Irfani Epistemology in Classical Sufism: A Study of Junayd al-Baghdadi’s Thought on Ma‘rifah

Abstract

This study examines Junayd al-Baghdadi’s concept of ma‘rifah to explain how spiritual experience, self-discipline, and the justification of knowledge claims are related. This library-based study adopts historical hermeneutics and philosophical analysis. Its main source is Junayd’s Rasā’il in Abdel-Kader’s edition, with al-Risālah al-Qushayriyyah as a comparative source. Source criticism, thematic coding, and cross-textual comparison draw on Gadamer’s hermeneutics, Alston’s epistemology of religious experience, and Zagzebski’s virtue epistemology. The findings show that Baghdad’s scholarly and Sufi milieu connects ma‘rifah closely with divine unity and servanthood. Mīthāq establishes the orientation of knowledge, while fanā’, baqā’, and ṣaḥw explain changes in awareness and responsibility after spiritual experience. Ethical discipline and adherence to the Qur’an and Sunna help assess spiritual claims but do not establish the truth of every interpretation. The study distinguishes the ideal of certainty in ma‘rifah from reasons for accepting claims of its attainment, avoiding a direct application of modern fallibilism to Junayd. Its contribution lies in explaining the relationship between experience, self-formation, and epistemic responsibility. For religious education and digital Sufism, these findings clarify the distinction between access to instruction, spiritual formation, and the authority to guide others. The conclusions are limited to the corpus examined.