An Illuminationist Lexicon
Introduction
This lexicon is an ongoing vocabulary of terms connected to the Illuminationist (Ishrāqī) tradition associated with Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī and the wider worlds of Illuminationist philosophy, visionary writing, contemplative practice, liturgy, and cosmology.
It is not intended as a final or authoritative dictionary. Many Illuminationist terms often carry multiple meanings depending on context: philosophical, devotional, visionary, symbolic, liturgical, or cosmological. Wherever possible, entries aim to reflect how terms function within Illuminationist writings themselves rather than reducing them to generic mystical or philosophical definitions.
Particular attention is given to:
- Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq and the Illuminationist philosophical tradition,
- the visionary recitals of Suhrawardī,
- al-Wāridāt wa’l-Taqdīsāt (The Spiritual Influxes and Sanctifications),
- and later Illuminationist and Corbinian interpretations of the tradition.
This lexicon is practical in purpose. Its function is not merely to define terms, but to help orient readers within an Illuminationist thought and practice.
The lexicon remains a work in progress and will continue to develop over time. Additional terms, corrections, clarifications, alternate translations, source references, and contextual refinements will be added as the project evolves.
Contributions and suggested revisions are welcome. Submitted updates are reviewed before inclusion in order to maintain consistency with the Illuminationist textual tradition and the aims of the lexicon itself.
The goal is not closure, but orientation.
أَهْلُ الإِشْرَاق / Ahl al-Ishrāq: People of Illumination
Philosophical · Practical · Traditional
The community or tradition of Illuminationists associated with Suhrawardī and the Wisdom of Illumination (Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq). The term refers not merely to adherents of a doctrine, but to those who pursue illumination through contemplative discipline, philosophical inquiry, unveiling, and receptivity to luminous realities.
الأَنْوَار المُجَرَّدَة / al-Anwār al-Mujarradah: Immaterial Lights
Philosophical · Cosmological · Angelological
Immaterial lights not embedded in matter or existing as accidents within bodies. In Illuminationist ontology, the immaterial lights include intellective and angelic realities existing independently of corporeal substances. They form part of the luminous hierarchy proceeding from the Light of Lights.
الأَنْوَار القَاهِرَة / al-Anwār al-Qāhirah: Governing Lights
Cosmological · Angelological · Philosophical
The higher immaterial intellective lights possessing no direct attachment to material bodies. In Illuminationist cosmology, the governing lights govern lower levels of reality through luminous governance (qahr) while remaining beyond corporeal limitation.
أَرْبَابُ الأَنْوَاع / Arbāb al-Anwāʿ: Lords of Species
Cosmological · Angelological · Philosophical
Archetypal governing lights associated with particular forms of life, species, or orders of being. In Illuminationist cosmology, each species possesses a higher luminous lord through which it receives order, intelligibility, continuity, and orientation within the hierarchy of existence.
The Lords of Species are not merely abstract universals. They function as sustaining and governing archetypal realities standing in a relation of luminous supervision, care, and ontological precedence toward embodied beings. The doctrine combines Platonic archetypes, angelology, and the Illuminationist metaphysics of light.
أَسْفَار / Asfār: Journeys
Visionary · Philosophical · Devotional
Spiritual journeys or stages of traversal through different conditions of being and perception. In Illuminationist writings, journeys are not merely physical travel but movements through degrees of luminosity, exile, receptivity, and return. In practice, asfār concern the soul’s movement away from obscuration and toward greater illumination and orientation to the world of light.
بَحْث / Baḥth: Discursive Philosophy
Philosophical
Discursive or rational philosophy based upon reasoning and demonstration alone. Suhrawardī regularly contrasts baḥth with dhawq (direct intuition), arguing that rational inquiry is necessary but incomplete without illuminative apprehension.
بَرْزَخ / Barzakh: Barrier · Intermediary Realm · Veil
Cosmological · Philosophical · Visionary · Devotional
In Illuminationist philosophy, barzakh most technically refers to a corporeal body or material barrier: that which stands between immaterial lights and pure luminous presence. Walbridge and Ziai therefore translate the term directly as “barrier” and define it as a physical body.
In Suhrawardī’s visionary and devotional writings, however, the term carries a wider and more symbolic range of meanings. In al-Wāridāt wa’l-Taqdīsāt, the barzakh may signify conditions of exile, separation, veiling, enclosure, corporeality, or distance from the world of light. Piątak notes that the term’s meaning in these passages is deliberately unstable and may refer simultaneously to corporeal embodiment, intermediary realms, and imaginal separation.
A barzakh therefore both separates and connects: it obstructs direct luminosity while also serving as the interval through which manifestation, vision, encounter, ascent, and return become possible.
دَوْق / Dhawq: Taste, Intuitive Apprehension
Contemplative · Philosophical · Experiential
Direct participatory cognition or “taste.” In Illuminationist thought, dawq refers to knowledge gained through lived encounter and illumination rather than abstract reasoning alone. The term does not reject philosophy but indicates that some realities must be directly encountered to be understood fully.
فَنَاء / Fanāʾ: Dissolution
Contemplative · Philosophical · Devotional
The dissolution or disappearance of lower attachments, obscurations, and limiting identifications. In Illuminationist contexts, fanāʾ concerns reduction of enclosure and movement toward luminous receptivity rather than annihilation understood as pure negation. The term is associated with purification, unveiling, and proximity to higher lights.
فَيْض / Fayḍ: Emanation / Overflow
Philosophical · Cosmological · Contemplative
The overflowing or outpouring by which lower levels of reality proceed from higher ones without diminishing their source. In Illuminationist cosmology, existence unfolds through luminous emanation from the Light of Lights. The term preserves the image of radiance extending outward while remaining undiminished at its origin.
غَاسِق / Ghāsiq: Corporeal
Cosmological · Existential
Corporeal or dense in relation to incorporeal light. In Illuminationist ontology, the ghāsiq refers to conditions of materiality and diminished luminosity rather than absolute evil.
حِكْمَة / Ḥikmah: Wisdom
Philosophical · Contemplative · Practical
Wisdom understood as lived, illuminative understanding rather than abstract information alone. In Illuminationist usage, ḥikmah joins rational inquiry, contemplative discipline, unveiling, and ethical refinement. The term therefore refers both to philosophy and to transformed perception rooted in illumination.
هِكْمَةُ الإِشْرَاق / Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq: The Wisdom of Illumination
Philosophical · Contemplative · Cosmological
The Illuminationist philosophical system established by Suhrawardī The term refers both to Suhrawardī’s major philosophical text and to the wider tradition combining rational philosophy, direct illumination, visionary perception, angelology, and symbolic cosmology. In practice, ḥikmat al-ishrāq concerns cultivation of receptivity to luminous knowledge through contemplation, discipline, and purification.
حُضُور / Ḥuḍūr: Presence
Philosophical · Ontological
The condition of being manifest without obstruction to another reality. In Illuminationist ontology, presence is not primarily emotional attentiveness or mindfulness, but immediacy of manifestation and non-mediated awareness. Ḥuḍūr forms the basis of knowledge by presence (al-ʿilm al-ḥuḍūrī).
العِلْمُ الحُضُورِيّ / al-ʿIlm al-Ḥuḍūrī: Knowledge by Presence
Philosophical · Epistemological · Contemplative
Knowledge acquired through immediate presence rather than through representation, inference, or conceptual mediation. In Illuminationist philosophy, al-ʿilm al-ḥuḍūrī refers especially to direct awareness of oneself and of supersensible realities through illuminative apprehension. Suhrawardī contrasts this mode of knowing with purely discursive philosophy (baḥth).
الجَوَاهِر الغَاسِقَة / al-Jawāhir al-Ghāsiqah: Dense corporeal substances
Cosmological · Philosophical
Corporeal bodies understood as dense or obscured substances relative to immaterial lights. The term refers to material existence considered according to its opacity and remoteness from pure luminosity.
كَشْف / Kashf: Unveiling
Visionary · Contemplative · Philosophical
Unveiling or disclosure of realities normally concealed by obscuration or distance from light. In Illuminationist writings, kashf concerns direct perception of symbolic, imaginal, or metaphysical realities rather than emotional intensity alone. The term is associated with purification, receptivity, contemplation, and illuminative knowledge.
مَغْرِب / Maghrib: Occident / Place of Sunset
Cosmological · Symbolic · Existential
The occident, west, or place of sunset. In Illuminationist symbolic geography, the maghrib is associated with descent into corporeality, obscuration, exile, and distance from the orient of light. The term often appears in visionary narratives concerning exile and return.
مَلَكُوت / Malakūt: Dominion of the Unseen
Cosmological · Angelological · Visionary
A higher or unseen dominion beyond the ordinary sensory world, associated in Islamic cosmology with angelic, spiritual, and subtle realities. In Illuminationist contexts, malakūt refers to levels of existence more luminous and less corporeal than the material realm (mulk), while still containing form, order, hierarchy, and intelligibility. The term is closely associated with visionary perception, angelology, and ascent through degrees of illumination.
مَشْرِق / Mashriq: East / Place of Dawn
Cosmological · Symbolic · Orientational
The east, or place of sunrise. In Illuminationist symbolism, the mashriq signifies the source and rising place of illumination, intelligibility, and higher realities. The term functions cosmologically and spiritually rather than merely geographically. Orientation toward the mashriq signifies movement toward greater luminosity and receptivity.
مَظْهَر / Maẓhar: Locus of Manifestation
Cosmological · Visionary · Philosophical
A body or form in which an immaterial reality becomes manifest or perceptible. Mirrors, symbolic forms, imaginal figures, and visionary presences may function as maẓāhir through which higher realities become visible.
مُشَاهَدَة / Mushāhadah: Beholding
Visionary · Contemplative
Direct intuition or witnessing of an entity through sensory or supersensory apprehension. In Illuminationist usage, mushāhadah concerns illuminative beholding rather than abstract conceptualisation.
النَّفْس / al-Nafs: The Soul / Self
Philosophical · Cosmological · Practical
The soul or self as a luminous reality joined to corporeal existence. In Illuminationist thought, the nafs is not simply evil or opposed to illumination, but capable of refinement, receptivity, obscuration, ascent, and transformation. The condition of the soul depends upon its orientation toward light or toward density and enclosure.
النُّور / al-Nūr: Light
Philosophical · Cosmological · Devotional
That which is manifest in itself and manifests other things. In Illuminationist ontology, light is the fundamental principle of existence, intelligibility, manifestation, and presence. Suhrawardī distinguishes between immaterial lights, accidental lights, and sensory light while treating luminosity as the basis of ontological gradation.
نُورُ الأَنْوَار / Nūr al-Anwār: Light of Lights
Philosophical · Cosmological · Devotional
The supreme source of all illumination and existence in Illuminationist metaphysics. The Light of Lights exists through itself alone and is the origin of all emanation, intelligibility, manifestation, and luminous hierarchy. Suhrawardī’s term corresponds structurally to the Necessary Existent (wājib al-wujūd) in earlier Islamic philosophy, like Avicenna, while preserving a distinctively luminous ontology.
النُّور العَارِض / al-Nūr al-ʿĀriḍ: Accidental Light
Cosmological · Philosophical
A light occurring as an accident within a body or another light. Suhrawardī distinguishes accidental light from immaterial light proper. Physical illumination, reflected luminosity, and luminous states within embodied existence may all be understood as accidental lights.
نُور إِسْفَهْبَد / Nūr Isfahbad: Commanding Light
Philosophical · Cosmological · Anthropological
The commanding or governing light identified with the rational human soul. In Illuminationist anthropology, the nūr isfahbad governs bodily existence while retaining orientation toward incorporeal realities.
نُور مُدَبِّر / Nūr Mudabbir: Managing Light
Cosmological · Philosophical
A soul associated with and governing a body, whether human or celestial. The term refers to lights exercising governance, regulation, or administration over embodied existence.
نُور سَانِح / Nūr Sāniḥ: Propitious Light
Devotional · Cosmological · Contemplative
A luminous accident proceeding from the Light of Lights. In Illuminationist usage, the term refers to illuminative influxes or radiances received within lower levels of existence.
قَهْر / Qahr: Luminous Governance
Cosmological · Philosophical
The relation of higher immaterial lights to lower ones within the luminous hierarchy. In Illuminationist cosmology, higher lights exercise qahr over lower lights, while lower lights respond through attraction, orientation, or love (maḥabbah).
الرِّيَاضَة / al-Riyāḍah: Spiritual Discipline
Contemplative · Practical · Devotional
Discipline, training, or spiritual exercise undertaken to reduce obscuration and increase receptivity to illumination. In Illuminationist contexts, riyāḍah concerns purification, contemplative practice, recollection, restraint, and ethical refinement rather than punishment of the body for its own sake.
سَفَر / Safar: Journey
Visionary · Existential · Devotional
Journeying, travel, or traversal through states of being. In Illuminationist visionary recitals, safar frequently symbolizes exile from the orient of light, an ageographical east, and the soul’s movement toward recognition and return. The journey is both cosmological and inward.
شُعَاع / Shuʿāʿ: Ray
Cosmological · Symbolic
An accidental light generated in a body or another light through illumination from a higher source. Rays express the transmission and diffusion of luminosity throughout the hierarchy of being.
شُرُوق / Shurūq: Shining / Radiance
Cosmological · Contemplative · Orientational
The act of a light illuminating another reality. Shurūq signifies radiative manifestation, luminous diffusion, and the extension of illumination from higher to lower levels of existence.
صِيصِيَة / Ṣīṣīyah: Fortress
Symbolic · Anthropological · Cosmological
The animal or human body understood as a fortress or enclosure. In Illuminationist symbolic anthropology, corporeal existence functions both as protection and limitation for the commanding light associated with the soul.
تَجْرِيد / Tajrīd: Detachment / Abstraction
Philosophical · Contemplative
Detachment, abstraction, or stripping away. In Illuminationist usage, tajrīd concerns freeing perception from excessive attachment to corporeal density and distraction so that higher realities may become more perceptible. The term is associated with contemplative simplification and refinement of receptivity.
الطِّلَسْم / al-Ṭilasm: Talismanic Configuration
Cosmological · Symbolic · Philosophical
A material configuration through which higher luminous relations become expressed within the corporeal world. In Illuminationist writings, the ṭilasm functions within a symbolic cosmology linking material forms to celestial, archetypal, and species-governing realities rather than as an isolated object possessing independent power.
Within the Illuminationist hierarchy of light, talismanic forms derive intelligibility through correspondence with higher luminous principles, including the Lords of Species (Arbāb al-Anwāʿ). A ṭilasm therefore reflects the structured continuity between corporeal existence and the higher orders of illumination.
الظَّاهِر / al-Ẓāhir: Evident / Manifest
Philosophical · Ontological
That which is manifest or evident. In Illuminationist ontology, evidentness is the essential characteristic of light itself: light is manifest in itself and makes other realities manifest. Evidentness may occur through direct intuition or sensory perception depending upon the level of reality involved.
ظِلّ / Ẓill: Shadow
Cosmological · Symbolic
Material reality considered in relation to incorporeal lights. A shadow possesses dependent rather than self-subsistent luminosity and exists through relation to higher sources of illumination.
ظُهُور / Ẓuhūr: Manifestation
Philosophical · Cosmological
Manifestness or appearance. Illuminationist metaphysics frequently describes reality according to degrees of manifestation, luminosity, and evidentness. The term is closely related to the nature of light as that which is manifest in itself and manifests other things.
ظُلْمَة / Ẓulmah: Darkness
Cosmological · Philosophical · Existential
Darkness, obscuration, opacity, or enclosure. In Illuminationist ontology, darkness is not an independent opposing force to light but a condition of diminished luminosity, density, or remoteness from illumination. Corporeal existence is frequently described through varying degrees of obscuration and receptivity to light.
ظُلُمَات / Ẓulumāt: Darknesses
Cosmological · Existential
Plural forms or conditions of obscuration. The term often signifies layered conditions of enclosure, forgetfulness, estrangement, density, or remoteness from luminous realities. In visionary and devotional writings, movement through the darknesses precedes recollection, unveiling, and return toward illumination.
Bibliography
Corbin, H. (1971) Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to Shi‘ite Iran. Translated by N. Pearson. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Corbin, H. (1994) The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Translated by N. Pearson. New Lebanon, NY: Omega Publications.
Piątak, Ł. (2018) Between Philosophy, Mysticism and Magic: A Critical Edition of Occult Writings of and Attributed to Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī. PhD thesis. University of Warsaw.
Razavi, M.A. (1997) Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination. Richmond: Curzon Press.
Suhrawardī, S.Y. (1999) The Philosophical Allegories and Mystical Treatises: A Parallel Persian-English Text. Translated by W.M. Thackston Jr. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers.
Suhrawardī, S.Y. (1999) The Philosophy of Illumination (Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq). Edited and translated by J. Walbridge and H. Ziai. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press.
Suhrawardī, S.Y. (2025) Prayers to the Orient of Light: A Translation and Text of al-Wāridāt wa’l-Taqdīsāt. Translated by Wahid Azal. Eastern Coast, Australia: Library of the Greatest Name.
