by Sufis in their discussions about 

mystical experience and union with God. At issue 

is whether any aspect of a mystic’s individual-

ity (or selfhood) really remains or abides (baqa) 

when mystical union or annihilation (fana) is 

experienced, and whether true self-annihilation 

can really be attained. A common teaching story 

used in connection with this subject is that of the 

moth that is drawn to the light of a candle only 

to perish in the flame: Does the moth completely 

perish, or does something of the moth continue to 

exist in a transformed state after it is consumed by 

the flame? The roots of such discussions are based 

partly in human speculation about life (existence) 

and 

death

 (the end of existence; nonexistence). 

When people are born into the world, are they 

born into true life? When they die, does life truly 

come to an end? Pre-Islamic Neoplatonic think-

ers in the Middle East, among whom were many 

Christian mystics, identified the living God with 

true existence and viewed worldly existence as a 

kind of nonexistence. Therefore, for a Sufi influ-

enced by Neoplatonism, to be truly alive meant