Hujwiri on the meanings of fana and baqa

In this section of Kashf al-Mahjub, Hujwiri opens with two Quranic verses on worldly impermanence and divine permanence, then argues that fana (annihilation) and baqa (subsistence) carry one meaning on the tongue of knowledge (zaban-e elm), following ordinary language, and a different meaning on the tongue of spiritual state (zaban-e hal), as lived by the mystic. He notes that the literal-minded (zahiriyan) are more confused on this point than on any other.

On the tongue of knowledge, Hujwiri says, baqa is of three kinds:

• a subsistence bounded by annihilation at both ends, like the present world, which did not exist before and will not remain, yet exists now;
• a subsistence that never existed but came into being and never perishes, such as paradise and hell and the next world with its inhabitants;
• a third kind of subsistence beyond these two.

This linguistic and epistemological framing is the groundwork Hujwiri lays before the...