Spiritual longing in Ghani Khan's Pashto poetry functions as a form of devotion rather than emotional yearning, according to a qualitative thematic analysis. The study identifies patterns of desire, separation, and ecstatic suffering that align with Mansur al-Hallaj's doctrine of fanā (self-annihilation). Ghani Khan sustains longing as an existential condition that destabilizes the ego and guides the self toward fanā, rather than resolving desire through symbolic union. The paper reconfigures longing as worship, where devotion is enacted through sustained yearning, self-dissolution, and spiritual risk, contributing to Pashto literary studies and comparative mysticism.
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.