From Qurʾānic Maʿrifat to Epistemic Decolonization: The Concentric System of Maʿārif of the Islamic Revolution and Its Spheres of Influence in Progress and Civilizational Renewal

Abstract The Islamic Revolution of 1979 was not merely a sociopolitical event in contemporary history; within the theoretical discourse of its founders and intellectual architects, it was conceptualized as an epistemic, Qurʾān-centered, and civilizational turn grounded in authentic Islam (Islām-i Nāb). At the center of this discourse stands a concentric system of Maʿārif (Manẓūmah-yi Maʿārif, the plural of Maʿrifat), an interconnected body of revelatory, rational, and experiential cognitions radially anchored in a monotheistic (tawḥīdī) core. Employing a qualitative analytical-deductive method grounded in scriptural hermeneutics, this study investigates the ontological and epistemological nature of Maʿrifat in the Qurʾān and traces how its plural, Maʿārif, is reconstructed in the primary texts of Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei. The paper first clarifies the semantic and philosophical differences between Qurʾānic Maʿrifat and Western categories (Episteme, Gnosis, Wisdom, and Knowledge), showing how the Qurʾān links sensory observation, rational reflection, and revelation to righteous praxis (ʿamal ṣāliḥ). Second, addressing a conceptual gap in existing scholarship, this article formulates a formal analytical definition of the Maʿārif of the Islamic Revolution—specifying how perennial Islamic principles are reproduced in response to contemporary exigencies—and presents a six-domain thematic matrix alongside a five-element conceptual network. Finally, the study examines how this concentric system challenges epistemic colonialism and shapes lived Muslim agency across discursive, scientific, and institutional spheres in domestic and transnational arenas.