بقا

In modern Iranian usage بقا keeps its serious register. The phrase بقای ملی (baqâ-ye melli, national survival) is political vocabulary. آرزوی بقا (ârezu-ye baqâ, the wish for eternity) appears in formal condolences. Unlike its pair word fanâ, baqâ has not slipped into colloquial slang. The word still carries the weight of the metaphysical question behind it, and Iranians use it when they want to gesture at something serious: survival, lasting, the continuation of a life or a memory beyond the visible end.