Sufism

Overview

Sufism is the name given to the mystical, inward dimension of Islam: the pursuit of a direct, felt nearness to God beyond outward observance alone. It is not a separate sect but a current running through both Sunni and Shia Islam, taking shape from the eighth century among ascetics in Iraq. From the twelfth century on, Sufis organised into orders, ṭarīqas, each tracing a chain of masters back to the Prophet and led by a shaykh, or pir, whom disciples follow toward self-effacement before God. Dhikr, the repeated remembrance of God's names, is the common thread; some orders add music, poetry or movement, most famously the whirling of the Mevlevis. Sufi poets and saints shaped devotion from West Africa to South Asia, even as modern reform movements have rejected Sufi practice as a departure from scripture.^{[1–5, 7–9]}

History

Early asceticism 8th–9th century

The word ṣūfī was first used for Muslims who wore coarse wool as a mark of renunciation. Hasan al-Basri, who died in 728, is remembered as a forerunner of this ascetic piety in Iraq, stressing fear of God and detachment from the world. The female mystic Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya, who died in Basra in 801, shifted the emphasis toward selfless love of God, a theme that runs through later Sufi poetry.^{[1, 3, 10–11]}

Ecstasy, law and the great synthesis 9th–12th century

Some Sufis pushed mystical language to its limits: Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj was executed in Baghdad in 922 after uttering "Anā al-Ḥaqq", "I am the Truth", words read by many jurists as a claim to divinity. The tension between ecstatic mysticism and Islamic law came to a head in the career of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, a leading professor in Baghdad who in 1095 left his post, lived for years as a wandering Sufi, and wrote the Revival of the Religious Sciences arguing that the inner life of the heart and the outer law needed each other. His synthesis did much to make Sufism acceptable within mainstream Sunni teaching.^[12–15]

The age of the orders 12th–15th century

From the twelfth century, Sufi masters and their disciples formed lasting orders. ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, a Baghdad preacher who died in 1166, gave his name to the Qādiriyya, often called the oldest formal order. Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, a Persian-speaking poet who settled in Konya in Anatolia and died in 1273, inspired the Mevlevi order of "whirling dervishes", built around his vast poem the Masnavi. In South Asia, Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī settled at Ajmer around 1200 and brought the Chishtiyya there, building it into one of the most widespread orders on the subcontinent, while the Naqshbandiyya, tracing itself to Bahāʾ al-Dīn Naqshband (d. 1389), spread among the elites of Central Asia and India.^[16–20]

Expansion, reform and persecution 18th century–today

In West Africa, newer orders took on a political edge. The Tijāniyya, favouring good intentions over elaborate ritual, was founded around 1781 in Fez by Aḥmad al-Tijānī (d. 1815) and spread across northern and western Africa. The Murīdiyya was founded in Senegal in the 1880s by Aḥmadu Bamba, who taught devotion through work; its shrine city of Touba, built around the mosque he founded in the late 1880s, still draws a vast annual pilgrimage, the Grand Magal. From the eighteenth century, Wahhābīs condemned tomb veneration as polytheistic innovation, a critique later Salafis carried on, at times violently: in 2012, fighters occupying Timbuktu, Mali, destroyed fourteen UNESCO-listed Sufi shrines, later rebuilt with UNESCO's help. Despite such attacks, Sufi orders remain a significant living presence across the Muslim world.^{[7, 21–26]}

Key moments

1. c. 801 CERābiʿa of Basra · Basra, Iraq
2. 1111 CEAl-Ghazālī · Baghdad and Ṭūs, Iran
3. 1236 CEMuʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī of Ajmer · Ajmer, Rajasthan, India
4. c. 1260 CERumi and the Masnavi · Konya, Anatolia

Beliefs

Ṭarīqa · طريقة

path, way

A ṭarīqa is both the spiritual path toward God and the order organised to walk it, each with its own chain of masters, rules and devotional practice. A seeker becomes a murīd, "disciple", under a shaykh or pir, who guides progress and in many orders passes on authority to a chosen successor.^{[4, 27]}

Dhikr · ذكر

remembrance

Dhikr is the repeated invocation of God's names or set formulas, silently or aloud, alone or in a group, often with controlled breathing or movement. Sufis hold it to polish the heart and draw the one remembering toward God's presence.^[5]

Fanāʾ · فناء

annihilation, passing away

Fanāʾ names the dissolving of the self's sense of separateness in the overwhelming reality of God, a state some Sufis described in language that scandalised literalist jurists, as with al-Ḥallāj's "I am the Truth".^[13]

Maqāmāt · مقامات

stations

Sufi teaching maps the path as a series of maqāmāt, stages such as repentance, patience and trust in God, through which the disciple advances under a guide's supervision toward nearness to God.^[28]

Practice

Dhikr gatherings and samāʿ · سماع

Orders gather for communal dhikr, and some add samāʿ, "listening", to music or poetry meant to induce spiritual absorption. The Mevlevi order's turning dance, inscribed by UNESCO as intangible heritage in 2008, is the best known form, performed by dervishes trained for up to 1,001 days in the order's lodges before 1925, when Turkey closed them.^[29–30]

Veneration at shrines · زيارة

Across much of the Muslim world, Sufis visit the tombs of saints to seek their blessing, baraka, and intercession, and mark a saint's death anniversary with a festival. Salafi and Wahhābī reformers reject this as tomb-worship bordering on polytheism, a dispute that has sometimes turned violent.^{[7, 31]}

Initiation and discipleship

Joining an order involves a formal initiation and a pledge of obedience to the shaykh, who assigns spiritual exercises and may send a disciple into khalwa, a period of seclusion and fasting, to advance along the maqāmāt.^[27–28]

Holy days

Urs · عرس

Saint's death anniversary, varies by order and shrine

An urs, literally a "wedding", marks a saint's union with God at death and is kept at his shrine with music, recitation and crowds of visitors, as at the dargah of Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī in Ajmer.^{[19, 31]}

Şeb-i Arûs · شب عروس

17 December (Rūmī's death, 1273)

"The night of union", commemorating Rūmī's death, is marked in Konya with performances of the Mevlevi sama ceremony, drawing visitors from across the world.^{[18, 30]}

People

Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya · رابعة العدوية

saint · d. 801

A former slave freed to a life of devotion in Basra, Rābiʿa is remembered as an early voice of mystical love of God for its own sake, without hope of reward or fear of punishment, and remains one of the most celebrated women in Sufi tradition.^[11]

Al-Ḥallāj · الحلاج

saint · c. 858–922

A teacher of Islamic mysticism executed in Baghdad after his ecstatic declaration "I am the Truth" was read as a claim to divinity, al-Ḥallāj became, for later Sufis, an emblem of the costs and the depths of the mystical path.^[12–13]

Al-Ghazālī · الغزالي

scholar · 1058–1111

A towering Sunni theologian who left his Baghdad professorship in 1095 for the Sufi life, al-Ghazālī is widely credited with reconciling mysticism and orthodox law in works such as the Revival of the Religious Sciences.^[14–15]

Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī · جلال الدین رومی

saint · 1207–1273

A Persian-speaking poet who settled in Konya, Rūmī composed the Masnavi, an immense poem on the soul's longing for God, and inspired the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes founded by his followers after his death.^[17–18]

Aḥmadu Bamba · أحمد بامبا

saint · c. 1853–1927

A Senegalese Sufi teacher, Aḥmadu Bamba founded the Murīdiyya order in the 1880s, teaching devotion through work, and founded the mosque at the heart of Touba, where he is buried and where Mourides gather each year for the Grand Magal.^[22–23]

Scripture

Masnavi · مثنوی معنوی

13th century

Rūmī's vast didactic poem, composed in Persian couplets over his last years in Konya, teaches the Sufi path through stories, parables and commentary on longing for God, and remains one of the most read works of Sufi literature.^[17]

The Confessions of al-Ghazālī · المنقذ من الضلال

c. 1100

Al-Ghazālī's spiritual autobiography, al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl, "Deliverance from Error", describes his crisis of certainty and his turn to the Sufi path as the only sure route to knowledge of God.^[15]

The Conference of the Birds · منطق الطیر

12th century

Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār's allegorical poem follows a flock of birds seeking a mythical king, the Sīmurgh, as a picture of the soul's search for God through the Sufi stations.^{[28, 32]}

Poems from the Divan of Ḥāfiẕ · دیوان حافظ

14th century

Ḥāfiẕ of Shiraz wrote lyric poems (ghazals) shot through with wine and love imagery, long read by Sufis, including the poet Jāmī, as expressing the soul's intoxication with God.^[33]

Places

Shrine of Rūmī, Konya

TUR

Rūmī's tomb, now part of the Mevlana Museum, anchors the Mevlevi order he inspired and remains a pilgrimage site and the home of the annual sama ceremonies marking his death.^[18]

Dargah of Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī, Ajmer

IND

The tomb of Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī, who brought the Chishtiyya order to India, is one of the most visited Muslim shrines in South Asia, drawing pilgrims of several faiths to its annual urs.^[19]

Touba

SEN

Seat of the Murīdiyya order, Touba grew up around the mosque Aḥmadu Bamba founded in the late 1880s; he is buried there, and the city draws a vast annual pilgrimage, the Grand Magal.^[23]

Art & objects

Public-domain objects from museum collections. Select one to see it at the museum.

Dervish AxTurkish, dated A.H. 1241/1825–26 CEThe Inside of a Mosque, the Dervishes Dancing (Aubry de La Mottraye's "Travels throughout Europe, Asia and into Part of Africa...," London, 1724, vol. I, pl. 16)1723–24Masnavi of Jalal al-Din Rumidated 894 AH/1488–89 CEDervish Leaning on a Staff16th centurySeated Dervishlate 16th centuryBegging Bowl (Kashkul)dated 1247 AH/1831–32 CEPortrait of a Sufifirst quarter 17th centuryPortrait of a Sufifirst quarter 17th centuryYouth and Dervishsecond quarter 17th centuryBeggar's Bowl (Kashkul)late 19th–early 20th century

Numbers

National censuses

Source: Stats NZ, 2018 Census, licensed by Stats NZ for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Common misconceptions

Glossary

Ṭarīqa · طريقة

A Sufi order, and the spiritual "path" it teaches, led by a shaykh in a chain of succession from earlier masters.^[4]

Shaykh / pir · شيخ / پیر

A Sufi master authorised to guide disciples and, in most orders, to initiate new members.^[27]

Murīd · مرید

A disciple who has pledged obedience to a Sufi master.^[27]

Dhikr · ذكر

Repeated remembrance of God's names, the central Sufi devotional practice.^[5]

Samāʿ · سماع

"Listening": devotional music, poetry or dance, such as the Mevlevi whirling ceremony, used by some orders to induce spiritual absorption.^[29]

Fanāʾ · فناء

The mystical "annihilation" of the self's separateness in the reality of God.^[13]

Baraka · بركة

Spiritual blessing or power, believed to reside in saints, their relics and their tombs.^[31]

Khalwa · خلوة

A period of spiritual retreat, fasting and seclusion undertaken under a master's direction.^[27]