Post by yusuf on Oct 17, 2019 20:06:19 GMT
As-Salaam alaikum,
According to Abu'l Qasim Abdul Karim Ibn Hawazin al-Qushayri (d. 465 A.H), "Ma'rifa is the attitude of the man who acknowledges Allah in His names and attributes; who is further sincere in his actions, who frees himself from the blameworthy traits of character and from weaknesses, who at all times stands at the gate and continuously lets his heart dwell with Allah, so that Allah would grant him friendly reception, and who in all his conditions is sincere and free from the influence of his self, and who in his heart does not listen to any influence which calls him in a direction other than that to Allah.
When thus he has become alien to creature, free from the frailties of self, liberated from the bonds of human contacts and mental distractions, when in his innermost being he is in continuous communion with Allah, and at each moment truly comes back to Allah, when he has knowledge of Allah by receiving His secrets concerning the operating of His decrees; then he will be called arif and his condition will be called ma'rifa."
For further reading on this, see
Al-Qushayri's "EPISTLE ON SUFISM".