Word · from the archive
fanā ISO phanā
The idea Bulleh Shah’s whole kafi is built on. The endless “I am not…” of Bullā kī jāṇā maiṅ kaun is not nihilism but method: strip away believer and unbeliever, Arab and Lahori, waking and sleep, until the small labelled “I” is gone and what remains belongs to God. The poem performs fanā rather than describing it.
noun (feminine) · fana — the Sufi annihilation of the self
Literal sense
Annihilation, passing-away — in Sufi thought, the dissolution of the ego-self so that only the Divine remains.
Pronunciation
/fənäː/ — “fa-NAH”
Etymology
Arabic fanāʾ (“passing away, extinction”); paired in Sufi thought with baqāʾ, “subsistence [in God]”.
Etymological stream: Perso-Arabic
Cultural context
A technical term of Sufi metaphysics that Punjabi verse made singable in the street — which is Punjabi Sufi poetry’s whole achievement in one word.
In a sentence
ਇਸ਼ਕ ਵਿਚ ਫ਼ਨਾ ਹੋਣਾعشق وچ فنا ہوناishq vich fanā hoṇā“to be annihilated in love”
Related words
Where this word appears on Punjabia
See also
ਕਾਫ਼ੀ کافی kāfī — the sung form the idea lives in