FANA FILLAH (II)

A person who has attained the fanâ of soul may not have attained the fanâ of heart. The soul is like the father of the heart. The nafs, so to speak, is the heart’s mother. The heart has a special propensity in the direction of its quasi-father, the soul. If it manages to turn away from the nafs, its quasi-mother, so that its propensity in the direction of its father will be augmented and pull it towards its father; it will reach its father’s grade. That is, it will jump beyond the two phases. The heart and the soul’s being fânî does not necessarily entail the nafs’s being fânî, (i.e. attaining fanâ.) If the nafs’s affection for her son develops into a propensity in the direction of her son and this propensity intensifies, so that she joins her son, who has already attained the grade of his father; she will become like them. Attainment of fanâ of each of the other three latîfas called sir, khafî, and akhfâ follows the same procedure. The heart’s having rid itself from memories and thoughts shows that it has forgotten everything other than Allâhu ta’âlâ. Failure to remember them means that knowledge pertaining to them has gone. In fanâ, knowledge has to have gone and perished.