SUFISM

also spelled Sufiism mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. It consists of a variety of mystical paths that are designed to ascertain the nature of man and God and to facilitate the experience of the presence of divine love and wisdom in the world. Islamic mysticism is called tasawwuf (literally, to dress in wool) in Arabic, but it has been called Sufism in Western languages since the early 19th century. An abstract word, Sufism derives from the Arabic term for a mystic, sufi, which is in turn derived from suf, wool, plausibly a reference to the woollen garment of early Islamic ascetics. The Sufis are also generally known as the poor, fuqara', plural of the Arabic faqir, in Persian darvish, whence the English words fakir and dervish. Though the roots of Islamic mysticism formerly were supposed to have stemmed from various non-Islamic sources in ancient Europe and even India, it now seems established that the movement grew out of early Islamic asceticism that developed as a counterweight to the increasing worldiness of the expanding Muslim community; only later were foreign elements that were compatible with mystical theology and practices adopted and made to conform to Islam. By educating the masses and deepening the spiritual concerns of the Muslims, Sufism has played an important role in the formation of Muslim society. Opposed to the dry casuistry of the lawyer-divines, the mystics nevertheless scrupulously observed the commands of the divine law. The Sufis have been further responsible for a large-scale missionary activity all over the world, which still continues. Sufis have elaborated the image of the prophet Muhammadthe founder of Islamand have thus largely influenced Muslim piety by their Muhammad-mysticism. Without the Sufi vocabulary, Persian and other literatures related to it, such as Turkish, Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, and Panjabi, would lack their special charms. Through the poetry of these literatures mystical ideas spread widely among the Muslims. In some countries Sufi leaders were also active politically. also spelled Sufiism mystic Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. Sufism consists of a variety of mystical paths that are designed to ascertain the nature of man and of God and to facilitate the experience of divine love and wisdom in the world. The Arabic term sufi (mystic) derives from suf, wool, probably in reference to the woolen garments worn by early Islamic ascetics. Sufism as an organized movement arose among pious Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad period (AD 661750). Yearning for a personal union with God, the mystics found the externalities of the law, divorced from a personal theology, very unsatisfactory and increasingly asserted a way (tariqah, path) and a goal (haqiqah, reality) alternative to those of the Shari'ah, or traditional law. Sufism similarly opposed its intuitionism (ma'rifah, interior knowledge) to the rational deductions of formal theology. The mainstream of the Sufis strove to remain within orthodoxy and declared that the observance of the Shari'ah was indispensable; indeed, from the early period they had attempted to develop a scheme of partly antithetical and partly complementary categories (e.g., annihilation and restoration; intoxication and sobriety) to achieve a synthesis of the external and the internal. But the opposition of these two aspects continued to be emphasized. During the late 12th and early 13th centuries, under the influence of speculative mysticism, Ibn al-'Arabi produced a system that created a complete chasm between the law and Sufism. In societies, such as Islamic India, that had a strong pre-Islamic heritage of mysticism, this chasm became much wider. Sufism developed into dervish orders, which emphasized emotionalism and hypnotic and ecstatic states and which remained influential until very recent times. The importance of Sufism in the history of Islam is incalculable. The flowering of Sufi literature, especially mystical love poetry, represents a golden age among the Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu languages. And it was largely through the efforts of Sufi missionaries that Islam was extended into India, Central Asia, Turkey, and sub-Saharan Africa. Numerous Sufi orders and suborders existed in the late 20th century, each characterized by variations in certain basic practices. A primary spiritual technique of Sufism is dhikr, the recitation of the name of God or of certain Qur'anic phrases. Through discipline and the gift of grace, the wayfarer seeks to loosen the bonds of his lower self until they are severed altogether, enabling the soul to experience the true reality (haqiqah) toward which it naturally aspires. Additional reading Introductory works Arthur H. Palmer (comp.), Oriental Mysticism: A Treatise on Sufiistic and Unitarian Theosophy of the Persians, 2nd ed. by Arthur J. Arberry (1938, reprinted 1974), an exposition of later mystical ideas; Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975), a multifaceted, introductory study of Sufism; Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (1914, reprinted 1975), a very readable introduction to classical Sufism and Sufi poetry; Arthur J. Arberry, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam (1950), a historical survey of classical Sufism; G.-C. Anawati and Louis Gardet, Mystique musulmane, 3rd ed. (1976), an excellent study of the major trends and leading personalities in classical Sufism; Robert C. Zaehner, Hindu and Muslim Mysticism (1960, reissued 1969), a thought-provoking study of the possible relations between Indian and early Muslim mysticism. History Margaret Smith, Rabi'a the Mystic & Her Fellow-Saints in Islam: Being the Life and Teachings of Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya al-Qaysiyya of Basra, Together with Some Account of the Place of the Women Saints in Islam (1928, reprinted 1977), the first study of the herald of mystical love in Islam; Joseph Van Ess, Die Gedankenwelt des Harit al-Muhasibi anhand von bersetzungen aus seinen Schriften dargestellt und erlutert (1961), an excellent introduction to the theology and psychology of early mystical thought in Islam; Louis Massignon, La Passion de Husayn ibn Mansr Hallj: martyr mystique de l'Islam, new ed. 4 vol. (1975), an indispensable sourcebook for the history of Sufism in the classical period; Annemarie Schimmel, Al-Halladsch, Mrtyrer der Gottesliebe (1968), a German translation of parts of Hallaj's poetry and prose, and a study of his influence on the literatures of the different Islamic peoples; Serge de Beaurecueil, Khwadja 'Abdullah Ansari (396481 H./10061089): Mystique Hanbalite (1965), a biography of the author of the beautiful Persian munajat (prayers) and other mystical books; A.J. Wensinck, La Pense de Ghazzali (1940), a short and reliable introduction to Ghazali's thought; John A. Subhan, Sufism: Its Saints and Shrines (1938, reissued 1978), a useful survey of the later development of Islamic mysticism. Sufi literature Helmut Ritter, Das Meer der Seele (1955, reissued 1978), an exhaustive work on Farid ud-Din 'Attar's thought as reflected in his mystical poetry; Jallu'ddin Rm, The Mathnaw, ed. with critical notes, translation, and commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson, 8 vol. (192540), the encyclopaedia of mystical thought in the 13th century in masterly translation; H.T. Sorley, Shah Abdul Latif of Bhit (1940; reprinted 1966), a study of the greatest mystical poet of Sind. Sufi thought and practice Benedikt Reinert, Die Lehre vom Tawakkul in der klassischen Sufik (1968), the first fundamental study of a single concept central to early Islamic mysticism, built upon a critical analysis of all available sources; Arthur J. Arberry, The Doctrine of the Sufis (1935, reprinted 1977), a useful translation of Kalabadhi's Kitab at-ta'arruf, one of the early treatises on Sufi thought; Ali bin Uthman al-Hujwiri, The Kashf al-Mahjub: The Oldest Persian Treatise on Sufism, trans. by Reynold A. Nicholson (1911, reprinted 1976), a masterly translation of the voluminous 11th-century account of Sufi thought; G.-H. Bousquet (ed.), Ih'y 'oulom ed-dn; ou Vivification des sciences de la foi (1955), an analytical index of the most widely read work on moderate mystical thought, prepared with the assistance of numerous scholars; Constance E. Padwick, Muslim Devotions (1961), the only account of the popular mystically tinged piety of the Muslims as reflected in their prayer books; Laleh Bakhtiar, Sufi: Expressions of the Mystic Quest (1976), discusses and shows through illustrations the Sufi experience and its expression in the arts. Theosophical Sufism A.E. Affifi, The Mystical Philosophy of Muhyid Dn-Ibnul 'Arab (1939, reissued 1974), the first attempt, in a Western language, to systematize the pantheistic system of the 13th-century theosophist; Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi, trans. by Ralph Manheim (1970); Reynold A. Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism (1921, reissued 1978), a study of Abu Sa'id and a discussion of Jili's Perfect Man and of Ibn al-Farid, with a superb translation of most of his odes. Sufi orders Octave Depont and Xavier Cappolani, Les Confrries religieuses musulmanes (1897), a comprehensive account of Sufi brotherhoods; Hans J. Kissling, Die Wunder der Derwische, ZDMG (Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlndischen Gesellschaft), vol. 107, no. 2, pp. 348361 (August 1957), a fully documented account of the kinds of miracles performed by dervishes; Khaliq A. Nizami, The Life and Times of Shaikh Faridud-din Ganj-i-Shakar (1955, reprinted 1973), a good survey of the life of one of the leading Chishti saints in India; Ren Brunel, Le Monachisme errant dans l'Islam: Sidi Heddi et les Heddawa (1955), a penetrating study of a little known fraternity of dervishes in North Africa; Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, The Tijaniyya: A Sufi Order in the Modern World (1965), a study of the development of political activities of this 19th-century order in the northern and western parts of Africa; J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam (1971), the first attempt to give a survey of all orders in Islam, and, as such, quite useful.