ABSTRACT
Tariq ut-tahqiq is partly an ethico-religious, partly a Sufi didactic poem. Its Sufi terminology is to a great extent identical with its general religious terminology. It seems impossible to separate the two. In this investigation they will be studied together under the designation Sufi-religious vocabulary. The main criterion is the “religious charge” of a word. This is taken to mean the use of a word in a religious context, so that it has either a positive or a negative sense religiously – in opposition to words/uses relating to worldly affairs or neutral religious circumstances, considered to have the religious charge zero. A word is considered a Sufi-religious term if it is found to be used with a religious charge once or more than once in the text. This binary character of the Sufi-religious vocabulary certainly depends on a fundamental opposition between positive and negative terms/concepts. Furthermore, the close interaction between words of Arabic and Persian origin adds another binary factor.
