268

" cence,"1 which is fand, " annihilation," and baka-,
" eternal life/' and is colorless ; this is absorption
in God, non-existence, and effacement of the imagi-
nary in the true being, like the loss of a drop of
water in the ocean; and " eternal life" is the union
of the drop with the sea, and abstraction from all
except the proper view of the heart, or separation
from the idle images which prevented the salik, " tra-
" veller," in the midst of existence from distinguish-
ing the drop from the ocean. Fand, " annihila-
" tion," is of two kinds: partial, and universal.
The partial consists in this : that a traveller is effaced
at once, or that, by gradation, several of his mem-
bers are effaced, and then the rest of his members.
The senses and faculties pass first through the
exigency of sukr, tc intoxication," and, secondly,
through that of sahu, " recovery from ebriety."
The universal annihilation consists in this : that all
existences belonging to the worlds of malik, malkut,

*£' . Silvestre de Sacy translates it, la disparition de
la disparitionj " the disappearance of disappearance," that is to say, per-
fect absorption. "We have (pp. 238-9, note 1) met with the term hazeret,
" presence," which is a qualification either of attentive expectation, or
perfect intuition; opposite to this we find ghaib," absence, disappearance,
" evanescence:" this is a station attainable only to a vali, ** saint," by
means of jamah, " union," when he sees nothing else but God and his
unity; this station coalesces with fond, " annihilation," when his per-
sonal existence is withdrawn from his eyes, and he acquires baka, " eter-
" nal and sole life with and in God."