Discover the meaning of the term Al-fnaʾ (فناء) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readThe falling away of blameworthy attributes, as baqa' (subsistence) is the existence of praiseworthy ones. Fana' is twofold: the first is that just mentioned, reached through abundant spiritual exercises; the second is the absence of awareness of the world of dominion and the celestial world, reached by immersion in the grandeur of the Creator and witnessing of the Truth. To this the masters alluded in saying: poverty is the blackening of the face in the two abodes, meaning fana' in the two worlds.
With kasra (Persian: pish-saray va kardan-i khana); with fatha (Persian: nist shudan). And what it is among the Sufis in walaya, God Most High willing. Fana' among them also denotes the vanishing of the person's awareness through the overwhelming appearance of the True's existence over his own reality.
Fana' among them is likewise the falling away of blameworthy attributes, as baqa' is the existence of praiseworthy ones.
Al-fana' in language: the open space before a house; it has been said: what extends from its sides. The Maliki jurists apply it to what remains, on a passable thoroughfare, for the need of passers-by. 'Fana' ash-shay'' in language: what is attached to it, counted among its benefits.
Al-Kafawi said: the fana' of a house is what extends from its sides, or the space widened before them. As a technical term: al-Khattab transmits from al-Abi in Sharh Muslim: the fana' is the part of the wide, passable street adjacent to the walls. (Al-Mu'jam al-Wasit 2/730; al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya 28/346, 30/43).
Al-fihrist: its root is the Persian word fahrist, Arabicized; its meaning: a book collecting the names of books in a particular order; or an appendix placed at the beginning or end of a book listing the topics, authors, or chapters and sections the book contains, in a particular order. (Al-Mu'jam al-Wasit 2/730).