>>24488855

You are both right and wrong.

You are right that, for Ibn Arabi, the state of baqa' follows fana'. This means a person who attains annihilation returns to their companions as a seemingly normal, though inwardly transformed, being. They are not permanently gone; the only thing annihilated is the illusion of a separate self, or "me," much like in Advaita Vedanta.

However, you could be seen as wrong in suggesting that no real personal identity is preserved. The individual who has realized fana' ceases to exist as a person in the ordinary sense (like you and me) and is now a conscious manifestation of the Divine.

See the chapter "Ascending and Descending Realization" in Initiation and Spiritual Realization.