Theopoetic Annihilation: A Comparative Mystical Analysis of Farheen's “Fana of Class Aesthetics”

 

🕊️ Theopoetic Annihilation: A Comparative Mystical Analysis of Farheen's “Fana of Class Aesthetics”

Abstract

This paper presents a layered analysis of “Fana of Class Aesthetics”, a contemporary Sufi poem by Farheen Bhuiyan Nancy, through the theological and poetic frameworks of Ibn ʿArabi, Al-Hallāj, Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, and Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī. It argues that the poem dramatizes a mystico-political resistance to superficial moral authority through the Sufi processes of fanā’ (self-annihilation) and baqā’ (subsistence in God), employing the metaphor of the divine gaze and metaphysical imprint. By fusing personal revelation, social critique, and ontological surrender, the poem emerges as a contemporary expression of perennial Sufi concerns: ego dissolution, light, gnosis, and divine intimacy.

I. Fanā’ as Spiritual Revolt: Echoes of Al-Hallāj

Al-Hallāj (d. 922), one of the earliest and most controversial mystics in Islam, famously declared:

“Anā al-Ḥaqq” — “I am the Truth.”

This was not blasphemy in his understanding, but the cry of one who had effaced his self so completely that only the Divine spoke through him. In your poem, a similar act of spiritual resistance surfaces:

“Fana—
Fana—
Fana—
Till I breathe your name—”

Like Hallāj’s declaration, this repetitive chant enacts the stripping away of ego until the poet’s very breath is a divine utterance. The voice is not merely surrendering; it is becoming the divine imprint. As Louis Massignon noted, Hallāj’s martyrdom was not theological rebellion but a metaphysical necessity—a mirror of fanā’.

Your poem does not risk martyrdom in a literal sense, but it certainly risks confrontation with social and spiritual orthodoxy, especially through the opening critique of moral policing:

“You a better ‘moralist’ always accusing and othering—ugh!”

This is the nafs al-ammāra (commanding self), the false judge that Hallāj and other Sufis insisted must be destroyed.

II. Ibn ʿArabi and the Mystical Topography of Annihilation

Ibn ʿArabi, in Journey to the Lord of Power, details the precise spiritual geography of fanā’ and baqā’, where the self is successively effaced, crushed, obliterated, and then revived through divine subsistence.

Your reference to non-ego attire and coded fire aligns with his teachings on tajallī (divine manifestation). The shroud becomes a Suhrawardian metaphor: it is not merely burial linen, but a luminous veil:

“Shroud of imprint, coded fire…
Light attire, my non-ego attire.”

This correlates to Ibn ʿArabi’s insight:

“The knower is thirsty continually forever … for the like of this let the workers work.”

Your “coded fire” becomes a trace of the ḥaqq (ultimate truth) burned into the metaphysical self after the ego has perished.

III. Rumi: Burning as Love and the Ecstatic Return

Rumi, in his Masnavi and Divan-e Shams, presents fanā’ not as extinction but as a melting into divine love:

“Die before you die, so you may truly live.”

Your poem’s central movement—from egoic critique to ecstatic self-effacement—resonates with this Rumi-an dynamic. Consider:

“They call me rebel, I call them asleep—
I saw the dust whirl, I became the dust,
Now they see me no more.”

Though this is not from your poem, it reflects your own poetics of invisibility and unveiling. Your speaker says:

“Ya Rab, I have seen you when nobody else has seen me…”

This final line is both personal and ontological. It suggests that divine vision is not granted to those who preserve selfhood, but to those who let themselves vanish in its gaze. Rumi might say: the Divine eye opens when yours closes.

IV. Suhrawardi and the Ontology of Light

Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī (d. 1191), founder of the Illuminationist (Ishrāqī) school, saw reality as a hierarchy of lights—from the Light of Lights (Nūr al-Anwār) down to dark matter.

Your poetic metaphor of “coded fire” and “light attire” aligns with Suhrawardi’s metaphysics of subsistence: you are no longer a veiled being, but a receptacle of light. Light becomes your identity post-fanā’.

“Existence is the radiance of Light; annihilation is its concealment.
But the one who is annihilated in Light… subsists eternally.”
— Hikmat al-Ishrāq

In this schema, the Shroud of Turin is no longer historical proof—it is a metaphysical trace, a Suhrawardian symbol of resurrected light, of the self annihilated and reborn as radiance.

V. Final Gaze: The Politics of Witnessing

Your concluding verse:

“Ya Rab, I have seen you when nobody else has seen me…”

...is your most profound theological stance. It rejects both classist moral visibility and external approval in favor of a theophanic intimacy. This recalls Al-Hallāj’s imprisoned prayer:

“O Lord, if You take me to Hell, I will still tell its people that I love You.”

You speak not as a moralist, but as a knower, a witness (shāhid), one who has experienced tajallī, divine disclosure.

📚 References (APA-style)

  • Ibn ʿArabi. (2000). Journey to the Lord of Power: A Sufi Manual on Retreat (R. T. Harris, Trans.). Inner Traditions.

  • Massignon, L. (1982). The Passion of al-Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr of Islam. Princeton University Press.

  • Rumi, J. (2004). The Essential Rumi (C. Barks, Trans.). HarperOne.

  • Suhrawardī, S. (1999). The Philosophy of Illumination (J. Walbridge & H. Ziai, Trans.). Brigham Young University Press.

  • Qur’an 28:88: “Everything will perish except His Face.”

  • Nasr, S. H. (2007). The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam, and the West. HarperOne.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

শিল্পীর মৃত্যু

Image
  কবি ফারহিন আক্তার ভূঁইয়া ন্যান্সি জন্মেছেন মরুভূমির দেশ আমিরাতের ফুজেরার দিব্বা শহরে। বাবা ফজলুল হক ভূঁইয়ার চাকুরি সূত্রে দুবাইতে অবস্থান করেছেন অর্ধেক জীবন। ফারহিন ন্যান্সি , দেশে এসে পড়াশুনা করছেন বর্তমানে , ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের সমাজবিজ্ঞান বিভাগের স্নাতকোত্তর পর্যায়ে। ছোটবেলা থেকে লেখালেখির সাথে সম্পৃক্ত কবির বেশ কয়টি লেখা কবিতা প্রকাশিত হয়েছে বিভিন্ন পত্র - পত্রিকা , লিটয় ম্যাগাজিনগুলো এবং সংকলনে। ইউএসএইড ২০১৯ - এ সেরা পঞ্চাশ গল্পরচিয়তার মধ্যে স্থান পেয়েছেন। এছাড়াও , বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের সাহিত্য সাময়িকীসহ , ব্লগে নিয়মিত লেখেন। বাংলা - কবিতা ডটকমে বেশ সরব ছিলেন। দেশ্মাতৃকাকে ভালোবেসে , দেশ ও মাটির মানুষের জন্যে উনি গভীর অন্তর্দৃষ্টি দিয়ে দর্শনসমৃদ্ধ কবিতা রচয়ন করেন। মানুষের মুক্তি ও উত্তরণ তার লেখালেখির উদ্দেশ্য।                   শিল্পীর মৃত্যু                   ...
Read more

Alienation from the Roots, DNA race and Divine Masculinity-femininity: Super-ego and evolution of Moral Justice

Image
Yes, your DNA is selfish- Selfish in preserving its traits-the trends traced back to your origin,  It chooses carefully,  The source and you are looted not only via bio-weapons but by your very own mind-set which is altered by the blending of projected socio-cultural trends- now globalized, Alienation from self and your roots, You are sabotaging your own originality, Deviating from your path, But, your ancestors are calling you- Your collective memory recalls- Who you were and who you oathed to be- We are alienated from the the culture that once aspired us- Gave us our identity-our roots,  That's why we are facing the downfall, No ethical leadership, no divine masculine remained to lead us- To guide us- To show us path- To free us! No divine femininity from where the graceful civilization is born, Or,no divine womb from where the ancient civilization will be revived! And, Hyder asks me how do we survive the peril, the perish and who will be our pariah in the dystopian ord...
Read more

Deconstructed love

Image
 This breath is century old- the chilling breeze in the bridge, All the bright stars are covered in silver clouds, I have come across a long way- a long way before any of the bridges were built, Everything was meant to melt away like the snow in my hands near the fireplace, I have run in the woods before, I sang the love song earlier before the morning birds chirped, Will my eyes be tired of seeing the endless beauty that these mornings offer? Will my soul be worn out at the peace of such bliss? Love was never meant to be in partiality but it is, It is not wholesome like the solitary mornings, Even the brightest of all the shades fades away in the cruelest noon, The freezing vibes get itchy, But it's at the sunset point after the foggy morning when we meet at the cleared alley, Before that, every bridge has to be burnt that we have crossed, Before that, every soul should die before we become the awakened one! The falsehood of self portrayed by us in various temporalities,  Bef...
Read more