ك ش فuncovering

المكاشفة · al-mukāshafa · unveiling

• Met in: V1 p4 ¶1: «بعلم المكاشفة ما يطلب منه كشف المعلوم فقط», "by the knowledge of unveiling (I mean) the knowledge in which only the uncovering of what is known is sought". First named on V1 p3 ¶13.
• Dictionary form: مُكَاشَفَة, which Lane gives as the verbal noun of كَاشَفَهُ, "he acted openly with him; it appeared to him".
• Pattern: مُفَاعَلَة (mufāʿala), like مُعَامَلَة. The simple verb is كَشَفَ, "he uncovered, removed" (corpus lemma, 14 times in the Quran), and its noun كَشْف, "uncovering", which Ghazali uses in the same sentence.
• Meaning here: Knowledge that is only seen, not acted on: the uncovering of realities about Allah and the unseen. It is the goal of the seekers, but Ghazali says there is no permission to put it in books, so the Ihya leaves it aside.

Ibn Faris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, root كشف, vol 5, p 181

الكاف والشين والفاء أصل صحيح يدل على سرو الشيء عن الشيء، كالثوب يسرى عن البدن

One sound origin: taking one thing off another, as a garment is taken off the body. (So kashf is taking away a cover.)

Urdu bridge

کشف is Urdu for a spiritual unveiling, and مکاشفہ is used in the same Sufi sense. انکشاف, a disclosure or discovery, is from the same root. (to be confirmed)

Quran

20 words from this root (Quranic Arabic Corpus). Most common: كَشَفَ (removed, uncovered) ×14, كَاشِف (remover) ×3.

لَّقَدْ كُنتَ فِى غَفْلَةٍ مِّنْ هَٰذَا فَكَشَفْنَا عَنكَ غِطَآءَكَ فَبَصَرُكَ ٱلْيَوْمَ حَدِيدٌ

[It will be said], "You were certainly in unmindfulness of this, and We have removed from you your cover, so your sight, this Day, is sharp."

Surah Qaaf (50), ayah 22 · Saheeh International

Why this ayah: كَشَفْنَا ... غِطَآءَكَ, "We have removed your cover": Ghazali uses the same pair, «كشف الغطاء», on V1 p3 ¶12.

In the Ihya

المكاشفة: 75 times in the Ihya.