مَعْرِفَة knowledge in Arabic
مَعْرِفَة is how you say “knowledge” in Arabic.
Root ع ر ف ʿ-r-f. noun (verbal noun / maṣdar of ʿarafa). maʿrifah.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of knowledge in Arabic
- knowledge, cognition, acquaintance Knowing a thing by means of any of the five senses, or by reflection and mental perception.
- a specific, experiential knowing of a thing itself Per Er-Rāghib, more restricted than ʿilm: it concerns the thing itself rather than its states or qualities, and typically applies to something previously absent from the mind. Its opposite is inkār (denial), whereas ʿilm's opposite is jahl (ignorance).
Example sentence
إِذا علقت شروش الْمعرفَة فِي أَرض الْقلب نَبتَت فِيهِ شَجَرَة الْمحبَّة،
When the roots of knowledge take hold in the soil of the heart, the tree of love grows there.
الْمَعْرِفَةِ of knowledge
al- = 'the'; marifa means 'knowledge' — the 'of…' word: 'of knowledge'.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
Maʿrifah is knowing gained through the senses or through reflecting on a thing's effects, so it is used for a narrower, more specific kind of knowledge than ʿilm. One says 'fulānun yaʿrifu Llāha wa-rasūlahu' (such a one knows God and His messenger) but not 'yaʿlamu Llāha', since knowledge of God here comes from considering His effects rather than perceiving His essence directly.
Words from the same root
- عَرَفَ to know, recognize, be acquainted with (verb I)
- تَعْرِيفٌ making known, informing, acquainting someone with something (verb II)
- عِرْفَانٌ knowledge, cognition (verbal noun of ʿarafa)
- اِعْتَرَفَ to acknowledge, admit, confess (verb VIII)
- عَرِيفٌ an overseer who manages the affairs of a people (a nqīb)
- عِرَافَةٌ the office or function of being an ʿarīf
- عُرْفٌ the mane of a horse
More example sentences
فَبِضِدِّهَا تَتَبَيَّنُ الْأَشْيَاءُ، وَالضِّدُّ يُظْهِرُ حُسْنَهُ الضِّدُّ، فَمَعْرِفَةُ أَدِلَّةِ الْبَاطِلِ وَشُبَهِهِ مِنْ أَنْوَاعِ أَدِلَّةِ الْحَقِّ وَبَرَاهِينِهِ
For by their opposites things become clear, and the opposite shows the beauty of its opposite; so knowing the evidence of falsehood and its doubts is itself a type of evidence for truth and its proofs.
فَمَعْرِفَةُ thus, knowing
This fuses the result connector fa- to a verbal noun meaning knowledge or recognition, which opens a possessive pairing. The fa- draws the conclusion, and the noun heads the clause: so knowing the proofs of falsehood.
وارتقى في الصلاح والمعرفة إلى أفضل رتبة،
and ascended in piety and knowledge to the highest rank,
وَالْمَعْرِفَةِ and the knowledge
The opening particle pairs this with the previous noun under the same 'in', so it too takes the governed form. It names the second domain, knowledge, joined to the first.
فَإِنْ ظَنَّ مَعَ ذُلِّكَ أَنَّهُ مِنْ خَوَاصِّ أَوْلِيَاءِ اللَّهِ وَأَهْلِ المَعْرِفَةِ وَالتَّحْقِيقِ
If, even so, he believes that he is among the select friends of God and among the people of knowledge and realization.
المَعْرِفَةِ knowledge
A noun completing the pair, the knowledge that the people belong to, in the genitive. Set beside 'people', it forms 'people of knowledge' directly, with definiteness flowing from this owner noun.
قَالَ أَخَافُ مِنْ شَيْئَيْنِ أَحَدُهُمَا اِسْتِعَاذَةُ الْمُسْتَعِيذِينَ وَالثَّانِيُ شُعَاعُ مَعْرِفَةِ الصَّادِقِينَ
He said, "I fear two things: one of them is the seeking of refuge by those who seek refuge, and the other is the radiance of the knowledge of the truthful ones."
مَعْرِفَةِ knowledge of
A noun 'knowledge of', the middle term of a possessive chain, sitting in the genitive as the owned-by piece between 'radiance' and 'the truthful'. Arabic stacks 'X of Y of Z' by simple juxtaposition. It links the radiance to whose knowledge is meant.
اِحْفَظْ مَعْرِفَتَكِ لِي مِنْ بَيْنِ يَدَيْكِ
Keep your knowledge of me close at hand.
مَعْرِفَتَكِ your knowledge
The noun 'knowledge', the thing to be kept, so it is the direct object of the command and takes the object (accusative) ending. A 'your' is fused onto its end marking whose knowledge, the suffix doing the work English needs a separate word for.
علم الحديث والمحدثون فغالبهم لا يفقهون ولا همة لهم في معرفة الحديث ولا في التدين به، بل الصحيح والموضوع عندهم بنسبة
The science of Hadith and its scholars: most of them do not understand, nor do they care about knowing the Hadith or practicing it; rather, the authentic and the fabricated are the same to them.
مَعْرِفَةِ knowing
An action-noun 'knowing/acquaintance' heading an 'of' pairing with 'the Hadith' next - 'knowing of the Hadith'. Such a verb-turned-noun lets Arabic name the activity itself; as the head it gives up its own 'the' and draws definiteness from its partner. It is governed by the preceding 'in', so it sits in the genitive ('of') form.
Common questions
- How do you say "knowledge" in Arabic?
- مَعْرِفَة (maʿrifah).
- What's the difference between maʿrifah and ʿilm?
- Maʿrifah is a more specific kind of knowing — gained via the senses or reflection, concerned with the thing itself — while ʿilm is broader and concerns a thing's states and qualities; the opposite of maʿrifah is inkār (denial), while the opposite of ʿilm is jahl (ignorance).
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).