According to ancient Arabic literature, love is classified into seven different shades (or stages, I would say).
1. HUB - Attraction
2. UNS - Infatuation
3. ISHQ - Love
4. AQUIDAT - Reverence
5. IBAADAT - Worship
6. JUNOON - Obsession
7. FANAA ~ Annihilation, Atonement
As we move from tangible to intangible, from prosaic to poetic, and from worldly to spiritual, translation becomes impossibly challenging and the meaning of an expression relies increasingly on the attitude (frame of mind and mood) of the listener, given his/her intellectual and emotional aptitude.
Every mrityu is not 'Nirvana' and similarly 'Fanaa' is not just maut, even if Gulzar (aptly) chooses to say mujhe maut ki god mein sone de to describe this stage of love. What a beauty - lap of death! Gham-e-hasti ka asad kis se ho juj-marg ilaaj... Yes I do realize that I am beginning to deviate here. But while wandering I found a connection here. Ghalib talks (only) about release from a negativity, from existential angst (gham-e-hasti). But here the lover doesn't just want to run away from scorching sun to the shadow of death. But he, being a lover, is positively in love with it. He finds a rest, a solace, and a ceaseless joy, Nirvana, in its lap. So fanaa is maut only if and as long as it has a lap and it offers you an unperturbable sleep in its lap.
Philosophical musing - Did Sufis thought about, and do they believe in the cycle of life and death? And does Nirvana emphasize on the bliss of the state of nothingness, or is it just an escape from sufferings of life and its cycle?
1. HUB - Attraction
2. UNS - Infatuation
3. ISHQ - Love
4. AQUIDAT - Reverence
5. IBAADAT - Worship
6. JUNOON - Obsession
7. FANAA ~ Annihilation, Atonement
As we move from tangible to intangible, from prosaic to poetic, and from worldly to spiritual, translation becomes impossibly challenging and the meaning of an expression relies increasingly on the attitude (frame of mind and mood) of the listener, given his/her intellectual and emotional aptitude.
Every mrityu is not 'Nirvana' and similarly 'Fanaa' is not just maut, even if Gulzar (aptly) chooses to say mujhe maut ki god mein sone de to describe this stage of love. What a beauty - lap of death! Gham-e-hasti ka asad kis se ho juj-marg ilaaj... Yes I do realize that I am beginning to deviate here. But while wandering I found a connection here. Ghalib talks (only) about release from a negativity, from existential angst (gham-e-hasti). But here the lover doesn't just want to run away from scorching sun to the shadow of death. But he, being a lover, is positively in love with it. He finds a rest, a solace, and a ceaseless joy, Nirvana, in its lap. So fanaa is maut only if and as long as it has a lap and it offers you an unperturbable sleep in its lap.
Philosophical musing - Did Sufis thought about, and do they believe in the cycle of life and death? And does Nirvana emphasize on the bliss of the state of nothingness, or is it just an escape from sufferings of life and its cycle?
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