The Language of the Future
Sufi Terminology
by Murshid F.A. Ali ElSenossi

(Ma'rifa) is a light which Allah casts into the heart of whomsoever He Wills. This is the true knowledge which comes through unveiling, witnessing and tasting. This knowledge is from Allah, it is not Allah Himself, because He Is Unknowable in His Essence. The triad on the Sufi Path of Return is comprised of Fear, Knowledge and Love. Fear leads to Knowledge which leads to Unconditional Love of Allah. It is said that spiritual struggle is child's play while ma'rifa is men's work.

(Munafiq). The hypocrite manifests the form of a man of faith in his outward practice, but his inner dimension is devoid of belief and faith. Hypocrisy is making the form manifest without the meaning. It is the work of the lower self. The Murshid distributes spiritual work to his murids in accordance with each one's aptitude to receive. Without the Wisdom of such distribution the murid would run the risk of becoming a hypocrite. The murid may receive good news through a dream-vision, but due to the state of the murid's lower self, the Murshid does not yet reveal the meaning by interpreting the dream. The good news is kept back till such a time when the murid is able to receive it with gratitude, honour and respect, his ego no longer having the aptitude to become inflated by it.

(Al 'Arifin/'Urufa). They see and recognize Allah wherever they look. The knowers are bewildered. But this is not the bewilderment of being lost, rather it is the bewilderment of having found Allah. They know that He cannot be known. The knowers are nothing because they are everything.

(Maratib). Every existent thing has its own level, and each one of these levels demands a specific relationship with Allah. When an existent thing fulfils all of the conditions pertaining to its level in the hierarchy of existence then that thing is complete.

(Kafir). The one who covers up Reality. Taken negatively the kafir is the infidel and unbeliever within oneself. Taken positively the kafir is the knower of Allah who guards his secret and hides the Sacred Reality within himself. It is said that if the Reality of the Sufi was to be unveiled he would be worshipped.

(Ahl Allah). This title embraces the entire humanity, but there are many degrees within the Ahl Allah. These are the various levels of 'knowing Allah', for it is in knowing Allah that one is brought near to Allah. Amongst humanity there are people who do not want to know Allah, and there are people who do not know Allah, and people who do want to know Allah and at the higher levels there are the people who do know Allah. The men of this last group, the knowers of Allah ('arifin), occupy numerous ascending levels in their 'knowing'.

(Al Malamatiyya). These are the Perfect Ones. Their exteriors never disclose the reality of their interiors. They are those who know and are not known. Al malamatiyya are Allah's perfect slaves, Allah's perfect lovers, Allah's perfect knowers. They manifest His All-Comprehensive Name 'Allah', without a trace of Lordship. Allah has placed their 'blaming self' over them as a protection against self-conceit or satisfaction. They are the greatest of the Sufis. They are in constant submission and surrender to the Will of Allah. A Murshid (Spiritual Guide) who is one of the malamatiyya is the perfect Murshid and his murids often attain to Manliness. The Master of the cosmos, the Best of Creation, Muhammad al Mustapha (May the Salutations of Allah be upon him and Peace), who is a Malamatiyya, is their Master.

(Ihsan). Excellence or perfection or sanctifying virtue or spiritual beauty. Ihsan has three degrees: 1).To do the good that should be done with one's property, words, acts and states. 2). To worship with total presence like one was actually seeing one's Lord. 3). To contemplate Allah in all things, at all times and always. Perfection is the third rung on the seven-runged ladder of Knowledge. These seven levels are Islam, Iman; Ihsan; 'Ilm al yaqin; 'Ayn al yaqin; Haqq al yaqin; Islam. (Surrender, Faith, Perfection, Knowledge of Certainty, The Eye of Certainty, The Truth of Certainty and Total Surrender and Submission).

(Al Insan al Kamil). He is the viceregent of Allah, through whom Allah contemplates His Own Name-derived Perfection. The Perfect Man has actualized the divine form and in carrying the Trust has fulfilled his reason for being. It is through the Perfect Man that Allah enters the world. Al Insan al Kamil is also one of the names given to the Supreme Isthmus. Man consists of a body and a spirit which governs it. The cosmos also consists of a body and a spirit which governs it. Its spirit is the Perfect Man. Without him the cosmos is likened to a discarded body.

(Makan). Elevation is of two kinds one is elevation in rank (makanah) and the other is elevation in place (makan) and mankind is described by both. Elevation in place pertains to works and worship, for it is through works and worship that man is elevated in the degrees of Paradise. The term makan is also applied to a resting-spot or waystation in the expanse, which exists only for the people of Perfection, who have actualized the stages and states and passed beyond them to the stage above Majesty and Beauty. They have neither substantial attribute nor relational characteristic.

(Makanah). Elevation is of two kinds one is elevation in rank (makanah) and the other is elevation in place (makan) and mankind is described by both. Elevation in rank (makanah) pertains to knowledge, for it is through Knowledge of Allah that the knower rises in degrees of nearness to Allah.