Mystical annihilation (Fanā) and Eternal life (Baqā)

Mysticism is the most beautiful, subtle and artistic glance at religion. Mystics have interpreted all natural and supernatural phenomena from an aesthetic viewpoint and thereby have presented the most elegant and artistic understandings. On of the concepts which mystically reconsidered and henceforth gained an ideal and profound sense in he terminology of Sufism, is death. Like anyone else a mystic seeks immortality, his desire for an eternal life motivates in him a transcendental Divine love which ultimately in integration with the Beloved, the mystic himself achieves to a perpetual life. Hence through a ceaseless effort, he begins to purify himself from all Filthes and impurities and to liberate the divine dimension of his existence i.e. his soul from the earthly one i.e. his body till finally reach the union with the Beloved and get immortality. This article first delves into the different types of death from mystics’ opinions. Then, comparing Fanā to Nirvāna, it elaborates how the former in Sufism enriches the later in Buddhism. It also takes a short glance at how Fanā manifests itself in the Persian literature and mysticism and finally examines the state of Fanā as the origion of inspired paradoxes.