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| Excrepts from KASHF-AL MAHJUB The oldest persian treatise on Sufism |
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| by
Ali B. Uthman Al-Jullabi Al Hujwary (Popularly known as Hazrat Data Gunj Baksh) |
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| Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson |
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| Discourse on Subsistence (baqa) and (fana) Annihilation |
| Khwaja Muzaffar hath said, �Annihilation means �not-being�, while subsistence refers to �being�: each term negates the other. Essences are not capable of annihilation. Attributes, however can be annihilated, and so can secondary causes.� According to Ali Hujwary
Human attributes are something which are predicament of individual differences, while Essence is essentially a unity.
Annihilation and subsistence have one meaning in science and the other in mysticism. Subsistence in its scientific and etymological acceptation is of three kinds:
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| 1. A subsistence that begins and ends in annihilation, e.g. this world which had a beginning and will have an end, and is now subsistent.
2. A subsistence that came intelligent being and will never be annihilated, viz. Paradise and Hell and the next world and its inhabitants. 3. Subsistence that always was and always will be, viz. the subsistence of God and His eternal attributes. |
| Accordingly, knowledge of annihilation lies in your knowing that this world is perishable, and knowledge of subsistence lies in your knowledge that the next world is everlasting. |
| Subsistence and Annihilation of a State (hal) |
| The subsistence and annihilation of a state (hal) denotes, e.g. that when ignorance is annihilated knowledge is subsistent, and when sin is annihilated piety is subsistent, and that when a man acquires knowledge of his piety, his forgetfulness (ghaflat) is annihilated by remembrance of God (dhikr/zikr), i.e.; when anyone gains knowledge of God and becomes subsistent in knowledge of Him he is annihilated from forgetfulness; he becomes subsistent in remembrance of Him, and this involves discarding of blameworthy attributes and the substitution of praiseworthy attributes . |
| However, let it be clear that this explanation is not used always for �knowledge� (ilm) or �state� (hal) by the elect Sufis. They apply the terms �annihilation� and �subsistence� to the degree of perfection attained by saints who have become free from the pains of self-mortification and have escaped from the prisons of �stations�, and the vicissitudes of �states, and whose search has ended in a discovery of �The Truth�, and they have seen all things visible, and heard all things audible, and have discovered all secrets of the heart; and who, recognizing the imperfection of their own discovery, have turned away from all things and have purposely become annihilated in the object of desire, and in the very essence of desire have lost all desires of their own, for when a man becomes annihilated from his attributes he attains to perfect subsistence. He is neither near, nor far, neither stranger, nor intimate, neither sober nor intoxicated, neither separated nor united; he has no name or sign, or brand, or mark. |
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| Subsistence and annihilation has nothing to do with personal likes or dislikes.
Therefore, real annihilation from anything involves consciousness of its imperfection and absence f desire of it, not merely that a man should say, when he likes a thing, �I am subsistent therein�, or when he dislikes it, that he should say, �I am annihilated therefrom�; for these are characteristic of one who is still seeking. In annihilation there is no Love or hate, and in subsistence there is no consciousness of union or separation. |
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