What is Maarifah ?

What is maarifah? Literally, maarifah means realization. In religious terms, maarifah means man’s realization of God, his Creator. He awakens in him the profound consciousness of the reality of the creature and the Creator and of the servant and the Lord. Maarifah is another name for conscious discovery. There is nothing mysterious about it. Maarifah of God means that man discovers God by deep pondering upon and contemplation of His signs rather than by rumination upon His being. (Al-Mufradat fi Gharib al-Quran, al-Raghib al-Isfahani, p. 331) This shows that maarifah relates not to knowledge alone but to reflection and deep thinking, yet, knowledge enables the individual to engage in deeper contemplation. When he focuses on maarifah, he engages himself zealously and in the cognitive process of finding the Creator, in His Creation. As a result of this deep personal striving he develops the personality of the realized soul.
One who has achieved this kind of maarifah becomes an extremely serious person. He looks at everything with deeper insight. He starts introspecting intensely in his worship, and behaviour, and in all his dealings. All these things begin to reflect this state of maarifah that he has achieved. He is able to converse with the angels. He is interested only in those things which elevate his thinking on maarifah. He now lives in the rarified environment of maarifah.