Sufi glossary

The vocabulary of the path is a precise one: each term carries a history, an Arabic root, a place in the doctrine. This glossary defines them one by one, with their transliteration and references to the articles that develop them.

'Ahd ('ahd, عهد ; bay'a, بيعة): The reciprocal commitment between disciple and guide: the formal entry into the Sufi path.
Adab (adab, أدب): Perfect propriety: the science of the soul's manners towards God, the guide and creatures, the very essence of the path.
Baqa' (baqa', بقاء): Subsistence in God: after the extinction of the self (fana'), the state of one who remains and is sent back to creatures in service.
Baraka (baraka, بركة): Blessing: the divine abundance that settles on a place, a man, an act, and makes it bear fruit beyond the visible.
Dhawq (dhawq, ذوق): Taste: the direct perception of spiritual realities, as one tastes honey, without intermediary or outward proof.
Dhikr (dhikr, ذكر): The remembrance of God: the repetition of sacred formulas, individually or collectively, at the heart of Sufi practice.
Fana' (fana', فناء): Extinction in God: the effacement of the self before the sole Real, described by Junayd as the end of the path.
Faqir (faqir, فقير ; plural fuqara', فقراء): Literally 'the poor one': the Sufi disciple, poor in spirit, who acknowledges his want before God.
Faqr (faqr, فقر): Poverty in spirit: not the lack of goods, but the awareness that man needs God in everything; a major station of the path.
Hadra (hadra, حضرة): The collective dhikr session: literally 'the presence', the gathering where the community invokes together.
Hal (hal, حال): The spiritual state: what descends into the heart unsought, fleeting by nature, unlike the acquired maqam.
Haqiqa (haqiqa, حقيقة): The inner truth: the fruit of the path, the direct knowledge of God to which the journey leads.
Idhn (idhn, إذن): The authorisation to transmit: the permission given by the guide to pass on the dhikr, the pact or spiritual direction.
Ijaza (ijaza, إجازة): The licence of transmission: the document or act by which a holder authorises someone to transmit a knowledge or a charge.
Kashf (kashf, كشف): Unveiling: the lifting of the veil from hidden realities, given by God, distinct from prophetic revelation.
Khalwa (khalwa, خلوة): Retreat: voluntary seclusion for invocation and recollection, practised under the guide's direction.
Khirqa (khirqa, خرقة): The dervish's patched frock: the garment the master hands the disciple as a sign of attachment to the path.
Ma'rifa (ma'rifa, معرفة): The knowledge of God through the heart: distinct from learnt knowledge ('ilm), it is the fruit of the path, not of study.
Majdhub (majdhub, مجذوب): The enraptured one: he whom God draws to Himself without a journey, sometimes at the price of an apparent madness in men's eyes.
Maqam (maqam, مقام): The station: a stable degree of the path, acquired by the disciple's effort: repentance, patience, trust, contentment.
Muqaddem (muqaddam, مقدم): The guide's representative with a group of disciples: he leads the local session and transmits the pact in the shaykh's name.
Murid (murid, مريد): The disciple: literally 'the one who wills', one who has committed to the path with a guide.
Murshid (murshid, مرشد): The educator-guide: the one who has received authorisation to take disciples in charge and lead them along the way.
Nafs (nafs, نفس): The soul or the self: the part of man that asserts itself, which the path educates from incitement to evil to peace.
Qalb (qalb, قلب): The spiritual heart: the organ of the knowledge of God, seat of faith, which dhikr polishes like a mirror.
Qasida (qasida, قصيدة): The sung poem: the classical Arabic poetic form, raised to song in the path for the praise of God and the Prophet.
Ruh (ruh, روح): The spirit: the divine breath breathed into man, a subtle centre deeper than the heart in Sufi anthropology.
Salik (salik, سالك): The wayfarer: the one who actively travels the path, as opposed to the majdhub, the enraptured one God draws without effort.
Sama' (sama', سماع): Spiritual audition: the listening to sung poems, often in assembly, which opens the heart to states of the soul.
Shari'a (shari'a, شريعة): The Law: the signposted road of divine prescriptions, condition and husk of the inward path.
Shaykh (shaykh, شيخ): The spiritual master of a Sufi path: one who has travelled the road and guides the disciples towards God.
Silsila (silsila, سلسلة): A Sufi path's chain of transmission: the unbroken list of masters linking the present guide to the Prophet.
Sirr (sirr, سرّ): The spiritual secret: deposited in the guide's heart, it is what makes the path effective and transforms the disciple.
Suhba (suhba, صحبة): Companionship: keeping company with the guide and fellow travellers, held by the masters to be a condition of the journey.
Tariqa (tariqa, طريقة): Literally 'the way': a spiritual path of Islam, transmitted from master to disciple, which leads to the knowledge of God.
Tasawwuf (tasawwuf, تصوف): The Arabic name of Sufism: the inward dimension of Islam, a path of purification of the heart and knowledge of God.
Tawakkul (tawakkul, توكل): Trust in God: placing one's affairs in His hands after doing what had to be done, a classical station of the path.
Tawba (tawba, توبة): The return to God: the first maqam of the path, a repentance that is not regret for an act but conversion of the heart.
Wajd (wajd, وجد): The soul's rapture: the ecstasy that comes over one in dhikr or sama', unsought and unprogrammed.
Wali (wali, ولي): The friend of God: the one God has taken as His intimate. Holiness in Islam, with no exact equivalent of the Christian 'saint'.
Wazifa (wazifa, وظيفة): The office: the collection of prayers and invocations proper to a path, recited morning and evening by the disciples.
Wird (wird, ورد): The personal litany: the portion of invocation prescribed by the guide, recited each day at a set time.
Zawiya (zawiya, زاوية): A Sufi brotherhood's place of life and assembly: prayer, dhikr, the master's teaching and hospitality to travellers.