Kashf
Unveiling: the lifting of the veil from hidden realities, given by God, distinct from prophetic revelation.
Kashf means to lift the lid, to unveil. Sufism makes it the name of the spiritual perception that opens to the purified heart: hidden things (the states of souls, the realities of the path, the taste of presences) become visible to an eye the physical organ does not provide. The Qur’an supplies the canonical verse: ’We lifted your veil (fa-kashafna ‘anka ghita’ak); today your sight is piercing’ (L, 22).
The doctrine is clear on the boundary: kashf is not revelation (wahy), which is reserved for prophets. The wali receives no new law; he receives clarity about what is. The masters add a rule of caution: unveiling is neither sought nor invoked as proof; whoever rests what he ‘sees’ against the shari’a has mistaken the door.
Al-Qushayri makes it one of the chapters of his Risala, under the eloquent heading of experiences in which one can be deceived. See also ma’rifa, the knowledge kashf serves, and the sirr, the place where it is deposited.