finding a way out of this corrupt world, which
he considered to be a kind of death or prison,
and returning to a mystical union with God, the
source of life. Sufis heeded a saying of m
Uhammad
,
which stated “Die before you die.” For them, this
meant not that they should physically die, but that
they should strive to purify themselves of worldly
existence so that all that remains is God. Some
Sufis maintained that the attributes of the indi-
vidual are thereby replaced by those of God. Such
discussions about baqa and fana also addressed
questions concerning the relation between body
and soul and whether the soul was divine and
immortal.
Formal Islamic doctrine has tended to affirm
life in this world as a gift from God and to
anticipate an
aFterliFe
of immortal existence in
paradise
or hell, based on a final judgment of one’s
beliefs and actions. However, Neoplatonic ideas
surfaced early in the history of the Muslim com-
munity. The q
Uran
itself emphasizes the distinc-
tion between the transitory nature of life in this
world (al-dunya) and eternal life in the hereafter
(al-akhira), which is qualitatively better. More-
over, an oft-quoted passage in the Quran states,
“Everything on [the Earth] is transitory; all that
subsists is the face of your lord (God), the one of
majesty and generosity” (Q 55:26–27). This state-
ment implies that life is fleeting and that only God
subsists permanently.
In the ninth century, as Neoplatonism became
more influential among Muslim intellectuals, Sufis
promoted the idea of the relationship between
baqa and fana as states of mind or consciousness
that were not limited to physical life and death.
The first Sufi to be credited with developing such
a doctrine was Abu Said al-Kharraz of Baghdad
(d. 899). He taught that baqa meant abiding in
the contemplation of God’s divinity, thus stressing
the difference between the mystic and God, while
fana meant the annihilation of one’s awareness
of being an imperfect human. Al-Hujwiri (d. ca.
1077), a Persian mystic, went further to say that
annihilation comes by way of a vision of God’s
majesty, which so overwhelms the visionary that
he becomes “dead to reason and passion alike,
dead even to annihilation itself” (al-Hujwiri, 246).
This line of thought characterizes the attitude of
al
-J
Unayd
(d. 910) of b
aghdad
and other “sober”
Sufis toward mystical experience. They believed
that the mystic continued to experience a perfected
awareness of the self after annihilation in God.
Others, known as the “intoxicated” Sufis,
took a different tack. They maintained that the
mystic could completely shed his or her human
attributes by following the mystical path and
ultimately achieve ecstatic union with God. a
bU
y
azid
al
-b
istami
(d. ca. 875) and m
ansUr
al
-h
al
-
laJ
(d. 922) were important Sufi visionaries who
were included in this group. Al-Hallaj was also
credited with introducing the idea that the mysti-
cal quest was comparable to that of the lover seek-
ing union with his or her Beloved (God), a theme
that lies at the heart of the rich poetic traditions
associated with Sufism.
One of the most beautiful expressions of a
sober Sufi understanding of the relation between
baqa and fana occurs in Farid al-Din Attar’s Con-
ference of the Birds (composed ca. 1177). This
Persian poem tells the story of a flock of birds
who gave up their worldly attachments in order
to find Simurgh, their king. After traversing
seven valleys, each valley representing a different
spiritual station, they are finally admitted to the
inner chamber of Simurgh, where they discover
that they are identical to their king and surrender
themselves to annihilation, only to abide once
again in their individual selfhoods at the end
of their quest. In later Sufi thought, the way to
union with God required prior annihilation in the
Sufi master and Muhammad, both of whom were
believed to be reflections of God’s light.
See also a
llah
;
hal
;
maqam
; p
ersian
langUage
and
literatUre
;
tariqa
;
soUl
and
spirit
.
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