The Funeral of Khwaja Baqibillah

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Reference: A talk given by Shaykh Professor Tahir ul Qadri called Waliyon ki Pehchan at the shrine of Data Sahib Shaykh Ali Hijwiri in Lahore.

One of the mureeds (disciples) of Khwaja Baqibillah, may God sanctify his secrets, asked him the meanings of the Sufi terms 'fana" [annihilation in God] and 'baqa" [Everlasting subsistence in God]. The Shaykh said, "When I die, ask this question to the person who reads my funeral prayer."

The Shaykh had left a condition that only a person who has never missed a single tahajjud prayer (a superogatory prayer in the middle of the night in addition to the five canonical prayers a Muslim must perform in a day) in his life should read my funeral prayer (namaz-e-janazah) and when this condition was read out during his funeral everyone present lowered their heads and no one dared to come forward to read his namaz-e-janazah.

Finally a man, his face veiled, came forward and read the funeral prayer. After the prayer as the veiled man walked off the mureed remembered his Shaykh's answer and ran to the veiled man and grabbed him by the arm. "My Shaykh asked me to ask you a question about what is fana and baqa'" he said. At this the veiled man removed the veil from his face. It was Khwaja Baqibillah himself! "The man whose funeral prayer you have just read is fana", he said, "and what you see before you is baqa!"