Glossary of Sufi terms

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Most glossaries of Sufism define terms in the abstract. This one defines them from the sources: every entry is built from passages in the complete translations published here, and every quotation links to the chapter it came from, so you can read around it.

The framework

• Ḥāl and MaqāmState and station: what is given and what is earned. The distinction that organises most Sufi vocabulary.
• ʿIlm and MaʿrifatKnowledge and gnosis. One is learned; the other, al-Hujwīrī says, “cannot be acquired by ordinary means.”
• TawḥīdDeclaring the unity of God — which, on al-Hujwīrī’s account, cannot be done without knowledge of it.
• Ṣūfī and TaṣawwufWool, purity or the first rank? Al-Hujwīrī lists the derivations, Nicholson settles it, and the name splits into three grades.
• Sharīʿa, Ṭarīqa and ḤaqīqaThe Law, the Path and the Truth: “the Law without the Truth is ostentation.”

The self and its states

• Nafs and RūḥThe lower soul and the spirit. “The source of the blameable qualities in man is nafs.”
• Fanā and BaqāPassing away and subsistence. What is annihilated is the attributes, not the person.
• Qabḍ and BasṭContraction and expansion: two states no human act can induce or banish.
• Sukr and ṢaḥwIntoxication and sobriety: the school of Bāyazīd against the school of Junayd.
• WajdEcstasy: how it comes, where it stops, and why the masters warned against feigning it.
• RiḍāSatisfaction with God’s decree, and the old argument over whether it is a station or a state.

The practice

• Zuhd and TawakkulRenunciation and trust in God. The order between them cannot be skipped.
• SamāʿAudition. Al-Ghazali defends it, al-Hujwīrī hedges it, Suhrawardī calls it an innovation.
• Khirqa and MurīdThe patched frock and the disciple who receives it, read as an allegory of the whole path.
• KarāmātThe miracles of the saints, and why the tradition that affirms them is wary of them.
• TawbaRepentance, the first station: “if He shall turn towards thee, thou wilt turn towards Him.”
• FaqrPoverty as lack of desire rather than lack of money, and the poor man who may be rich.
• DhikrRemembrance of God: from the tongue to the heart to the forgetting of self.
• MalāmaBlame: three kinds, the Sufis who court disapproval, and the ones who only claim to.
• Khalwa and ṢuḥbaSeclusion or companionship? Bāyazīd and Nūrī disagreed, and Suhrawardī calls retreat an innovation.
• Muḥāsaba and MurāqabaTaking oneself to account and knowing one is watched: al-Ghazālī’s evening reckoning and the treasure-chests of the hours.

Love, knowledge and the goal

• MaḥabbaLove of God as a gift: Hujwīrī’s definition, Bāyazīd’s discovery, Junayd’s definition, Rābiʿa’s prayer.
• Kashf and ḤijābUnveiling and the veil: what stands between God and man, and why even love can be a veil.
• Ḥulūl and IttiḥādIncarnation and identification: the two doctrines the Sufi authorities condemned, and why fanā is not one of them.
• Jamʿ and FarqUnion and separation: the saint united inwardly, separated outwardly, and why duty never lapses.

Teachers and saints

• Walī and AwliyāʾThe friend of God and the hidden hierarchy: four thousand concealed, one Quṭb at the head.
• Shaykh, Pīr and MurshidThe spiritual director: why the path is not walked alone, and what the teacher owes the disciple.
• Insān KāmilThe Perfect Man: the microcosm in whom all divine attributes are united, in Nicholson’s account of al-Jīlī.