Dissolving the Self: Hallajian Fanā and the Poetics of Self-Negation in Ghani Khan’s The Fairy Princess and Question or Answer
Journal for social science archives March 17, 2026 Dr. Sherhzad Ameena Khattak, Salvia Islam, Malik Umer Bin Ajmal
Self-negation in Ghani Khan's Pashto poetry, analyzed through the mystical philosophy of Mansur al-Hallaj and the doctrine of fanā (annihilation of the self), is not a denial of life but an existential condition that enables authentic vision and spiritual awareness. Using qualitative thematic analysis, the study finds that Ghani Khan translates metaphysical self-annihilation into lived human experience through images of fragility, transience, and decay, reconfiguring fanā as both a spiritual and existential process. This situates his work within the Hallajian tradition, highlighting self-negation as a central poetic and philosophical principle.