Lit. ‘one who knows’. Used by Sufi authors like Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al–Sulamī (d. 1021), ʿārif is one of several technical terms meaning gnostic, mystic, seeker of spiritual knowledge (maʿrifa), like sālik, zāhid, faqīr and so on. In his work Waystations of the Gnostics (Maqāmāt al-ʿārifīn), Ibn Sina (d. 1037) defines several stages on a mystical path, where the ‘arif occupies an intermediate stage. Shabistarī (d. 1339) remarks that the true ʿārif sees the inward light of the divine being everywhere. The Tayyibi author al-Khaṭṭāb b. al-Ḥasan (d. 1138) delineating the difference between ordinary knowledge (ʿilm) and maʿrifa says that every ʿārif is a knower, but not every knower is an ʿārif. Some Shi‘i authors like al-Bursī (d. 1411), an Ithna’ashari, defines an ʿārif as a believer whose love and knowledge (maʿrifa) of the Imams draw him nearer to spiritual perfection.
