udum (al-‘udum)

(Language: Arabic)

Alternate Spellings: adam

Short Description: Non-existence, absence, Non-Being, nothingness

Long Description: In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness.

Sources: Introduction to Sufi Doctrine (by Titus Burckhardt)

Notes & References: Often vocalized as al-‘adam.