The servant’s actions, attributes and very being are effaced in the Divine acts, Attributes and Essence.

“Fana fi’llah (annihilation in God) has connections with some of the other concepts that we have discussed. For example, sincere repentance requires annihilating one’s resistance to acknowledging sin, asceticism requires annihilating carnal pleasures, the highest point of loyalty and love is the annihilation of the expectation for a pleasing life in both this and the other world, and absence (ghayba) as a result of intoxication is apparent annihilation. Each of these is an attitude, a feeling and state of pleasure for a traveler on the way to God, while being at the same time, with respect to the Divine Being, Attributes and Names, manifestations of the lights of the Divine Oneness in the sphere of contingent things and beings. Initiates live in tides of existence and non-existence. This life is known as devastation. Their melting away before the Existence of the Truth is known as destruction, and their feeling that their deeds are mere shadows of the acts of the One Who does whatever He wills is known as effacement. Devastation, destruction, and effacement are dimensions of annihilation. They remind one of the fact that everything other than He is a shadow of the True Existence and Knowledge, having no essential value inherent to itself. These states also function as a bridge between the relativity of truth and human perception, feeling and understanding.

The absolute truth never changes; it is always what it essentially is. Neither the assumptions of union or incarnation on the part of the Divine Being nor human absolute annihilation in God bear anything of the truth. Things and events are created by God. Human beings are His created servants, and He possesses absolute Existence and Knowledge. Every existent thing is a ray of the manifestation of His Existence and Knowledge, and humanity feels, witnesses, and interprets these manifestations. But humans can make mistakes, which should be corrected. Humankind are like the conductors of choirs singing the praises of the Creator. They interpret what constantly pours into their horizon or is presented to their view, reviewing it, and adding new melodies taken from the depth of their emotions and sensations. These melodies are sometimes in accord with the truth being played, but sometimes it happens that the state, pleasures, perceptions, and feelings are in discord with existence in their mirrors of perception and consciousness, resulting in a confusion of views of the Divine Oneness and multiplicity in contingent existence. Utterances such as ‘I am the Truth’ (attributed to Hallaj al-Mansur), or ‘I am a denier if I pray, and an unbeliever if I do not’ (attributed to Shibli), and ‘The Lord is the servant, and the servant is the Lord, so I wish I knew who is responsible for God’s commandments’ (attributed to Muhy al-Din ibn al-’Arabi), and ‘Who is the criminal, and what is the chastisement?’ (attributed to Yunus Emre), are examples of this confusion.”¹⁾

“As for fana fi’llah, the very term means that a person melts away completely before God’s will and decree, only to rise again in a new life.”²⁾

“Within the human self dwell the hearing and sight of the Most Glorious. Indeed, the mystery of huwa (‘He’) manifests in us as anā (‘I’). When a person tears through the shell of this I by means of fana fi’llah and baqa biʾllah, he can attain the state of abiding in God. In so doing he uncovers the secrets of selfhood. Having reached his goal, he dashes the crystal goblet in his hand to the ground, proclaiming, ‘With you I have climbed to the desired rooftop; I need you no more.’ Then, aware that he is filled to the marrow with gnosis, he goes on savoring the divine effusions. May our Lord grant us all such a horizon. Amin.”³⁾

“… a saint rises ever higher along the path of fana fi’llah, baqa bi’llah, ma’a’llah; but the Prophet, after reaching the loftiest summits, returns to humankind, taking them by the hand to lead them there as well.”⁴⁾

“Contemplation is a harbor by which one passes beyond created things, arrives at the Divine Names, and through the Names reaches the Most Holy Named One. He then enters the circle of Attributes and is transfixed by awe. At that point all his feelings and thoughts are fastened to the command and good pleasure of the Most Glorious. If you wish, you may call this having reached the station of fana fi’llah. Whoever attains it works for God, begins for God, sits for God, rises for God, eats and drinks for God—moving wholly within the sphere of li-ajhillah, li-wajhillah.”⁵⁾

“… haqqa’l-yaqin is complete effacement in God and, through His eternality, attaining true permanence. In Sufi language this is the station of fana fi’llah – baqa bi’llah. In the Sage Bediüzzaman’s phrasing, it is hama az ost—‘all is from Him’: the station where one perceives, in every degree, the truth that all things subsist solely by His existence.”⁶⁾

M. Fethullah Gülen, “Fana fi’llah (Annihilation in God)”

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