--From the Persian Kashf al-mahjub--
by Data Ganj Bakhsh, al-Hujwiri, from Ghazna in Afghanistan (d. in Lahore between 465 and 469 AH/ 1072 and 1077 CE)
CONCERNING THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (ma'rifat Allah).
The Apostle said: "If ye knew God as He ought to be known, ye would walk on the seas, and the mountains would move at your call."
The MA'RIFAT of God is of two kinds: cognitional ('ilmi) and emotional (há1i). Cognitional knowledge is the foundation of all blessings in this world and in the next, for the most important thing for a man at all times and in all circumstances is knowledge of God, as God hath said: '' I only created the jinn and mankind that they might serve Me (Quran, 51:56), i.e. that they might know Me. But the greater part of men neglect this duty, except those whom God hath chosen and whose hearts He hath vivified with Himself.
True knowledge or "ma'rifat" is the life of the heart through God, and the turning away of one's inmost thoughts from all that is not God. The worth of everyone is in proportion to true knowledge, and he who is without "ma'rifat" is worth nothing.
Theologians, lawyers, and other classes of people give the name of true knowledge (ma'rifat) to right cognition ('ilm) of God, but the Súfi Shaykhs call right feeling (hál) towards God by that name. Hence they have said that true knowledge (ma'rifat) is more excellent than cognition ('ilm), for right feeling (hál) is the result of right cognition, but right cognition is not the same thing as right feeling, i.e. one who has not cognition of God is not an 'arif (man of wisdom) but one may have cognition of God without being as 'arif. Those of either class who were ignorant of this distinction engaged in useless controversy, and the one party disbelieved in the other party.
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