Marifa

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficient, the Most Merciful.

The word Marifa (مَعْرِفَة) in Arabic may be rendered as realised (that which is experienced and thus existential) knowledge, or knowledge which illuminates. An Islamic term, it has its parallel in other religious traditions and languages. Gnosis (γνῶσις) in Greek, Jnana in Sanskrit (ज्ञान), Scienta Sacra (as used by Seyyed Hossein Nasr ق) in Latin, and metaphysics in contemporary English to just explore a few of these words.

The great 20th century Sufi master Frithjof Schuon ق (Isa Nur al-Dīn Ahmad al-Shādhilī al Darqawi al-Alāwi al-Maryamī) was once asked what the content of this knowledge is. He answered that it is the knowledge that helps one separate Truth from Illusion, or Haqq (حق) from Bātil (باطل), or Ātman (आत्मन्) from Māyā (माया).

The great masters have always explained the nature of this knowledge with heart-opening examples. Mawlana Shaykh Hisham ق describes this as knowledge of taste as opposed to knowledge of the book. Seyyed Hossein Nasr describes this knowledge as knowledge which fulfills us in the way that a piece of bread fulfills us when we are starving, but he refers here to celestial bread. Shaykh Muḥyī ad-Dīn Ibn al-Arabi describes this as tasting the sweetness of honey, something that can be experienced by taste and is not to be described by mere words.

It goes without saying then that this website does not exist to define such knowledge itself, but it's here to tell you stories from saints, sometimes from their lives, and sometimes about others, which create that flavour for those who are able to appreciate such stories. Frithjof Schuon ق explained that the ability to realise this knowledge exists in every human being, in principle but not in fact. Perhaps these stories will help some of us start this transformation of principle into fact.

These stories sometimes come from books, sometimes from lectures, sometimes from associations and gatherings of the Naqshbandi Sufi Tariqa and many from our beloved Malwāna Shaykh Muhammad Nāzim Ādil Al-Qubrūsi Al-Haqqāni ق and Mawlāna Shaykh Hishām Kabbāni ق. The sources are cited with each story.

Paraphrasing an analogy from the late English Sufi master Martin Lings ق (Abu Bakr Sirāj Al Dīn), these stories are like rain which falls on earth, and every human being is like a seed. With the right story and the right blessing, a seed may germinate and spring to life. Ultimately, God guides unto His Light whom He wills (Qur'an, Surah Nur, Ayah 35), but as Malwāna Shaykh Muhammad Nāzim Ādil Al-Qubrūsi Al-Haqqāni ق said, in this time, we must do what we can to share this knowledge. We are obliged obey our master. May he be pleased with us, may the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ be pleased with us, and may Allah ﷻ be pleased with us and accept our efforts, insignificant as they might be.

And there is no ability except with Allah ﷻ and He knows best.