Kashf (Arabic: كشف_ "unveiling" is a Sufi concept rooted in Gnostic ideals dealing with knowledge of
the heart rather than of the intellect. Kashf describes the state of
experiencing a personal divine revelation after ascending through spiritual
struggles, and uncovering the heart (a spiritual faculty) in order to allow
divine truths to pour into it. Kashf is etymologically related to mukashafa
“disclosure”/ “divine irradiation of the essence” which connotes “gain[ing]
familiarity with things unseen behind the veils”]For those who have purified
their hearts, and who come to know the Divine Names and Attributes to the fullest
of their individual capacities, the veils in front of the purely spiritual
realms are opened slightly, and they begin to gain familiarity with the unseen.
In Sufism, an even further revelatory capacity exists by which the Divine
mysteries become readily apparent to the seeker through the light of knowledge
of God. This is called tajalli
"manifestation".
Two passages in the Qur’an serve as the most solid basis
for elaboration on the Sufi concept of kashf:
[50.22] ‘Thou wast heedless of this; therefore We have
now removed from thee thy covering [veil], and so thy sight today is piercing.’
[53.57-58] The Imminent is imminent; apart from God none
can disclose [remove] it.
The verb “kashafa,” but never the noun “kashf” occurs in
the Qur'an
a variety of times in the sense of either “to uncover” (a part of the body) or
“to take away” (misfortune, danger).
Hadith of the Veils
One hadith holds particular significance for the concept of kashf:
2 - إن بين الله عز وجل وبين الخلق سبعين ألف حجاب وأقرب الخلق إلى الله عز وجل جبريل وميكائيل ، وإسرافيل ، وإن بينهم وبينه أربع حجب : حجاب من نار ، وحجاب من ظلمة ، وحجاب من غمام ، وحجاب من الماء الراوي: سهل بن سعد الساعدي المحدث: ابن الجوزي - المصدر: موضوعات ابن الجوزي - الصفحة أو الرقم: 1/166 خلاصة حكم المحدث: لا أصل له
"Between God (mighty and sublime) and creation are 70,000
veils. The nearest of creatures to God (mighty and sublime) are Gabriel,
Michael,
and Raphael,
and between them and Him are four veils: a veil of fire, a veil of darkness, a
veil of cloud, and a veil of water."
This Hadith is quoted somewhat differently by Ibn Majah
as follows:
“God has seventy thousand veils of light and darkness; if
He were to remove them, the radiant splendors of His Face would burn up whoever
(or ‘whatever creature’) was reached by His Gaze.”
It is said that Ali ibn Abi
Talib, cousin to the Prophet Muhammad,
prayed a prayer that included this excerpt during the month of Sha'baan:
My Lord, grant me complete severance of my relations with
everything else and total submission to You. Enlighten the eyes of our hearts
with the light of their looking at You to the extent that they penetrate the veils
of light and reach the Source of Grandeur, and let our souls get suspended by
the glory of Your sanctity.
Al-Kushayri expands on al-Kalabadhi’s proposal that tajalli
(manifestation) of “the essence” of the Divine is called mukashafa. He then
illustrates three stages in progression towards understanding the Real:
Muhadara—getting oneself into position vis-à-vis the
objective sought. The objective remains veiled at this stage. This stage
presupposes the presence of the heart, but relies on transmission of proof
through the intellect (i.e. understanding God through his miraculous signs).
Mukashafa—lifting of the veil. Here reasoning (of the
intellect) gives way to evident proof (through intuition). One directly
encounters the Attributes of God. Yet, this stage is still considered an
intermediary stage.
Mushahada—direct vision. This stage indicates an immediate
encounter with The Real, without the intellect OR the intuition acting as an
intermediary. This is direct experience of the Divine Essence.[9]
Al-Ghazali—This Sufi scholar discusses the concept of kashf,
not purely in its mystical sense, but also with respect to theology
in general. In conjunction with Al-Kushayri, Al-Ghazali links kashf with
intuition. For Al-Ghazali, mukashafa has a dual sense:
It indicates an inner state of purification, which is
subjective and brought about by “unveiling” or kashf.
It describes the objective truths that are revealed
through the “unveiling”/kashf.
Since, for Al-Ghazali, kashf is linked to intuition, he describes mukashafa as the
certain knowledge of the unseen discovered by the “science of the saints”Thus, kashf
is considered “a light,” that is freely bestowed upon the purified worshipper
through the grace of God, yet also yields sure intuitive knowledge for the
worshipper upon whom it is bestowed.
Ibn Arabi—This Sufi mystic indicates the
necessity for “divine unveiling” (kashf) as the means by which to understand
the universality of the reality of realities (i.e. the universality of God’s
oneness). In fana (self-annihilation),
the individual ego passes away and divine self-manifestation occurs. This
self-manifestation is eternal (as it comes from God), but it must be
continually reenacted by the human in time. Therefore, the human becomes a pure
receptor required for pure consciousness to be realized. The human is a sort of
barzakh
or intermediary between divinity and elementality, between spirit and matter,
and open to the experience of kashf.
Al-Hudjwiri—The author of the Persian Sufi text Kashf
al-mahjub (Uncovering the Veiled), Hudjwiri argues, along with Al-Kushayri that
very few real Sufis exist anymore in his time; rather, there are a large number
of “false pretenders” which he calls mustaswif—“the would-be Sufi”. In his
text, Hudjwiri attempts to “lift the veils” off of these pretenders so they can
purify their hearts and really pursue Sufism. Hudjwiri argues for the
importance of “morals” over “formal practice” in Sufism.[13] Perhaps most notably,
he was the first to directly address the problematic diversity in Muslim belief during his
time., In Kashf al-mahjub, he describes various Sufi approaches to theoretical
ideas, linking them to particular key Sufi figures, and thus “delineat[ing] the
boundaries of normative Sufism without […] homogenizing [the approaches]”.
In Shi’ism, the spiritual experience of kashf is treated
as a theological rather than purely mystical dimension.
Imamis—Sayyid Haydar Amuli distinguishes three kinds
of knowledge: 1) by the intellect, 2) by transmission, 3) by kashf—this is the
only form of knowledge that leads to true understanding of Reality
Amuli additionally distinguishes between two kinds of
kashf:
kashf suwari—divine manifestations reach the senses of
sight and hearing
'kashf ma’nawi—spiritual encounter, such as the
disclosure indicated by mukashafa
Ismalis—these followers of Shi’ism put emphasis on kashf in a
double sense as both a Gnostic and cosmic “state.” The Ismalis define “cycles
of metahistory.which alternate between phases of “unveiling” (dawr-al-kashf)
and “occultation” (dawr-al-satr).
Later mystics[who?], relying upon the traditional
terminology, classified the revelations as follows:
Kashf kaunī, revelation on the plane of the created
things, is a result of pious actions and purifications of the lower soul; it
becomes manifest in dreams and clairvoyance.
Kashf ilāhī, divine revelation, is a fruit of constant
worship and polishing of the heart; it results in the knowledge of the world of
spirits and in cardiognosis ["soul-reading"] so that
the mystic sees hidden things and reads hidden thoughts.
Kashf aqlī, revelation by reason, is essentially the
lowest grade of intuitive knowledge; it can be attained by polishing the moral
faculties, and can be experienced by the philosophers as well.
Kashf īmānī, revelation through faith, is the fruit of
perfect faith after man has acquired proximity to the perfections of
prophethood. He will be blessed by direct divine addresses — he talks with the
angels, meets the spirits of the prophets, and sees the Night of Might and the
blessings of the month of Ramaḍan in human form in the
ālam almithāl.
