Lāhījī's Sufi Epistemology

This chapter presents the teachings of the 15th-century Sufi thinker Lāhījī on the prerequisites for the mystical path (ṭarīqat) and his epistemology of divine knowledge. Lāhījī argues that true knowledge of God (maʿrifat) is superior to rational knowledge (taffakur) pursued by philosophers and theologians. Maʿrifat can only be attained through direct mystical experiences such as kashf (unveiling) and shuhūd (witnessing), not through syllogistic reasoning. The Sufi wayfarer must practice ascetical and contemplative disciplines under a living master to eventually witness a self-disclosure of the Real with the eye of the heart.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This chapter will be divided into two parts. The first section analyses and explains Lāhījī’s teachings concerning the necessary prerequisites for the mystical path of the ṭarīqat . The Way of the Sufi friends and darvīshes is a way of life that involves the daily practice of a host of ascetical and contemplative practices. When practised sincerely under the spiritual guidance of a living Sufi master, it eventually leads to true knowledge of God’s Wujūd . The second section is devoted to Lāhījī’s Sufi epistemology and the manner in which he categorises the different kinds of knowledge of God available for the Sufi wayfarer. A central principle within Lāhījī’s epistemology is the superiority of maʿrifat over the more rational mode of knowledge associated with the Avicennian philosophers and speculative theologians that he terms taffakur . For Lāhījī, true knowledge of God is the knowledge belonging to the category of maʿrifat and not taffakur , which is acquired by the human knower through various mystical experiences that they may experience during their spiritual wayfaring on the path of the Sufi ṭarīqat , where Lāhījī defines these mystical experiences of the Sufi wayfarer with various terms, mainly kashf (“unveiling”) and shuhūd (“witnessing”). And maʿrifat can never be acquired through the method of syllogism favoured by the falāsifa , but only by witnessing directly with the eye of the heart ( baṣīrat ) a self-disclosure of the Real.