The Language of the Future
Sufi Terminology
by Murshid F.A. Ali ElSenossi

ilahiyyah
Divinity

(Ilahiyyah). Allah has two Aspects or Faces. One is His Unknowable and Hidden Aspect which is the Essence Itself. This Face of the Absolute is turned away from His creation. The other Aspect is His being the Divinity. This Face is turned towards His creation. The term ilahiyyah indicates every Divine Name that is related to Allah's creation.

See also: Essence Face Face of Allah Face - Specific Names People of the Essence Qur'an Verifiers

Essence ( dhat )

(Dhat). The Essence. This is Allah in Himself without regard to His creations, His Attributes or His Names. The Essence is beyond knowledge or conceptualization. Allah warns us of this aspect of Himself. The Essence is Absolute Blindness, the Hidden of the Hidden, the Unknown of the Unknown. This is the World of Absolute Non-manifestation.

Face ( wajh )

(Wajh). The face or special aspect of a thing. This is its reality. The knower and lover sees only Allah. When looking at the creatures he sees either the Faces of the Absolute or the Divine Faces. Every existent thing is a face of the Absolute. Everything our sight falls upon is an aspect of the Absolute, be it a reflection of Allah's Majesty or His Beauty. But only the Purified and Perfect Men reflect the Divine Face, and only the purified lover and knower perceives the Divinity in such faces.

Face of Allah ( wajh Allah )

(Wajh Allah). This is the Transcendent Essence of everything or the inner reality of each entity. "Wherever you turn, there is the Face (Reality) of Allah" (The Qur'an 2:115).

Names ( asma' )

(Asma). Names. The Names designate permanent 'aspects' of the Essence. Every Name has a meaning and a form. The meaning of every Name is Allah. It is only through the Names, all of which are Allah's, that we have access to Knowledge of Allah. The Divine Names seek the Perfect Man (Insan al Kamil) to be their perfect locus of manifestation. Through their seeking him and their requiring his existence the knower comes to understand the nobility and grandeur of the Perfect Man.

People of the Essence ( adh-dhatiyun )

(Al Dhatiyun). 'Those who have realised the Essence' are the slaves of Allah who drink directly from the Fountain of Camphor in Paradise. They are the People of Solitude of the Absolute Essence. Their love of Allah, being total and utter, remains constant in the face of opposites, because for them the opposites are joined. There is only Unity. There is only Allah as He is in Himself.

Qur'an ( al-Qur'an )

The Recitation or The Reading. The Qur'an is the Final Revelation from Allah to humanity. This Sacred Book contains all the keys with which to open the endless unfolding of Knowledge of Allah. The Qur'an is that which brings together (qur'an), and it is also that which differentiates (furqan). Seeing furqan without qur'an is seeing only multiplicity and is therefore associating other gods with Allah. Seeing only qur'an without furqan is denying the secondary causes (asbab) and therefore limiting Allah. The First Word, 'Iqra' , of the Final Revelation, which descended upon the Holy Prophet Muhammad (May the Salutations of Allah be upon him and Peace) through Jibril, the Archangel of Revelation, (Peace be upon him), opened for mankind the Perfect and Complete Way of Return to Allah.

Verifiers ( al-muhaqqiqun )

(Al Muhaqqiqun). These great ones form the highest category of friends of Allah. They follow no one's authority because in themselves they have verified and realized [through unveiling and finding], the truth and reality of all things which is Allah, the Real. They are also known as'The People of Unveiling and Finding'.

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