Imâm Rabbânî
‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ states as follows as he expatiates on the twenty-sixth
ma’rifat in his book entitled Ma’ârif-i-ladunniyyâ:
Fanâ means ‘to be oblivious of everything other than
Allâhu ta’âlâ. Man has a sample, a likeness of each one of the five latîfas existent in the ’âlam-i-emr. These five latîfas
have been given the
names, Qalb (heart); Rûh (soul); Sir; Khafî; and Akhfâ. Most of the (beloved
slaves of
Allâhu ta’âlâ called) Awliyâ have failed to distinguish them from one another
and called them all ‘rûh’, in the aggregate. So, all five of them have been
meant by the term ‘rûh (soul)’. This rûh, i.e. the five latîfas, had had
knowledge of
Allâhu ta’âlâ before it entered the human body and united with it. It had had some tawajjuh, awareness, and love of
Allâhu ta’âlâ. It had been given the potential and faculty to make progress, to improve itself. However, before it united with this body, it had also been
given an adoration for this body. Then it was left to itself in a position towards the body. It threw itself onto the body. Being extremely fine and pervasive,
it penetrated all the cells of the body, so that it was no longer recgonizable as a separate entity in the body. It forgot about its own self. It was no longer
itself; it was the body. It became fânî, (it perished,) in the body. As a matter of fact, most people look on themselves as bodies only. They do not know about
the existence of the soul; they deny it.
Allâhu ta’âlâ, the most compassionate, has pitied His slaves and sent to men or, rather, to their souls, messages
though His Prophets ‘’alaihim-us-salawâtu wa-t-teslîmât’. He has summoned them to
Himself. He has prohibited them to attach themselves to this dark body. People
who, in the eternal past, were predestined to be good people, will answer this
call and put an end to their attachment to the body. They will bid farewell to
it and orient themselves upward, towards heights. Once the soul regains its
bearings towards its origin, so will its love for its origin that it had had
before uniting with this body, gradually getting strength, and its amour with
the ephemeral being gradually losing its grip. When that gloomy and inglorious
paramour is completely forgotten and love felt for it is completely gone, physical fanâ (fanâ of the body)
will be attained. Thus the first one of the two basic phases in the way of
‘Tasawwuf will have been passed. Thereafter, if Allâhu ta’âlâ blesses (the owner of) that soul with His Favour and Kindness, the progress will continue further ahead, a phase of
self-oblivion will commence. This oblivion will gradually grow, until the self is completely forgotten about. Awareness of all beings, except that of
Allâhu ta’âlâ, will be completely gone. Hence the spiritual fanâ (fanâ of the soul).
The second phase also has been passed now. The soul’s coming to this world has
been intended for its attaining this second fanâ. It cannot attain it without
coming to the world.
If the latîfa ‘heart’,
which is also called haqîqat-i-jâmi’a, joins the soul in passing beyond the two phases, it will join
the soul also
in attaining their own fanâ. If the nafs also joins the heart in
this trek, it also will find ‘tedhkiya’. That is, it will attain its own fanâ.
However, if the nafs, after attaining the grade of the heart, remains there
instead of joining the heart in its upward progress and thereby getting beyond
the two phases, it will not attain the ‘nisyân (self-oblivion,
forgetfullness)’; it will not attain ‘mutmainna’.
A person who has
attained the fanâ of soul may not have attained the fanâ of heart. The soul is
like the father of the heart. The nafs, so to speak, is the heart’s mother. The
heart has a special propensity in the direction of its quasi-father, the soul.
If it manages to turn away from the nafs, its quasi-mother, so that its
propensity in the direction of its father will be augmented and pull it towards
its father; it will reach its father’s grade. That is, it will jump beyond the
two phases. The heart and the soul’s being fânî does not necessarily entail the
nafs’s being fânî, (i.e. attaining fanâ.) If the nafs’s affection for her son
develops into a propensity in the direction of her son and this propensity
intensifies, so that she joins her son, who has already attained the grade of
his father; she will become like them. Attainment of fanâ of each of the other
three latîfas called sir, khafî, and akhfâ follows the same procedure.
The heart’s having rid itself from memories and thoughts shows that it has forgotten everything other
than Allâhu ta’âlâ. Failure to remember them means that knowledge pertaining to them has gone. In fanâ, knowledge has to
have gone and perished.