Self-Annihilation (Fana) and Divine Union in Punjabi Sufi Poetry: A Case Study of Baba Bulleh Shah's Kafi

Abstract

This article examines the doctrines of self-annihilation (fana) and subsistence in the Divine (baqa) as they are articulated in the Punjabi kafis of Baba Bulleh Shah (c. 1680–1757), one of the most celebrated Sufi poets of the eighteenth-century Punjab. Situating Bulleh Shah within the Qadiri silsila transmitted through his murshid, Shah Inayat Qadiri, and within the vernacular kafi tradition inherited from the sixteenth-century poet Shah Hussain, the article argues that Bulleh Shah operationalizes classical Sufi metaphysics the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud (the Oneness of Being) and the fana–baqa continuum through distinctly Punjabi folk idioms, most notably the romance of Heer and Ranjha and the rejection of caste and sectarian labels. Drawing on close reading of kafis available in Christopher Shackle's (2021) and Taufiq Rafat's (2014) English translations, alongside secondary scholarship on Sufi doctrine and Punjabi literary history, the analysis identifies three interlocking dimensions of fana in Bulleh Shah's verse: the dissolution of socially constructed identity, the erotic-mystical identification of lover and Beloved through the Heer-Ranjha motif, and the social leveling implicit in the poet's rejection of religious and caste hierarchy. The article places these findings in the context of William Chittick’s discussion on Ibn al-‘Arabi’s metaphysics, as well as Annemarie Schimmel’s writing on fana and baqa, arguing that Bulleh Shah’s kafis represent a vernacular theology in which mystical union is made accessible to a wider audience than the Persian literature.

Keywords: Bulleh Shah, kafi, fana, baqa, wahdat al-wujud, Punjabi Sufi poetry, Heer-Ranjha, Sufism.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21627790