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Irfan

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In Islam, ‘Irfan (Arabic/Persian/Urdu: عرفان; Turkish: İrfan), literally ‘knowledge, awareness, wisdom’, is gnosis.[1] Islamic mysticism can be considered as a vast range that engulfs theoretical and practical and conventional mysticism, but the concept of Irfan is emphasised mostly within the Shia sect of Islam.

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Islam

Islam

Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered around the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam, called Muslims, number approximately 1.9 billion globally and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians.

Persian language

Persian language

Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties, namely Iranian Persian, Dari Persian and Tajiki Persian. It is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan, as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran. It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet, a derivation of the Arabic script, and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet, a derivation of the Cyrillic script.

Turkish language

Turkish language

Turkish, also referred to as Turkish of Turkey, is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant smaller groups of Turkish speakers also exist in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece, Cyprus, other parts of Europe, the Caucasus, and some parts of Central Asia, Iraq, and Syria. Cyprus has requested the European Union to add Turkish as an official language, even though Turkey is not a member state. Turkish is the 13th most spoken language in the world.

Gnosis

Gnosis

Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge. The term was used among various Hellenistic religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. It is best known for its implication within Gnosticism, where it signifies a spiritual knowledge or insight into humanity's real nature as divine, leading to the deliverance of the divine spark within humanity from the constraints of earthly existence.

Shia Islam

Shia Islam

Shīʿa Islam, otherwise known as Shīʿism or as Shīʿite or Shīʿī Islam, is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (khalīfa) and the Imam after him, most notably at the event of Ghadir Khumm, but was prevented from succeeding Muhammad as the leader of the Muslims as a result of the choice made by some of Muhammad's other companions (ṣaḥāba) at Saqifah. This view primarily contrasts with that of Sunnī Islam, whose adherents believe that Muhammad did not appoint a successor before his death and consider Abū Bakr, who was appointed caliph by a group of senior Muslims at Saqifah, to be the first rightful (rāshidūn) caliph after Muhammad. Adherents of Shīʿa Islam are called Shīʿa Muslims, Shīʿites, or simply Shīʿa, Shia, or Shīʿīs.

Concept of Irfan in Sunni mysticism

According to the founder of the Qadiriyya Tariqa, Sayyid Abdul Qadir Gilani Irfan is described as the acknowledgement of God's unity. This acknowledgement is achieved by studying under Islamic scholars. One method how these scholars can help in gaining acknowledgement about God's unity is by giving more inside in the internal meaning of the practice of Islamic rituals, like the Salah. The reflection upon the practice of Islam with the knowledge of respected islamic scholars (in concreto Awliya Allah) is described by the Sayyid as "nearness to God", manifested in acknowledgement of Allah (Irfan).[2]

Avicenna also says in one of his books in definition of mystic as: the one that doesn't allow himself physical pleasures and overlooks this carnal world's pleasures is called "ascetic". The one that observes saying prayers and fasting, etc. is called "worshiper". The one that prevents his conscious from paying attention to the others but God and directed it to the transcendent world to be enlightened by God's light is known as "mystic". However, sometimes two or all these designations can be applied to a single person.

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Qadiriyya

Qadiriyya

The Qadiriyya are members of the Sunni Qadiri tariqa. The tariqa got its name from Abdul Qadir Gilani, who was a Hanbali scholar from Gilan, Iran. The order relies strongly upon adherence to the fundamentals of Sunni Islamic law.

Tariqa

Tariqa

A tariqa is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking haqiqa, which translates as "ultimate truth".

Abdul Qadir Gilani

Abdul Qadir Gilani

ʿAbdul Qādir Gīlānī, known by admirers as Muḥyī l-Dīn Abū Muḥammad b. Abū Sāliḥ ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī al-Baḡdādī al-Ḥasanī al-Ḥusaynī, was a Sunni Muslim preacher, ascetic, mystic, jurist, and theologian belonging to the Hanbali, and the eponymous founder of the Qadiriyya tariqa of Sufism. The Qadiriyya tariqa is named after him.

Salah

Salah

Salah, also known as namāz and also spelled salat, are prayers performed by Muslims. Facing the qibla, the direction of the Kaaba with respect to those praying, many to most Muslims pray first standing and later kneeling or sitting on the ground, reciting prescribed prayers and phrases from the Quran as they bow and prostrate themselves in between. Some Muslims pray without standing. Salah is composed of prescribed repetitive cycles of bows and prostrations, called rakat. The number of rak'ahs, also known as units of prayer, varies from prayer to prayer. Ritual purity and wudu are prerequisites for performing the prayers.

Islam

Islam

Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered around the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam, called Muslims, number approximately 1.9 billion globally and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians.

Wali

Wali

A wali, the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the more literal "friend of God".

Avicenna

Avicenna

Ibn Sina, commonly known in the West as Avicenna, was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic Golden Age, and the father of early modern medicine. Sajjad H. Rizvi has called Avicenna "arguably the most influential philosopher of the pre-modern era". He was a Muslim Peripatetic philosopher influenced by Greek Aristotelian philosophy. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.

Fasting

Fasting

Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight, or to the metabolic state achieved after complete digestion and absorption of a meal. Metabolic changes in the fasting state begin after absorption of a meal.

Shi'ite mysticism

In comparison to Sunni mysticism which is generally known as Sufism, mysticism in Twelver Shiism is generally known as Irfan, which specifically literally translates to knowledge, but should not be confused with Greek gnosis and Gnosticism.

Ayatollah Al Sistani defines true Irfan as the practice of reciting prescribed duas taught by Twelve Imams, praying the Night Prayer, and seeking God's pleasure through Mustahab (recommended) actions.


Among the most famous modern Shia proponents of Irfan were Usuli theologians Allāmah Tabatabai, Ruhollah Khomeini, Mohammad-Taqi Bāhjat, Allameh Hassan Hassanzadeh Amoli, and Allāmah Qādhi Tabatabai. However these scholars were heavily influenced by Ibn Arabi and can't be considered traditional Shia mystics. The 17th-century Mulla Sadra of Iran is generally seen as the historical ideologue for the gnostic form of irfan in Shi'ism which is considered as heretic and none Islamic by the traditionalist view, notably Najaf's seminary.

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Gnosis

Gnosis

Gnosis is the common Greek noun for knowledge. The term was used among various Hellenistic religions and philosophies in the Greco-Roman world. It is best known for its implication within Gnosticism, where it signifies a spiritual knowledge or insight into humanity's real nature as divine, leading to the deliverance of the divine spark within humanity from the constraints of earthly existence.

Gnosticism

Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity who is responsible for creating the material universe. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.

Ali al-Sistani

Ali al-Sistani

Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani, commonly known as Ayatollah Sistani, is an Iranian–Iraqi Twelver Shia Ayatollah and marja'. He has been described as the spiritual leader of Shia Muslims worldwide, and one of the most senior scholars in Shia Islam. He has been included in all editions of "The Muslim 500: The World's Most Influential Muslims" mostly in the top ten positions since 2009. Sistani ranks ninth in 2023. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2005.

Dua

Dua

In Islam, duʿāʾ is a prayer of invocation, supplication or request, even asking help or assistance from God.

Mustahabb

Mustahabb

Mustahabb is an Islamic term referring to recommended, favoured or virtuous actions.

Ruhollah Khomeini

Ruhollah Khomeini

Ruhollah Khomeini, also known as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the end of the Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's first supreme leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. Most of his period in power was taken up by the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989.

Mohammad-Taqi Bahjat Foumani

Mohammad-Taqi Bahjat Foumani

Grand Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Bahjat Foumani was an Iranian Twelver Shia Marja'.

Ali Tabatabaei

Ali Tabatabaei

Ali Qazi Tabatabai, also known as "Allamah Qadi" and "Ayatollah Qazi", was an Iranian alim and mystic. He was the son of Husseyn and was born in Tabriz, Iran. He was born on 29 April 1866 in Tabriz. His father Sayyed Hosein Qazi was a prominent pupil of the grand Mirza Shirazi. His maternal grandfather, Mirza Mohsen, was a great jurist.

Ibn Arabi

Ibn Arabi

Ibn ʿArabī, nicknamed al-Qushayrī and Sulṭān al-ʿĀrifīn, was an Arab Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influential within Islamic thought. Out of the 850 works attributed to him, some 700 are authentic while over 400 are still extant. His cosmological teachings became the dominant worldview in many parts of the Muslim world.

Mulla Sadra

Mulla Sadra

Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī, more commonly known as Mullā Ṣadrā, was a Persian Twelver Shi'i Islamic mystic, philosopher, theologian, and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century. According to Oliver Leaman, Mulla Sadra is arguably the single most important and influential philosopher in the Muslim world in the last four hundred years.

Iran

Iran

Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, by Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. It covers an area of 1.64 million square kilometres, making it the 17th-largest country. Iran has an estimated population of 86.8 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East. Its largest cities, in descending order, are the capital Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, and Tabriz.

Hawza Najaf

Hawza Najaf

The Najaf Seminary, also known as the al-Hawza Al-Ilmiyya, is the oldest and one of the most important Shia seminaries (hawza) in the world. It is located in the city of Najaf in Iraq. The school also operates a campus in Karbala, Iraq.

Source: "Irfan", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, January 30th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irfan.

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References
  1. ^ Mutahhari, Murtaza; Tabataba'i, Muhammad Husayn; Khomeini, Ruhollah (2000). Light Within Me. Ansariyan Publications.
  2. ^ Sayyid Abdul Qadir Gilani in Sirr ul Asrar, section 1
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