Recognizing Recognition: Maʿrifa in Sufi Thought

This article delves into the Arabic noun maʿrifa as employed in a range of Arabic and Persian Sufi texts. After unpacking the semantics of the ʿ–r–f root in the Qurʾān and ḥadīth literature and juxtaposing maʿrifa with ʿilm, the piece seeks to demonstrate how Sufi authors specifically conceived of maʿrifa as a type of recognition of oneself and of God. This recognition is activated by the practice of dhikr or the remembrance of God, which in the end leads the recognizer to self-forgetting, perplexity, and bewilderment.