Sufism

Annihilation (fana) is the passing away of the self's attributes in the Divine

Fana names the specific mechanism by which mystical union is thought to occur - not the soul merging with God, but the disappearance of everything in it that was ever separate from God.

Elaborated across classical Sufi manuals including al-Qushayri's Risala, fana, or annihilation, describes the passing away of the individual self's attributes - ego, desire, self-will - so that only God's attributes remain operative in the servant. Junayd, credited as foundational to this concept, treated it carefully and technically rather than merely poetically: fana is not the destruction of the person's existence but the eclipse of everything in them that asserted itself as independent from God. This distinguishes Sufi mysticism from simple pantheistic dissolution - the servant is not annihilated in substance but stripped of the illusion of an independent, self-governing will. The concept became a technical cornerstone of Sufi psychology, always paired with its counterpart baqa, subsistence, since Sufi orthodoxy insisted the annihilated self must also return, transformed.

Al-Risala (al-Qushayriyya)