The Philosophy of Fanā and Baqā in the Context of Wahdat al-Wujūd: A Comparative Study of Islamic Sufi Metaphysics and Advaita Vedānta

Abstract

The current research paper is a comparative account of the philosophy of the fanā (annihilation) and baqaa (subsistence) in the context of metaphysical Islamic Sufi waqhabi, and is compared with a non-dualistic system of the Advaita Vedanta. Concentrating more on the teachings of Ibn ʿArabī, Rūmzi, and al-Ghazālix of the Sufi tradition, and including Advaita Vedanta by Shaṅkara, the study explores the major metaphysical ideas of the nature of ultimate reality, the connection between the Absolute and contingent, self-realization, and spiritual liberation. Both traditions focus on the overcoming of the ego-self to realize oneness with the ultimate reality, which in both Sufism and Advaita are referred to as fanā fi’llah then baqwa bi’llah (in Sufism), and as the realization of the identity between 2 determinations: 2 2 Aatman (individual self) and Brahman (universal reality). Although the phenomenological parallels between the Islamic Sufism and Advaita Vedanta strikingly echo, direct knowledge ( ʿilm ḥuḍūrī / aparokṣa jñāna ), love/devotion and dissolution of duality, there are fundamental differences: Islamic Sufism preserves a distinct ontological difference between creator and creation (even in the highest forms), which is based on tawḥīd, whereas the Advaita Vedanta erases all differences in non-dual Brahman, in which multiplicity is an illusion ( The paper follows the history of development, discusses primary sources (Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, Mathnawī, Upaniṣads, Brahma-sutra-bhaskaya) and compares the epistemological methods (love-based ascent vs. jnanabased discrimination), as well as, ethical/practical implications (tazkiya vs. sadahana). It infers that although there are common mystical motifs which give possibility of interfaith dialogue as well as understanding, the underlying theological commitments namely the personal theism and the impersonal absolute monism provide insurmountable differences. The paper shows the usefulness of these concepts in the modern-day interreligious peace and indicates the directions in which phenomenological and comparative research can be taken.

Keywords: Waḥdat al-wujūd, Fanā, Baqā, Ibn ʿArabī, Rūmī, Advaita Vedānta, Śaṅkara, Brahman, Ātman, Māyā, Mokṣa, Sufi metaphysics, Non-dualism, Tawḥīd, Mystical union, Comparative mysticism, Interfaith dialogue, Spiritual realization, Annihilation and subsistence