© 2002 by Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
The Notion and Significance of Ma‘rifa in Sufism
1 London
This article begins with an overview of the process within which the concept ma‘rifa emerged as an expression of the specific kind of knowledge proper to the Sufi discipline. This sapiential perspective came largely to be defined, within Sufism, in relation to the lower perspectives that it was deemed to transcend: ‘ilm, in the sense of formal discursive knowledge; ascetic worship (zuhd/‘ib
da) according to the perspective of fear (makhfa); the perspective of love (mahabba); and perspectives based exclusively upon mystical states (ahwl) and miraculous phenomena (karmt).
The significance of the concept is examined in relation to such exponents of the sapiential dimensions of Sufism as Dh
l-Nn al-Misr
, Ab Yazd al-Bastm, Ibn al-‘Arab, and Ibn ‘At'illh al-Iskandar. It is argued that the definitive and ultimate content of ma‘rifa can be seen most clearly in relation to the principle of tawhd. For while the tawhd of the theologian means affirming that there is but one God as opposed to many gods, for the ‘rif bi-Llh, the ‘knower through God’, it entails the spiritual realization that there is but one Reality. Attainment of identity with the sole Reality is said to flow from this truth in the measure that the autonomous existence of the world and the ego is concretely effaced. The nexus between the state of fan' and the attainment of ma‘rifa is thus altogether crucial in this perspective. The article concludes with a brief analysis of the consequences of this combination of effacement and illumination according to Ibn al-‘Arab.