Discover the meaning of the term Al-dhwq (ذوق) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readIt is a power issuing from the nerve spread over the body of the tongue, by which flavors are perceived, the salivary moisture of the mouth mingling with the sapid and reaching the nerve. Dhawq in knowing God: a gnostic light that the Truth casts into the hearts of His friends through His self-disclosure, by which they distinguish truth from falsehood without deriving it from a book or any other source.
A power in the nerve spread over the body of the tongue; its perception occurs through the salivary moisture: fine particles of the sapid mingle with it, and this moisture then sinks with them into the body of the tongue to the organ of taste, the perceived being then the quality (kayfiyya) of the sapid; the moisture serves as intermediary easing the arrival of the fine particles bearing the quality to the sense; or the moisture itself takes on the taste's quality through contact, sinks alone, and the perceived is then its own quality.
The fruit of unveilings through the arrival of inspirations.
A power issuing in the nerve spread over the body of the tongue, by which flavors are perceived through the mingling of the salivary moisture; so in Sharh al-'Aqa'id and others. In al-Mufradat (of al-Raghib al-Isfahani, p. 182): dhawq is the presence of taste by the mouth; its root is in what is rarely partaken of, as opposed to what is partaken abundantly, which is called akl (eating); the Quran chose the word dhawq for punishment, for although in common usage it is for the little, it suits the much as well, and it was singled out so as to cover both. 'Dhuqtu ash-shay'': I tried it; hence 'dhaqa fulanan an-nasa 'irfahum': so-and-so came to know the people. 'Dhaqa r-rajulu 'asilatahu wa-dhaqat 'asilatuhu': when the sweetness of mingling and the pleasure of penetration in union came to them both. It has been said: dhawq is taking a thing into the mouth to perceive its taste, as shamm (smelling) is touching a thing with the nose to perceive its scent. Dhawq among the Sufis: a gnostic light that the Truth casts into the hearts of His friends through His self-disclosure, by which they distinguish truth from falsehood without deriving it from a book or any other (At-Ta'rifat, p. 112). Ibn 'Arabi said (At-Ta'rifat, p. 288): dhawq is the first of the principles of the divine self-disclosures.
Masdar of dhaqa: recognizing the taste of a thing with the tongue (taste).
It is recognizing the taste of a thing by the tongue and the uvula (luhat).